They went East this year instead

Lack of inshore bait
 

Judging by the few skinny fish I caught over the weekend and what I saw, there is definately very little in the way of baitfish near shore (I did not see one bird dive or even look interested in what was going on in the water - with the exception of a few who showed interest in my danny or surf howdy - the whole time I was on the block). This, as stated before, keeps the majority of the fish away from shore. The fish that I caught were both right in the shallow rocks and, I'm assuming, grubbing around for whatever could be found. The one I kept had a lobster and two small cusk in its stomach - not pogies, sandeels, macks, etc. that I would hope to see this time of year.

Up on the north shore of MA, we had alot of baitfish near shore this fall, pogies and macks, and subsequently alot of bass. I did not get to take full advantage because of a death in the family and getting married this fall but when I was out there were lots of fish around, especially in september.

Agreed Clogston, there were are lot of fish around on the North Shore, although a lot of guys complained that they thought September was better than October. I got married in September, so I missed most of it, but I did manage some fish in late august and saw multiple keepers landed in early October. So maybe those fish just dissapeared off shore this year? Maybe that northeast blow we got just screwed it all up.

This past Sunday I hit 3 spots for one schoolie. I am not throwing in the towel yet I will probably fish till Turkey Day.

the fish are going to be found where the bait is. Right now the bait is offshore and there is a lot of it at that. This fall has been slower than past seasons but the season overall had a great quantity of good fish that were caught. The fish will be in SoCo until the water gets too cold 50 the low end.

:faga: 27 ' Hydrasport :hee:

Look, we are not saying that there are not fish around. Of Course there are fish around. Nebe knows where to find 15 lb fish in January. I am saying the following.

1. The 14 or 15 days of NE wind and rain pushed the main migration off shore.
2. The bait was also pushed off shore.

3. The fish that are being caught now, for the most part, are not migratory fish but fish that are resident.

4. IMO, there will not be a big push of BIG fish this year. It already happended about 3 weeks ago when some of the guys were at Cutty and got into a lot of mid to high 30# fish.

5. There will be pulses of small fish with an occasional good fish among them.

6. These fish will continue until the water temp gets to 49 degrees at which point you will be catching holdovers.

No rocket science just 30 odd years of Fall runs. Seen it before and I will see it again.

I've changed my thinking over the years, somewhat. Something to eat IMO is BY FAR the single most important motivation to a fish of almost any species. I've really let go of water temps and the calander. The X-mas Eve blitz a few years back in town here was not resident fish, it was bass in cold water that had something to eat.

Looking South from Newport this morning there are no birds anywhere, whether they are working bait or just hanging out waiting. That to me is a bad sign. The most important thing to a bird is food. If there are fish coming my way there is no indication that there will be anything to eat when they arrive.

This jives real well with what I've seen before, during, and after the big Nor'easter. I also agree, that this time of year, the migrating bass are keyed in on bait. No bait=No fish sticking around.

The Fall run is over? When did it start? A few decent fish moved into SoCo during the last week of September and the first week of October - chasing big schools of mullet. That stretch of rain and storms blew out all the bait and fishing has been extremely spotty since then. I don't think all this N/NW we've seen over the past few weeks has helped either. Fish over 20lbs are around, but there aren't a lot of them and the window of opportunity is quick. Even the bluefish numbers are way down. No bait = no bass. If the fishing on Block sucks that spells trouble for SoCo. :hs:

Yup, UHHU, Keep thinking that.... :bl:

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain :wave: :jump: :rotfl: :devil:

Dave and I dont mean to be critical, you guys bang a few fish over on the east bay and think that it is the end of the world, huge migration, yippie...that is nothing compared to what used to happen. The main push of fish has left, one pocket of fish does not a fall migration make, most likely the fish you are catching are also fish that summered offshore and are poking around looking for food, heck there is loads of fish in barrington right now!! Its no secret, there is more of a holdover population than people think, when they think they hit the migrating bass what they really hit are fish that are winter overs heading up the westport, seekonk, barrington, providence etc... I think most here should have witnessed a real fall that last happend in the early 90s.. You cant judge a migration with tunnel vision, just because there are a few on the east side .

The run is all but over, its chasing dreams and yesterdays news, paul is right the reality is that even if there are fish it wont last but maybe another week tops.

Beside many stories everyone hears about these huge fish runs are in fact blown way out of proportion and embelished to the tenth degree, the reality is most of the fish are schoolies with an occasional decent fish in the mix.

