Fished SoCo beaches this morning from first light until 8:30 west of west wall.
Not a bump. Pretty big surf too. Ran into another guy from Mass who said "should have been at the Canal yesterday..." eesh.

On my way to work this morning, ran into my first big beach blitz. I was the only one fishing and it was bass to 26" pretty much every cast. What an awesome experience, watching them crush bait right at the shoreline.

Same thing where I launched this morning, acres and acres of bait and bass, the beach and the whole bay I was in was boiling...
October, got to luv it
There were some bigger fish but couldn't connect on them

Hit the canal last night for one last trip.
A couple of bumps, a tail tug but no fish.

Contrary to other reports I believe the canal is pretty much a waste of my time. After fishing various times this season, I have not had as bad a year in quite some time. Yeah I caught a few fish, but nothing worth keeping or considering.
I think that the fish may be heading around the cape and not thru the canal anymore. Sure they will charge in when chasing bait, but they probably aren't hanging around as they used to.

My last three outings showed promise as I found lots and lots of bait mulling around the shoreline. Unfortunately they were the ONLY fish in the area all three times.
Typically when bait is that plentiful you would at least have schoolies pounding the shores. NADA, nil, ZILCH!

Thankfully my freshwater excursions have been much more productive with catching big bass....

Been watching a spot on the way home from work for about three weeks. Dead end with abundant peanuts with no where to go when the predators come around. Nothing on them that I saw until today. All the 16 to 20 inch bass one could want on a small super strike popper. Happy I am not a peanut bunker. That isn't an easy life.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Love this thread. Thanks Piemma. Trying to decide on trip to RI to fish South County within next week. I live 3 miles from Bell Road near CC Canal. Been picking up fish ( 1st hour of sunlight) but almost all shorts (mostly east end). One legal 28 incher on Saturday. Last Wednesday did a 3 AM to 630 hit em hard trip on right tides looking for large. Not a bump. At 630 sun coming up and shorts everywhere. Fewer shorts this week running about 18 to 22 inches.
Trout fishing or RI trip needed, but I am stubborn so may hit canal a bit longer hoping fish come through as in addition to peanuts I have seen some macs and some red/brown squid about 8 inches long.
Hard not to fish when it is 60 degrees pre dawn, when in past years I have fished predawn in October at 37 degrees.
Bill

with all the nice weather, I do believe the fish will be around until mid November. I certainly believe that there will be many more "chances" there , still, for a big one , maybe :) At least a few more weeks :)


go to the run/crib at morning slack high and wait a bit :)

I have had a spy posted up on the Canal for the past 10+ days. My brother surf rat from NJ. He has posted only micros and dinks so far. Amazing stretch of non fishing, IMO.

We did a banzai trip to Cutty 4 nights ago. We fished a great tide and conditions. Two rods; 3.5 hours. Never hooked up anything beyond an occasional 15-20" micro bass. Again, an amazing stretch of non fishing IMO. I have been other places also... just awful. Thank you again to the commercial fishing industry.

I DO NOT want to ruin a great thread!!! Bu there is PLENTY of blame to spread around... I'm not in love with comm bass fishing. But I see plenty rec's killing too... both within and outside of the reg's.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPupWjvPLpU

The problem is that there is a strong commercial bias to management of the resource. And by commercial I include the charter boat fishery. Both groups, commercial and charter industry, push for harvest at maximum sustainable yield. This ensures the quality of the fishery is way less than it would be otherwise (just witness the rapid final depletion of the remaining large fish now that sustainability is not a concern following several decent year classes).

It is absolutely true that non-charter recreational fishermen could and likely would abuse the resource if they were able. Just witnessing the carnage at the canal this year proves that. HOWEVER, the canal this year is an exception as most recreational fishermen lack the expertise, desire (sans a selling option) to put a serious dent in the fishery if monetary gain was not a motivating factor.

just to get back on track......

I did 45 miles in LongIsland Sound a few days ago..... aside from a sporadic albie splash every coupla hours, it was a dead sea. never saw any birds, never marked a concentration of fish, never saw any big pods of bait. stopped at 10-12 spots that are fishy locations and had a few dink sea bass. caught 2 albies by mistake with trying for bass.....

deader than dead

fish
 

Hit a local bay up here on the South Shore. Looked dead. Rainy and windy, a few birds on the shore. Wondered if schoolies and bait were still around. 1st cast, fish. Caught 20 schoolies in an hour at the top of the tide. Still lots of bait and small fish in the warm bay water.

Hit or miss...
 

