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Date: July 07, 2008 at 12:31:06
From: ken, [pool-64-222-41-44.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: July 7th, 08


July 07th, 08

It has been over a month since I had time to sit and write. It has been frenetic and full.
Been lots of places and fished with lots of people. Sean Ransom has been working on the web site and a new one will be up soon, easier to work with and update and post pictures and all the rest of the modern improvements.

Stripers are everywhere and people are catching them. The Atlantic Herring are on the move out of the harbors and the blues and the bass are paying close attention.
The ocean front is fishing well and there are bass in the waves. The upper regions of the salt rivers are full of fish and some of the ponds are a little slow unless you know where to look. The crabs have probably done the mating thing already and the little 1/8 to 1/ 4” tiny ones will be around soon and the bass will be feeding on them making everyone crazy. The ocean is an amazing place.

I have been fishing a lot with three weights and have had no problems landing fish quickly. It is actually more in keeping with the size of school bass to catch them on lighter gear and learn how to fight fish yourself rather than horsing them in with heavier equipment if conditions allow for their use. People who dismiss light gear as too light and hard on the fish could learn how to fight fish rather than grouse about it. It is the person’s lack of fish fighting skill that makes the fight last too long not the equipment in almost every case. Five weights are great striper rods. They are strong enough to cast nine weight lines or heavier easily and can handle school bass and even larger fish with grace and the fish is not overpowered. It is a fair fight because it is balanced.
Sometime you lose.
That can be a good thing.

It is summer and a great time to fish for stripers that are not moving around but hanging out at home. We are in between moons so many places with soft current will be holding fish that are focused on bait that is staging to move on the next moon. This is normal and occurs near and on the half moons every month. The bait changes but the pattern is the same if you can see it and work with it. Not everyone can but some can and do it with great success. There are squid around and sand eels and the silversides are moving down from the upper bay. Lots going on and we have big menhaden to keep the bigger fish content to graze on the schools and hang out for an extended time. For some people the fishing is easy, bait guys are having a ball.

There are fish to be caught by fly rodders along the rocky shorelines and the cliffs in Newport and Narragansett. This is a great time to try that as the fish are there and willing and they are close and content to stay there for a while.

Fish the little pockets of white water from the waves and the small rip currents that flow out between the rocks. It is much like fishing in pocket water in a trout river. Short casts and short swings through the places where a fish may be hunting for its next meal whether that is a baitfish, a shrimp or a little lobster or crab. Fish along the rocks are opportunists at this time of the year. There are some very big fish in the rocks right now.
In years past the month of July was always a time to fish the beaches and rocks along the ocean front. The bay is great and full of fish but July was a time to explore the open surf again and poke along finding little pods of fish and sometime vast numbers of them that were unmolested and wouldn’t be until September came and the hoards of surf fishermen arrived. The fish are there but few people go and fish for them. I have caught more weakfish doing that along the sand beaches at night the last few years than in any other way.

It is a great time to find perfect solitude along the shore when fishing.


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