Can it happen? sure someone will be at a breachway and luck into a few fish and say here they are? that will last for the moment only. To do that you need to spend eveywaking moment at the spot and hope to luck into a few.

It used be that the fall fishing was very consitant, you would have fish and count on fish being there nightly....not anymore....I think most of this post however is stirring the pot and being a sharpie dave you know its nearing a fast end :bl:

Ask johnR What consitancy is, he will tell you about at least two solid weeks of very large fish in a certain spot from the last week of october thru the full first week of november and that was as recent as 1997-98! There was also a beach spot that had consitant cows all of october into mid november ( CB) John to refresh your memory, You could count on a large there every single night for years..........Those were some good fall runs, in fact 98 was the last of that from what I have heard......

Then Charlestown, the breach had cows after that...It was awesome.....

Soooooooooooo Kippy, I guess the answer is No, it has not been a good fall run.

I was with John R on a breachway around Thanksgiving, John landed a nice fishy. Like I said previously, I'll head out one or two more times up to end of November. One thing I do know is "you gotta be in it to win it"

Ice

Wow, I didn't realize the thread was going to blow up like this. I guess you're right.

This has been a very odd year for me. I fish the boat and the surf and in neither fashion am I seeing bait like I hope to. Fishing is spotty at best and the only concentration of fish I found were on mullett back in september. I never saw the massive schools of blues I usually see in narragansett bay, nor anywhere else. I am buying into the theory that lots of bait has been pushed off shore and the fish are following, or so I keep telling myself.
I fished in the boat Saturday and we never marked a bit of bait in an area that always has fish and bait. Two trips on 2 consecutive weekends to this spot have come up empty handed, which is outrageous considering the history of this area over my fishing career. Frustrating to say the least. But this seems to be a trend, as the falls are seemingly worse and worse the last few years. No consistency at all in the fishing from the boat or beach.
In the summer I spent some time in back bays and saw incredible amounts of mullet and peanut bunker, numbers like I have never seen. The mullet came through, but where are the peanuts? They are not in those bays, thats for sure. I am guessing that they dumped just in time to get washed out with all that wind and all those storms.
I have had more skunks in the surf this year than I ever have so I am hoping it is due to the lack of bait where I fish, and not my ineptitude. I can relate to that theory that there are less fish, but is that due to less bait? As a kid I remeber huge shoals of adult bunker every fall, so many we took it for granted they'd be there. Now the word of a few menhaden is very few and far between.
Nothing is like it used to be, but with all the conservation and research shouldn't things be getting better not worse? I think some of the methods used and ideas in place that are behind the research that tell us the condition of a fishery are beyond archaic.
If this is a trend that many of us are noticing, aren't we the people who should bring it to light that something is wrong? All around us fisheries are collapsing, cod, herring, eels etc...are stripers on their way out too?

i don't need to keep thinking anything. I know what I know and as I said you may run into a big fish or 2 but if you think there is going to be a huge run of 30s and 40s, you are delusional. :confused:

Yup, and YOU, like ME will continue chasing dreams till our hands fall off. :bl:
I told you, it's in our blood unfortunately, so lets keep doing what we do and have fun doing it and maybe we'll get lucky... :eek5:

Hey, that's what my wife says!
How'd you know that? :eek5: :confused:

I'm only 24 so I barely had my drivers licence when the last "big run happened"

In my experience this "fall run" you guys speak of I have yet to see. THe past five years I have caught more fish in May and June than September and October. Although I generally get larger fish in the Fall.

The few times I did get offshore this year I saw a tremendous amount of bait. The Tuna we caught had hundreds upon hundreds of Sand Eels in their stomach. And the best Blue Fishing I have seen in years was 35 miles off shore, with every blue approaching 15 lbs (its too bad we weren't targeting them)

I guess I'm confused?

This is the same argument you guys have every year. I can set my clock by this stuff :laughs:... just so you know... you guys will be arguing about the arrival of herring Feb 22nd and the arrival of the Bass march 19th. We all know what's going to happen and it's going to be the same as every year.

