Burning A Lot of Gas for a Few Fish

Here is one of four stripers I landed today on the float and fly, a great  choice when the bait is small and the bass are fussy.  In this case, the fly was a homemade pink Deceiver.

The RI oceanfront is DISMAL. There is little bait around and few resident stripers around.  I thought this would be the week. I had good water all week.  With a northeast wind, cool temperatures and rain, I fished great conditions with a lot of white water. In those three days of hard fishing, I landed exactly one 20 inch schoolie.  That was the only hit I could muster in RI. Last year and in 2021, things were hopping at this time in RI with terrific numbers of stripers, some blues, chub mackerel and even some bonito. None of that is happening this year so far in RI from shore.

Fed up, today I got in the truck and headed north rather than south. I found considerably more bait and fish in the places I tried.  But, the fish were very picky since they were feeding on half to one inch baitfish (baby peanuts or bay achovies, not sure). So, I got out my killer-for-small bait trick- the float and fly.  That did it since I landed some fish.  Not crazy, but I had a couple of slots and a couple of schoolies and good numbers of hits. Hey, it was action!

So, there are some fish around. You just might have to burn though a lot of that near $4 a gallon gas to find them if you are fishing from shore.

Catch Information

This Fishing Report was submitted on 8/17/2023 7:12:00 PM by Seamus and last updated on 8/20/2023 8:49:51 PM.

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