Crunch Time
 

Yes, it is crunch time. The fish are moving, the weather is deteriorating, the wind down is near. How will you approach the next month?

I am of the opinion that here in Ma it has not even begun yet! Its deadsville up here right now! I will keep hitting it hard for the next 3 weeks at least as I have been...not much to show as yet!

Since the fish are moving should I not be fishing in any rivers? I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be but I really like to.....

It's begun boys - this came from a UDL SHORE locale last night along with 6 other of it's brothers and sisters. Was good to have line peeling off the reel, and screaming drag.

TIME TO GET TO WORK BOYZ :kewl:

I will be going out as much as possible....fish are on the move now and have been for weeks....while I have not seen the feeding frenzy yet as years past ....still picking up a couple good fish almost every trip out......I dont believe it is deadsville....just short windows...and will light up at any moment.....it will happen...it's just a matter of being there when it does.
I have had my most successful nites locally when I have been alone and I hit it for hours almost every nite.....I dont have the time to that this year....but still have confidence that I'll get a few good ones

Agree it is happening
 

Fish everytime out -- nothing large yet but they are moving -- 28' - 33' fish are becoming common.. Get am today -- but work got in the way and had to leave a lot of fish.... Have at it

beetle- what a well porportioned fish! nice!

Same as I do every year, After Thanksgivving I stop the serious fishing and hunt schoolies in creeks and trout fish with the skiff and mini riggers until the ice comes then ice fish till it melys then they stock trout in March and then trout fishng till the second week in April then to Cotuit till May then Mid May in Barnstable till the first of June then the beach and WHOA........i AM IN A VISCIOUS CIRCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

this last 2/3 of oct was the best for me last year, up to halloween. says the log. starting right around today last yr. north shore. ITS ON.

Fish every opp. I get until Thanksgiving....same as every other year...

I try to get out in the AM before work for about 45m. Fish weekends when I have the chance. I might fish Chatham on Saturday night. Basically any chance I have to make it out I'll take.

I'll be starting to hit the outgoing tides at the mouths of the numerous bays along the capes south side in the next week or 2 with eels at dusk. There are a lot of big fish that do the same towards the end of this month. Not high quanity but high quality. Heavy tackle time leave the schoolie stuff at home. Wish I still lived down that way so I could go every night for an hour or two, now I just have to hope I hit it right. Met an old timer many years ago at one such place and he told me if you are willing to stand on the many jettys along the south coast of the cape and freeze your butt off into Nov. then you will have a chance at a large fish but you have to put your time in. Seperates the men from the boys. You will be questioning yourself as to why the hell you are the only one fishing still and have not seen a soul in the past several times out and boy is it cold and windy. Hopefully you will find out. P.

dress warm and fish hard in Rhode Island until Thanksgiving week. Thanksgiving week I move camp to Long Island for a few weeks to keep on those Rhode Island fish that rounded Montauk.

GF is going back home to poland tomorrow night so its non-stop fishing for me until my hands freeze:ss:

A two state, four location all nighter w/redlite planned for this evening.Pray for us.Should be interesting...Mucho toro colorado. :uhuh:

So Mike, I tried to get a translation of the above and the closest I can come is that it's a title of an old Linda Rondstadt song.

translation , a lot of Red Bull?

beetle i recognize that telephone i know where you were :p

Yes, that's what it means :)

-spence

I will be fishing hard till the saturday after thanksgiving unless it says hot, I usually go till I get skunked 5 times in a row, time for all nighters then work then a couple hours of sleep and then all nighters again over and over and over, It is time to walk around like a zombie for the next month :musc:

I thought so....Linda Rondstadt is great!!!

Was supposed to be at the Cuttyhunk Fishing Club this weekend, which is their last for the season, but plans got fouled up. Work keeps getting in the way as we try to get the outdoor projects done before snow....
Still, I plan on taking a couple of days here and there to chase from the surf, locally and roadtrips south as the window closes up here in a couple of weeks. Getting out most mornings and after work. Surf was too much for me tonight, since I was the only soul where Doc got his fish. Just not safe conditions in the dark. I know there are good size fish around... Still chasing schoolie blitzes in the harbors though. Kayak is likely done for this year.

That school of 30/40 lb fish that was in the Canal 6-10 days ago went NORTH and is currently off Deluxbury.

Montauk is slow...23 lbs won the Montauk classic Tourney

MV Derby is slow, antucket Month Long was won by small fish

Boston Haba is on fire with the right baits....nice fish Beetle (and others)

The run might have begun but there is plenty left to go around....