Yes some people will catch some nice fish between now and 12/1. Yes we will all be out there hoping that the run has been held up, but it hasn't. on 10/31 there was a big pod of big fish working the elizabeths and the southeast shore of mass, I know of 6 fish caught that night ranging from 27 up to 40 pounds. Those are the fish you guys are talking about and I was all set to be begin chasing them. Then came this, I think it blew the pod of fish apart and now they are likely roaming the rim of the ledges making their way south and that's why the boat guys are taking fish right now. We just might see a curtain call In Newport or Narragansett or SoCo. I am not by any means an expert on the fall run, when #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& and Piemma and all you other guys were slaying fish in the 80's I was making macaroni necklaces in grade school but I do fish hard and I do pay attention and I can recognize patterns. High winds can ruin the fall run and this year has seen nothing but. Boy I hope I'm wrong about this but....

anyway... I'll be out there at 4:00am tomorrow praying. :eyes:

The boat guys that are still out there are slaying them of blocks southwest side in 60ft of water. The winds killed us and the line storms...... I can say this with certainty..the fish will be back in may :jump:

So who wants to give me a ride on their boat? :jump:

I didn't fish much this season at all...so I won't give my opinion on this seasons' take....

However :usd: ...

Someone stated "food" being an important factor.....

I agree, but not in the way it was posted on this thread.
I've been fishing for a LONG time....what DON'T I see now that I remember seeing eons ago?....UNBELIEVABLE amounts of bait. Pogies were EVERYWHERE!!....Squid were so far up the bay, the bridge didn't need lights. Does that still happen?...Why did their pattern change? Are they still as abundant? Will it ever be like it was....
NEVER!!...get that into your thick skulls.
We all have our own opinions on why things changed. Let's look at some of the variables.
Weather = We always had it and always will
Water Quality = It's been better, but also been worse
Baitfish = (I'm no bait-erologist, but we definately don't have as much as we used to)
Over-Fishing = Forgive me, but the commercial fisheries take a heavy hit on this one. They're technology is slightly better. The demand is always increasing. They will never be regulated enough to turn things around...only slow things down.
The ecology has changed...learn to deal with it.

Human GREED has impacted the oceans. You have to settle for whatever the particular season brings you for whatever reason. You want to catch more fish, FISH MORE!!...You want to catch BIGGER fish, ..say BIGGER prayers :spin:
You want to see a BIG rebound with some recreational bag limits?? YOUR NUTZ!
If EVERYONE <recs/comms> stopped fishing, it would still take numerous years for fish to return to their HEALTHY stocks.

Is the Fall Run over?...if you stopped fishing, yes...it is.
If you don't want to spend the time to find out for yourself and your just waiting for someone to tell you.....yes, it's over.

....what was the question again?....sorry :topic:

Something to think about:

A few new reports have come in.

A good number of 25 to 50# fish caught over the past 2 days in 40+ feet of water within a mile of the mainland in RI in several spots. Way more then just a few random fish. Imagine if we had bait close to shore.

Regardless, I know where I'll be the next few days and it's not on a boat.

The "Fall Run" is a myth made up by tackle shops and magazines
to sell sell sell

You are right. That's what makes us surf fishermen. It's in our blood. There is no tougher thing to do in November or for that matter in July. You climb the rocks. You loose sleep. You freeze till your hands are numb and you are wet most of the time. And for what? A big fish with 7 stripes on her
God I love it so.

Interesting. We got the same report while on the island except we heard 55 feet of water.

Heh, you should have heard the disappointment in the voices of the people I talked to this morning (before I heard the big fish report, although the locations are not going to be disclosed).

You want 12" bass and some blues? Come on down!

I've been imagining ALL season...that was about all I could do...


Look for a mackerel pattern to work in November...silver-side patterns should also produce/blackChrOme. .., ...dunkn' chunkn' is also killA at the end of the season, aLwWays bring 2R oddS...hit the skinnies in the weewee hours....and most importantly, ask the "Sharpies" on this site where to go. They always know where the fish were.... :hf1:

...back to the 60 grit

IMO, we never even had a fall run. just small pulses of fish. sad huh.

Great summary of what we all are saying. The g d wind killed this Fall run. I remember it happening in 91 or 92 when "they went by on the outside".
As Canalman said "you guys will be arguing about the arrival of herring Feb 22nd and the arrival of the Bass march 19th." They will be back. In 90 days we will be counting the days till the first school fish.
I gotta tell ya, Bryan and I are up around 120 to 130 nights for this season and I am tired. My gear is tired. My truck is tired. My Korkers have had every stud replaced 5 times. I have gone thru 2 bags of 60 studs so far. 7000 yards of line and probably 500 eels and lost 100+ plugs. Almost time to head for the "bat cave" and spin a bunch of AYC.

I am sure you knew I was just kidding,
:jump:

And he still can make a mean one... :bl: