Dear Fishermen and Friends,
I had the most picturesque evening with my wife this week. We took the boat out on a rare windless night. In classic form, I think she expected that we wouldn’t catch anything. We fished several spots with very good success but the pinnacle of the evening came after sunset as we were losing light. We drifted into a little hole that generally holds fish in lower light. I knew it would be good, but not this good… I made one long cast and as the line rested on the water, it was clear that I had spooked several fish just from the line. It was on! With one crank, I was hooked up. This continued for the next twenty minutes and the only thing slowing us down were the fish on our lines.
That introduction is meant not to exaggerate the norm, but to showcase how good it can be this time of year. There are days when I go out and don’t catch anything. Although, I’m a true believer that if you put your time in, you’ll catch fish. I’m used to spending an entire tide fishing and focusing on fish. In that tide, there are several stretches of slower fishing. So, if you are just keyed in one spot for 20-30 minutes, you may struggle. As you start to figure out the fishery, keep notes and follow the patterns. This is the way to get consistent and gives you the best opportunity at having epic evenings.
With respect to Striped Bass in our inshore waters, it certainly feels like we have a considerable volume of fish swimming around. Our fish in general, are still on the smaller size, with most fish not being keepers. Having said that, we’ll see different classes pushing through. For example, I was on the water the other day and it seemed as if every fish was 29-30 inches for a stretch of time. This was certainly one school that had pushed in and were congregating together.
Last year, most of our fish slotted between 26-28” in the early season. It was not too different than this year. We had hoped those same fish would move up a year class. Generally, it is believed that fish visit the same water as the previous years and if this is true and we get a good push of those fish that grow, we could enjoy an amazing fishery for the next few weeks.
While I have really enjoy fishing the south shore this spring, in the last week, I have found that the north shore has been more productive. A good friend disagrees and has caught a lot of fish between Madaket and Cisco, so I challenge you to make up your own opinion. I’ve fished almost exclusively soft baits and top water on the North Shore and in the harbor. The main reason is, I love the bite and man is it productive. Remember to slow down the retrieve in the lower light.
We also have more and more bluefish showing up everyday. If you have fished off of Dionis in the middle of the day, you surely have seen some. These fish come close to the beach, but if you are on the boat, it is the time of year when they can be very aggressive in shallow water. There is no better bite than watching these amazing fish attack from down below and rocket up.
If you like fishing from the boat, we have seen the rips start to fill in. The western edges and the warmer eastern edges are fishing well. It is still not amazing, although you can find amazing tides, but it is worth doing. We have seen a lot of Herring this spring, but the majority of the bait now is squid and sand eels, so plan appropriately with your plugs.
Go enjoy this amazing fishery. It’s been good enough that I love bringing my daughters who like catching more than fishing! Lets just say, they love fishing in ponds. Enjoy and tight lines!
