I've been having a hard time wrapping my head around this fall run. It is not playing out the way I expected it to, nor the way it probably should be. There seem to be far fewer stripers in Long Island Sound, especially form Niantic west, and the average size is abysmal. Not to mention the lousy numbers of bluefish. There are some big fish around, there always are a few, but not in the places I've been fishing and hardly at all during the day. It's October, last year I was finding 28-36 inch striped bass, which really aren't all that big in the whole scheme of things, in most backwater spots I fished from late August into early November, and right now a lot of these spots are holding striped bass but the are more in the range of 12- 28 inches with the bulk being 12-18 inches. After hearing reports that more keeper sized striped bass had been showing up in these areas of late, Noah and I went out looking in places I know should be producing big stripers right now. What we found, though not all together depressing, did not impress me.
To preface the following photos: yeah it looks quite spectacular, but that chaos was being perpetrated by very small school bass. Visually spectacular, kinda fun to fish, but also fairly frequent.
Yeah, we caught fish and I'm complaining. It should not be this hard to find big striped bass that are fly catchable. Really. This is getting ridiculous. I put my time in and its not as though I'm completely inexperienced. Something is wrong here and I'm not quite understanding what it is.
"I am a man of constant sorrow,
I've seen trouble all my day."
I don't see it as complaining: I see it as observations on ecology.
ReplyDeleteI've had exaclty the same reaction you've had. I've only landed 2 bluefish this whole year! And although I've caught more striped bass than last year, the biggest was 19", 2nd 18" all the rest 15 and under.
Now I'm new to this saltwater game. Other than poking around completely clueless in the past, last year I went after this with a vengeance.
Strangely there were really big (a few) striped bass in midsummer. In Guilford. At low tide. Early morning. A kid caught a 25 pounder (not inches haha) and another 30 pounder. They were brought in and weighed by the tackle shop near by...
We also saw that same action with baitfish last evening. We were walking the dogs and I forgot to grab the rod. So went back after dog walking and we went and rowed for over an hour and got one -- one! hookup. Lost it after dusk just before getting it to the boat. Not sure what it was but had bluefish behavior.
LIS holds big stripers year round, so it isn't too surprising to bump into them in mid summer. My biggest fish this year was caught in August, and big fish had abounded for weeks before but only in that little area, and primarily at night.
DeleteOn the other hand yesterday, at parent's weekend, I talked to one of my daughter's classmate's parents from the Bronx. He keeps his boat at City Island and the fishing for porgy and blackfish, flounder, fluke is epic there. Right in the marina. Unusually productive and late. This mild fall---he thinks everything is moved back and the fish are confused and hanging around. Maybe that is part of it.
ReplyDeleteWeather and the eco-system has everything acting different this year. I'm seeing birds, snakes, frogs and bugs being off track for this time of the year. ??????
ReplyDeleteTie, fish, write and photo on...
What I'm seeing from bird migration fits the changing weather, what I'm seeing from the fish does not.
DeleteGlad it's not just me, I'm fairly new to the salt water game, and have heard everyone talk about "the fall run" well it has sucked for me haha, I'm lucky to catch a 20 inch fish and go after work almost everyday. I wonder if November will be decent.
ReplyDeleteThe number of bluefish has been downright absurd. I fished all day yesterday, and on the boat we covered miles of water... scattered albies, almost too scattered to target, no adult bluefish, and maybe one or two stripers showed themselves... not normal for what were good conditions in good water.
DeleteBut the fish are apparently out there -- just timing and location is stupid weird.
ReplyDeleteBig porgies -- and blackfish!--in Guilford town dock!
The porgies and blackfish aren't as migratory as striped bass. They move inshore and offshore depending on water temperatures and spawning, not up and down the whole coast on a yearly cycle... so them being around in good numbers doesn't really speak to the oddness of the striper migration.
DeleteGood point!
Delete