Many people will be on vacation in the next week and many will want to fish for stripers. If you are planning to fish from shore the outlook is fair to poor.  From a boat you have a better shot at catching but even that is way off compared to other years. Traditionally June has been a good month of shore fishing for stripers here in RI.  In the p...

Here's a slot coming ashore in the suds. The shore fishing lit up for me last  night in some rough water. I had yesterday circled on my calendar for the last week.  I knew great conditions were on the way. A big blow from the southwest was predicted with high surf conditions. A full moon high tide would occur just after dark. And there was a pos...

Striper fishing went from a fabulous April to a mediocre May to an incredibly poor June. I have never seen it this bad at this time of year from shore along the oceanfront and in Narragansett Bay. I still am out just about every evening and trying many different locations to try to find fish and it's been little or nothing. Many of my diehard fri...

This striper took a small Slug-go fished from the kayak this week. Since that last post I wrote fishing has really taken a dive along both the oceanfront and the Bay. We had the new moon this week and that always gets surf fishermen excited because of the big tides and water movement. All that is fine but when there is no bait around big tides m...

Here is one of many fish landed last evening on a Zoom Fluke fished off a small jighead a great choice when the stripers are on small bait. We are back to hot fishing.  Maybe it's the new moon tides coming or maybe it's an influx of small bait that has gotten things going.  Whatever the reason the striper fishing right now is very good from both...

Here is a slot I landed last evening on a Jumpin Minnow. The action has cooled in the last week for boaters and shore fishermen in Narragansett Bay. Fishing has cooled off I mean really cooled off in Narragansett Bay.  That persistent northeast wind that we had for almost a week straight dropped the water temperatures and sent a lot of fish pack...

They were around tonight in good numbers and most of them were BIG. The hot plug was the DOC. They were smashing away at this!

I landed this slot from the kayak this evening. Slots and over slots are in abundance right now especially in Gansett Bay. The good times are rolling especially if you are fishing the Bay where there are very big numbers of big stripers around. In fact this is the most big fish I have ever seen at this time of year. Slots are more plentiful than...

I landed very good numbers of stripers of all sizes from both the kayak and from shore this week.  The common theme here was what I was using.   I've written many times (and even did seminars this winter) about finesse fishing for stripers. In shallow water where stripers are feeding on small bait using unweighted plastic fluke bodies is the MOST...

I'm back to fishing from the kayak when I have the right conditions and tides in the places I want to fish.  Tonight I went out and found good numbers of big fish- slots and over slots.  My biggest was a monster that was in the 40 to 45 inch range.  That big fish fell for an unweighted 5.75 inch Finesse Fish twitched along the top. So I was using...

Tonight was my first spring outing from the kayak and this was my first striper from the kayak.  I found a pile of schoolies.  All of them were caught on a weightless Super Zoom Flukes twitched on top.

My Slug-go was cut right near the hook on a big hit.  No question it was a big bluefish. I was out along the oceanfront two evenings ago.  I was working a 9-inch Slug-Go right before dark when I had a big hit that I thought was a good sized striper.  After missing the fish I retrieved the Slug only to find it had been cut right at the hook.  No...

The Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil has been  the hot plug in the last week The good times just keep rolling for me with big numbers of slots on just about a nightly basis.  The hottest plug of the week has been a Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil in a white color.  This looks like a Jumpin' Minnow on steroids.  It casts great into the wind and has a swagger on the ret...

Here's a slot that was landed this afternoon on a Slug go. Fishing for slots has been very good. The water is cold the air is cold and there should not be big numbers of fish around RI waters.  But they are here and the biggest surprise of the spring is the abundant numbers of slot fish along both the oceanfront and in the Bay.  I can't remember...

My first slot of the year was landed yesterday. The fish was released in good shape. Note the sea lice on the fish's body.  The first slot is in the books for me as I landed a 28 to 30 inch striper yesterday along the oceanfront.  I also had several more fish that were close to the slot along with some smaller fish.  In addition I have heard of ot...

Here is one of five schoolies landed this week. The spring run of stripers has bee a trickle of fish thus far.  I fished long and hard for 5 days in a row this week.  I came away with exactly 5 fish all under slots and mostly small. I would call the beginning spring striper run more of a trickle rather than a run. Doesn't matter where you fish.  T...

Right on schedule I landed my first migrating striper of the year along the oceanfront today. I knew it was a new fish because of the sea lice on its body.  The fish was just shy of a slot.  It hit a 4-inch Cocahoe minnow fished off a one ounce jighead. I had one other hit. I fished multiple spots and made a lot of casts but it was just this one...

I haven't been fishing this much this winter   but I have sure been enjoying my skiing. I'm up to about 60 visits to the mountains.  In recent weeks it has been good as ever with tons of snow north of us. I've especially enjoyed skiing with 2 of my grandkids who like their father and grandfather are addicted to it. I've also been doing some hikin...

Striped bass are the number one sportfish on the east coast. They deserve that title in many ways. And other…

Are you ready? Don’t blink or the season will be over. While I have historically fished for groundfish exclusively early…