Fishing every weekend once I leave MV (still here for a few more days)

Move over E#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&... I'll be there in a week...lol

This year, I think calling the season at Thanksgiving will be premature for me. Of course weather depending, Ill probly be out till mid December trying to intercept migrating cow bass at specific points.
Almost all year I have been fishing just a few key spots as often as possible and its paid off. I'll continue to do the same, picking places I think bass will be moving past with the best opportunity for finding large.Maybe Ill get lucky :angel:

Me thinks they may have gone a little further North than that. :huh:

got a ways to go imo. caught last bass in ri 3rd week of dec last year.

fish
 

there's still nice bass in the bay all the way to pawt:D there on peanuts:af: and picky.I've been catching on the beach, small fish mostly. there on small bait. we need big bait:splat: its still comming I hope:bl: its going late, there's 2 big schools of stripers working the river behind work as I type:bc:

This is a debate that happens every spring and every fall..IMO..Just because there are large schools of bass up north , does not mean those bass are going to show in Rhody in ex number of days...Many of those fish continue on out past the nantucket rips and south of Block Island..in fact those fish are fish we never see here, Hudson fish that summer in and around the Elizabeths, may move by Rhode Island and are a better shot than whats up north of the cape. The time is now in Rhode Island, Its mid October, the fish are on the move. Rhode Island also has its own summer poulation and those fish are also moving mixing with and joining with the others, its hard to say which are which, But just because someone nails a 25lb fish a couple of nights in a row doesnt mean "its on" or those fish have come here from some far ponts north. Using whats going on up north as a gauge for whats going to happen here is not good, Those fish never end up here. Yup you can catch fish in Rhody right until December but those are going to be dinks....The best shot for large bass in Rhody is right now until about November 15th , after that its a dink fest at best...so that gives about 4 weeks or so.Our fall fishing is its own entity that has nothing to do with other states. I think its happens everywhere at once in its own unique way.There are different strains of bass that do different routes and migration patterns, Chesapeake fish travel different routes than hudson fish.

We may have fish later than the Northern people but thats due to higher water temps and our own fish staying longer...Bottom line, the reality is there isnt tons of time left.If its large your after, the next 4 weeks are the time.....Especially in This state.

Especially if they are solo fish..... just residents...

Great insight from both you guys. Every year it happens: "it hasn't started yet" "The fish are moving late", "The waters still warm".
I can check my logs for 25 years and not find a big fish that I caught after 11/12 or 13. Bryan, Spence and I got some 15's 2 years ago at the Block the day after Thanksgiving. Tom McGuire and Tony Paliotti got some 15's in December 3 or 4 years ago but by and large the BIG fish are moving by right now and will be gone in 3 or 4 weeks. Just as Bill stated.

Along these lines, fish seem to show up all along the ri/cape/No. MA coast at about the same time. It seems to reason that they do move as Bill suggests.

I'm figuring they don't so much move up the coast, as out into the ocean, than into there respective summering spots, then leave the same way.

Ken Abrams (sp) has some interesing theories/observations about striper school behavior. Collective school memory so to speak. That the same schools move through the same areas year after year.

beef up you gear, now is not the time to have any question in your mind on any hit you get

move to areas that are known to produce big fish in the late months....check the log books;)

some places are more obvious than others

work hard.....pick your tides and you will be rewarded

last years biggest fish came the week of halloween for me.. we have a month left of big fish...make the best of it

Thats the absolute truth. That's why you catch big bass in the same hole year after year. It's passed on in their genes.
A long time ago I was at Nelson's in P-Town and the sharpies were holding court. This was back when Emilo first bought the place and it was upstairs over what is now the bike shop. George Calzone, Tony C, Lanny, #^&#^&#^&#^&y C, NY Chuckie, Mikey Cigar, they were all there. There was an old guy by the name of Joe Pagano who worked part time for Emilo. Joe had 25 or 30, 50's, a couple of 60s all from the beach. I asked Joe during one dry spell where the fish were and looked at me like I had just asked for the meaning of life. He said

"What the F*&^&^%^ do you mean where's the fish? They have been going to the same hole for 1000 years in August. If you go to Highhead in August and you find the hole, there will be fish. It's in there genes. I went and he was right. I found the hole and took 2, 40+ pound fish that night.

gotta love a b%$%$%$%$%$%$%$ paul, when you pull one out the next biggest will move in

Makes me cry when I think of what the Back Beaches were like. It's a resource that will probably never return because of the Seals and the bleeding hearts that protect them. But those were the days. Ask Flap or BackBeach or AfterHours they were there.

Exactly what I said...good bad or otherwise...4 weeks and its over..times have changed.

Agreed Jim. My best night last year was October 28 - cold, calm, and many big fish...

that was supposed to say bass hole

Best night's for me last year was November10th- 12th 5 bass in the high 30lb range in one night, and at least a 30 the other couple of nights....then it was over...Like a light switch..

you know, w/o the b it has a WHOLE other meaning...