Bobber, lots of bait around, but got to be right time, right place, and just hope. Saw a ton of bait and schoolies yesterday afternoon, then hit it after dark in the rain, and had legal bass and up for over an hour...seems the older fish wait until dark, saw some keeper size in the blitz earlier, there were blues mixed in as well. Hope its just early....

[QUOTE=fishrick;113
Hope its just early....[/QUOTE]

hope you're right......

a few small fish at the top of the tide in the canal today. Red Top guy says its been slow the last couple weeks...

Caught a couple of very small stripers last night during the drop on first three casts, same for the guy with me.
Then went the next two hours without a bump.
Not putting my gear away just yet.. maybe 3 or 4 more trips.
Got into some pretty good daytime fishing from the beach this time last year.
Daylight savings next week? Dark at around 4:30? Winter Sucks!

25 years ago we would fish the SOCo until Thanksgiving morning then head for the Block after turkey day. Usually all small fish in SoCo and better fish at the Block....some years.

Hahahahahaha...Block Island in November...hahahahahahahha :1poke:

Tog, tog and more tog today in RI today, with some BSB mixed in, dinner is going to be good tonight. Glad to get a trip in before the blow, going to be some big surf the next couple of days with the weather they are predicting.

Still tons of bait in the upper Sakonnet.

Yes there is.

Bob sorry , I didn,t get your message until a hour ago .

we were in front but it was getting ulgy & didn,t want to be there for the drop .......................way too many throwbacks .....we had 8 keepers but worked for them ..............Albies everywhere ,outside & in the bay ><><

Lots of small ones and still some decent bass along the Elizabeth’s
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

As I recall, you had you PB at the time, at the SW Point the day after Thanksgiving and Oakley threw it back for you :rotf2::rotf2:

Had a decent togging trip yesterday in LIS around Saybrook area. 5 guys fishing, probably boated 200 tog and seabass. Brought 17 tog and 4 seabass back to the dock. Most of the keepers were in the 18-22" range. Fished in water right around 50'. Saw a bunch of albies as we were coming back in.

pod after pod of albies were heading out of the bay for the two days prior to the storm,,,fascinating to watch them from shore but frustrating to cast to as they seem disinterested in anything thrown in their path...just a steady flow of gently porpoising emerald backed beauties

Third spot this morn landed on the mother load of tog... Went through close to a bucket of greeny's,,,, pulled up a real monster, lays him on the bench, pulls the hook out, flip flop , did a half gainer, splash..... SOB grrrrrr gone!

Hauls, runs home,takes all the rods off, loads the rakes and baskets, heads back out , rakes up limit.... Headed in, you know what I sees next? right?
Puts the glasses on the mouth of the harbor , sees clouds of birds and dummy me with no rods onboard .....

Drops off the boat back at the house , heads for the north side to empty and bait the greeny pot....

I wish I could get paid for all the fishing I do.... LOL

Hmmmm still togging..... Where are you going out of these days Ray? I got the bug I think. How late do you all keep catching?

I have an invite from a friend for Friday, love to get some intel on the bite, send me a pm.

You sure are ambitious. Good for you. I don't have "the fire in the belly" anymore to go that hard.

South side CC, spot Ricky and I hit good last year two weeks earlier than his year, if I see a good weather day coming up I'll call ya,,,

Not sure if I can go tomorrow plus wind? I'll pm today

Fire in the belly? More like num in the head... :-) :smash:

We used to have some epic days when I was a kid well into December, and Tautog's logbook has great days in January from the old days.

As the stock has declined and pressure went up on them, it seems like the season has gotten shorter; it is basically over around Thanksgiving.

Tautog just submitted a slip a couple weeks ago and is in first place with one at 10 lb 2oz. You'd better get out there and not let the old man show you he's still the Boss. :wave:

First year in a long time to tog for Ricky. Next year.

<<<<<<<<<<< Albies were still in the bay today >>>>>>>>>>/<,/,

guess i wont be unloading the boat tonight

Here's our hero with a bass from down the Elizabeths this past Sun, one of about 4-5 of this size he took (to my one). Found fish on Weds as well. Huge numbers of small fish in the harbors along lower BzBay. Still plenty of peanuts around and I've not seen the large bunker leave yet. I'm hopeful for another 10-12 days at least of worthwhile fishing.

Cousin it
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

SoCo RI
 

Fished beaches yesterday and today. Acres of bait and schoolies from Pt. Judith to Watch Hill. Water temp 60. Great white water with the south and south east wind. Arms are falling off.

Trying. Hopefully the wind drops this weekend
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device