Last call....2018
 

Cancelled a lot of shore and boat trips over the last few weeks due to lousy conditions. I wasn't content about things ending so abruptly so went out last night to fish one last time before calling it a season.
I was a little surprised when I hooked up on my first cast and fighting that fish in the current of the dropping tide .... my drag paying out a little line to ease the pressure ....was just the fix I needed.

Landed it and later on another, then the cold got to me, and the reality that for me the season has come to an end.

Ohhh but some of the best time is yet to come ; )

Fished Cutty by boat today and all the way back to Woodshole. Small fish but what a picture perfect day on the water. Getting very close for me.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Nice going u guys,,,,, you’re killing me.... as I sit here with the ice pack on my neck... :smash:

I’ve managed to get an agreement with the wife that Sunday will be a day on the water. Boat has been dry since late August waiting for this kid to arrive, and now that I don’t have to be home at a moment’s notice, I’m going to try to eek a couple trips out of Nov.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I’m just getting ready to fish again. I’ve been out once in the last month. This is my second favorite time of year. Decent weather, no crowds and a shot at big fish from shore.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

You wouldn't know how to handle a 20#,you hack!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

My spies up in Maine are still doing quite well on a lot of good sized fish.Snow flakes and peeling drag...................No people.Don't put'm away yet.Oh! yes,put'm away!!!!!!

Come on out with me and I’ll give you a free lesson on how to catch fish 😂
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

days like this help make winter bearable.....fished one of the craziest feeds I've witnessed in years yesterday....combination of bass, peanuts, tide and wind created an enormous shoreline feed that seemed to last forever....bright blue sky, cool but not cold weather, crystal clear ocean so that you could watch the bass cruising below the bait....through the occasional backlit wave that formed you could see the small pods of bunker suspended... the water was glistening with the scales of marauded peanuts and you could watch a half dozen bass follow your fly on the retrieve causing great pain when an occasional big fish would follow then turn broadside so you could measure it and then swim away...I'll probably see that all in my head till next spring

Bobby!!!! Where the %$#@* you been????

You think? I could use a little motivation....what ever happened to the "It aint over till its over" challenge?

Better weather would help too.....Temperature dropped into the mid 30's last trip out.

Solid weather pattern seems to be setting in over the next 10 or so days (after Saturday’s weather that is)
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I’ve been asking the same question.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I haven't been able to type on my phone, been working my hands to nubs.
Obviously they finally grew back.


How ya been boys?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I've been throwing a hail mary the past couple nights looking for a bigger fish and nobody is home....

I’ll give you a call tonight on my way home from work. Been way too long. I may fish tonight if you’re down for it.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I’m pretty much done and have been for a couple weeks now.

The amount of small fish down here this Fall has been impressive to say the least. I stopped fishing for them, but it’s been pretty cool watching the schoolies march 5 min from my place for the last month. One day there were thousands of fish in the first wave, not moving , appearing to be sunning themselves. Those fish wouldn’t feed, but then just 15 yards out you’d have fish that were chewing like crazy. Just wild to watch.

I’ll probaby fish here and there for the next month, but no big fish chasing. I never fully recovered from two knee surgeries last Fall. Quickly realized how health and physical conditioning are key to having success targeting big fish from the surf (go figure), and even just being out there in general. I managed some decent fish, but it was frustrating not being able to get to certain spots due to physical limitations. Got to the point where it was really bumming me out these last two weeks. Have to keep reminding myself that I’m past a year cold turkey with no cigs, I find solace in that. I start back up with PT today and getting in shape will be a top priority this winter.

Good luck to those still pounding away. Good conditions with the New Moon coming. Onto next year for me.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Yeah...I did say I was done but...the wind was down and weather was too nice to sit and watch football so I grabbed my gear and caught a couple of schoolies just before sundown...snapped a pic of the smallest...also sighted birds flying south for the winter.
Anyone else get out yesterday?

Got out on a board, but no rod. Plenty of schoolies around, but it was too rough to combine the rod + board yesterday...
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Gomame jig
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I got out for a hot minute in between 30 mph winds at the salt pond down the street from me.

some more dinks on the fly rod, nothing over 22".

I'm over spending 3 hrs alone in the wetsuit looking for that one last big fish. I spent waaaaay to much time alby fishing this sept and october, and zero nights bass fishing. Albies ruin everything for me.

I'll probably switch gears and start exploring some small creeks looking for sea run trout and holdover bass. I had one too many lonely dark skunk filled nights to keep me motivated looking for a bigger bass.

Yep....I like them... a little swimming action because of the slight s-curve shape, cast pretty well, strong hooks....and I am starting to avoid any lure with belly treble hooks.
Less damage to fish.....and I have impaled myself too many times on belly trebles trying to release a fish while I'm knee deep in the water at night.

They catch everything that swims. I had quite a day on bay bluefin with that jig, 15# fish for hours.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Rob, my knees are one of the reasons I haven't been in the surf this Fall. I can't jump rocks at all. Gonna get a "re-surfacing" next year when we get back from SC. Hopefully it will solve the problem.

Good luck with that, Paul. I’m sure you’ll bounce back just fine. Enjoy SC in the meantime!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Observations:
There was no fall striper run again this year. The 5 week long MV BASS & BLUEFISH DERBY was again a sad joke of results. Almost a non existent bait biomass in upper Cape waters this Fall. Usually, east end of Canal is alive, whether, and long after, fish have pushed through. Non existent sand eel beaches, essentially all year. My brother on the NJ Shore says the same thing re sand eels; and his inshore fishing is awful.

I only caught two bluefish this entire year (both alligator size)! What's up with that?

Having gone to college in RI a century ago, I have a working knowledge of its shore. I have started, again, ending my season commuting from the Cape to SOCO. It's tough on me to see virtually everybody on the beach with largemouth bass sized tackle, casting tiny lures, and hoping to catch a 28" "keeper" sized "big bass", instead of the available 15-20" jiggler bass. I was there yesterday: Fun to be on a beach; fun to be around several other enthusiastic pilgrims similarly engaged; etc.

We avocationals/recreationals spend a lot of money doing this. In my mind, I lay the blame of a declining and destroyed striped bass fishery entirely at the feet of the greed and avarice of the commercial fishing industry, its participants, and their bureaucratic allies in State and Federal Fisheries Mismanagement.

Make Striped Bass a Game Fish.

A very wise man once told me when you point a finger at someone... there are four others pointing right back at you.

Commercials, Rec, rec-for-hire. We all have a share of the blame. No one group is the devil and no one group is immune.

My bass season was dismal again this year in RI.
I share your feeling of disgust.

I see commercial greed. I also see the biomass hammered by rec's in the canal, out on block, and outside the EEZ down south.

If you want to stop the killing stop ALL the killing.

No worries with you capt. Joey .But we did try to help ya :wid:

One Last trip....
 

Weather has been a bear this fall as all of you had said. Wanted to do a boat tog trip, but in a 17 footer, gotta have decent conditions. Finally got it out yesterday for a small window, and after watching a few u-tube's by Skinner, managed a nice limit of tog on jigs and light spinning gear. What a gas!! Great fights, and figured out what a hit by a tog felt like, as opposed to the bait mangling small stuff. Just put the boat in the garage...going hunting next week, so calling it. May use the fly rod for a few December outings.