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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
Stripers:
Schoolies (12 to 28 inch fish)-While I started catching holdover schoolies in March, I found the first migrating fish along the oceanfront on April 19th, just about on schedule. From that point to early May, it was a glut of smaller fish from 10 to 20 inches with occasional 25 inch fish. If you wanted to put in the time, hundred fish days were not unusual. I found similar numbers of schoolies close to home in the Bay where I was scoring big time from my kayak. Those big numbers of schoolies would continue right through summer and into the fall, although the stripers in the summer and early fall tended to be much larger. I got nearly all my schoolies on jigs with the bucktail along with a curly tail being the best producer all year. It also made for safe and easy catch and release. Grade for schoolies-A
Slot Limit Stripers (28 to 34 inch fish)- Here’s a startling statistic from my logbook. Back in 2020, one striper in 200 that I landed was a slot. This year from May until late fall, one fish in 5 was a slot. We had massive numbers of 22 to 26 inch stripers back in 2020. They came back this year as slots over 28 inches. The kayak put me into big numbers of these slots in the late spring/summertime in the Bay. Along the oceanfront, that time period from mid August to late September was unexpectedly good with almost daily blitzes of slot limit stripers chasing down massive schools of peanut bunker along the oceanfront and in parts of the Bay. Grade for slots- A
From schoolies to over slot stripers, it was a banner year of fishing here in RIOver slots (35 + inches)-In recent years these fish were in short supply. Not in 2021. I found good numbers of over slot fish from late spring into late fall. Narragansett Bay was red hot in late spring/early summer as large numbers of big stripers were chasing down big schools of large menhaden. When you see 200 boats in the upper Bay on Memorial Day, you know things are hot. Big stripers were never easy to catch even in the heydays of striper fishing. This year, if you put in your time, you could find stripers over 40 inches from shore, boat or kayak. Grade for over slots- B+
There were big blues aroundin the early going but as theseason moved on it was poor.Fall fishing for bluefish wasespecially poor.Bluefish- In the early going (May into June) there were lots of them along the oceanfront and in the Bay. I had many days from the kayak with 10 to 20 big blues in the 8 to 15 lb. range. Shore fishing was also very good. But, once the warm weather, warm water hit, they were gone. They never returned in any numbers and the fall was particularly disappointing. From September through November, I landed exactly 2 bluefish. I saw almost no others caught. Grade for blues- C
Albies- There is no predicting what will go on with these fish as they randomly move into shallow water from the depths of the ocean in late summer. This year started off early as I got my first one on August 31. That first week of September produced good numbers. But, it got very inconsistent very fast. There were spurts of limited action, but it was often nothing for days and even weeks. Big storms may have played a role in moving them out. Overall, it was a disappointing year. I also never saw a single bonito landed from shore. Grade for albies- C-
Hickory Shad- They were around in record numbers along the oceanfront. At times, especially in the fall, there were massive numbers of these chasing down small bay anchovies and just boiling up the water in a frenzy. While the oceanfront had them in good numbers, the backwaters, rivers and ponds along the oceanfront were the prime places to use light tackle and fly fishing gear to catch them. On many evenings I would get a mix of stripers and shad as the shad would aggressively go after good size bucktail jigs. Grade for hickory shad- A
I ran into this so, so many times this year from August untillate November. It was often a glut of stripers of all sizes!2021 was a banner year of striper fishing in RI.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 12/25/2021 10:51:00 AM by Seamus and last updated on 12/26/2021 6:21:37 AM.
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