Spring Run Starting and ( A Few Pogies)

Went out this weekend and found a few fish and it was definately an early morning bite. They were a bit fussy but a white or white with yellow back 4" wildeye shad seemed to do the trick. The fish were spread out from Jamestown to Barrington beach and finding them was not the easiest thing. The were barely showing on the surface with minimal bird activity. School size was small and they were very boat shy which is pretty common this time of year. Size ranged from 20-32 in with most stripers in the 27-30 in range. The trick was to really move around and search for bird activity and swirls, tough to do if it's rough so early morning was the best time. Had to sneak up on what fish I could find and drift from upwind into them with the motor off.

I'm not sure if the fishing will get better or not. Last year it never really got going as good as previous years so who knows about this year. The next week will probably be a really good indicator of the fishing to come. Bait is really spread out and minimal right now. Tides this week are really big so that should get things going. Only time will tell.

NOTE -MANHADEN (POGIES):

Was heading back to the ramp Sunday and came across a good size group of manhaden, these are the first I've seen this year. Managed to snag 9 of them before they sounded. If they come in in full force the big fish usually follow. We'll have to wait and see but it was a really good sign.

Check out the video below:

Jelly fish Invasion

Went out yesterday, Sunday to scout around and see if anything was happening. I saw hundreds of thousands of jelly fish from Jamestown to Prudence. Talked to my brother( Dave Pickering)about it and he told me he saw them from shore in the providence river. I've never seen this many this early, they were pinkish yellow with long tenticles and ranged from baseball size to basketball size. I was curious if this could affect the spring striper run so I emailed save the bay and asked about this species and there feeding habits. I'll keep you posted to their response. Oh and by the way didn't catch or see any early season schoolies yet.

Update 5/3/11 :

Got an email from save the bays John Torgan. He identified the jelly fish as Lions Mane and indicated that there is an unusually heavy bloom of them this year. He doesnt see an issue between Striped bass and the jelly fish because the jelly's feed on tiny zooplankton which is not on the stripers menu. Good news! I still think the early season run is going to start very soon.

Meteoroligical Data Points to a big Boating week for Stripers

Just got off the NOAA site (see links on left). With all this warm weather the water temp has reached and even pass the magical 52 degree mark. Next weeks weather is calling for cloudy days. The tides from Sunday through Friday are relative big and there morning tides. All this spells big numbers of Stripers showing at most of the mid bay hot spots. If you can get out for an early morning run it may be well worth the effort. Over the last 4 years I've absolutely killed early season striper under these conditions at this time of year (see previous posts). 2 years ago I caught over 80 striper in the 24-32 inch range in 1 day. Mind you it was a 12 hour day but I couldn't stop fishing it was that good. I dont know how good this year will be but I can tell you I'm pretty sure it will start this week. The lure of choice is usually a cocahoe (white) with a 3/8 oz jig head. I've tried just about everything over the last few years and thats the one the works the best. Light tackle is also alot of fun on these fish. So get the boat ready spool up your reals dust off the rods and get out there. You'll find the fish from jamestown to barington beach east or west passage, it may take a while to find them but when you do it can be a blast.

Some schoolies in upper bay

Got the boat ready last week. Went out with my brother dave for a shake down run everything worked fine and we even caught a few schoolies. The fish were hold up in specific areas we had to move around and once we got a hit/fish we stayed in that spot (search and destroy). The lure of choice was a zoom fluke in albino with a 3/8 oz jig head. All the fish we caught were in the upper bay rivers in relatively shallow water 5-8 ft depth. This time of the year that water heats up first and that in turn activates the fish. fish were small 16-20 in but on light tackle it was fun.