Summer pattern success
 

For all the excitement the spring and fall runs generate, I see many striper highliners doing their best during the late June through early September summer months. And with the expectation for big baits to invade New England waters again in '07, how will you guys be adjusting tactics to target stripers that have settled into their summer patterns?
Will you be doing anything different or fishing different areas to take advantage of certain baits? :ss:

I plan to follow anyone with RI plates and a live well in their truck.

I won't be changing anything, except I may not be able to fish as much as I did in '06. With regard to the fish and bait, a big population of large summer fish may settle in where you don't expect them to for reasons we don't know yet.Its tough to predict, although people like to try.We sometimes feel that what was good last year will be good this year,only to be disappointed when it doesn't materialize.That's been my experience.In 2005 it was Gansett, in 2006 it was down your way, Krispy.I must add that the canal is long overdue for a big summer......

I'll probably try a couple different things like actually raking for sand eels this year using the rake I bought.

I want to jig fresh squid in may/june and go directly to some productive spots. I have a couple places I wanted to fish last year that I didn't...

Late spring early summer is good for it's predictability and for it's short nights....Things are a lot more "by the book" whereas the fall runs have been a big question mark...
Ya got your southwest wind and your late sunset, early sunrise so you can hit both and fish through the "night" in a trip that is only a little over a tide cycle...
Plus I think the fish realize that they'll only have the cover of darkness for a short period and they feed a little more aggressively after sulking through a long period of daylight...
I know a lot of the bigger fish from the Striper Cup came in early summer....

I love summer, my feelings are in the spring and fall the the fish are moving sometimes this is good as it could bring some good fish in an area that hasn't had any yet also it could also do just the opposit and move the fish out.Usauly if you find fish in the summer there not going to move much there resident fish they are there for the summer.also the wether patterns are much better in july throu early sept.the only thing is take the plugs out of the truck and fish eels.

Chris:

Here's the key to my expected success:

I'll be spying more on you, Toby, and Rich in 2007 :bgi:

At 1 am on Jan 5th 2007 the water temp is 47 degrees! I am very curious as to how this will affect the bait and other fish situation this coming season.Will it bring an early spring run and send them out deep all summer? Will it attract baitfish close to shore and draw Bluefins in close? Does it really make any difference at all? Anybody have logs with info relating to how the fishing was after an abnormally warm winter?

I don't have anything useful on this in my logs, but I remember discussions w/ buddies about this in the past. If I remember correctly, we weren't able to draw a clear connections. Maybe, since we were looking mostly at early river fishing, the other factors like rain fall and water levels had as much of an impact on whether or not we were catching. The lack snow melt could lead to low river levels, making it easier for shad and herring to get upstream more easily. My bet is that there is a strong link between length of daylight and spawning of bait fish and bass. Temperature probably has some influence, but who knows what the range of influence is...

I remember the winter of 2001-2002 being very mild and the '02 season having tons of juvenile bait on the beach all year.
It'd be nice to see clouds of tinker macs and peanuts moving up/down the beaches again