How are you going to spend your Fall Run?

[JohnR]

So - the fall run is upon us. Some areas are quiet and some are hopping like mad. My hot spot last year on the South Shores of Mass Bay has been surprisingly quiet the few times I've fished it but one fellow I know has plucked a few large bass out of there. This time last year I had numerous bass over twenty pounds and many in the thirty-pound range. There was plenty of bait and plenty of daytime surface feeding fish. Once they went down at night, the horses came out. But this year, that area has been slow.

Our resident Scituate boat guru has been scratching his head since coming back from chasing sweet water fish up in Maine. He's managed to scrape out a decent day but not in the way he would have expected and in no way, anything like the free-for-all blasts of last year.

Down at my new home, the huge schools of fish, mostly smaller blues, have been crashing hard on silversides but there are not the massive schools of Peanut Bunker in Narragansett Bay like last year. Several of the locals tell me that there has not been big bass way up in the bay in any numbers due to lack of big bunker in the upper reaches of the bay. This is being echoed more and more ALL OVER the Northeast and is a very scary trend to say the least. Ten or fifteen years ago, those big fish chased massive schools of adult Menhaden all over Narragansett Bay and many of those fish reached over 40 pounds with some in the 50s. I've seen the pictures and heard the stories but that may be a thing of the past, a sad reflection on earlier times that may never happen again if that forage fish is allowed to be driven to extinction.

A lot of reports coming in from the back beaches of Cape Cod have large schools of big bass chasing eels, needlefish & teasers, BIG swimmers & teasers (OK - most anything with teasers) and this IS the time of year that we dream of fishing the Cape. Most of the tourists are gone and the beaches are open.

Anglers up in Maine and points north should have their fill of fish. At the beginning of last October, a very knowledgeable Maniac was almost upset leaving big bass in his traditional haunts for his annual pilgrimage to Martha's Vineyard for the Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby running on the island until the middle of October. He wasn't upset for long as he recorded some large bass and the many Albies working the shores around the island.

Rhode Island is getting real hot with South County providing big bass, big blues, and a tease of Albies from the shore. Block? Well, Block is Block...

With all of that said, this is the time of year most of us have plans to shake loose and hit our "Meccas" for stretches at a time, hunting for those HUGE Bass and other fish that get us all revved up this time of year. Many extended stays on the Cape or Trips to the Islands or perhaps someone rents a room at the Andrea for a few weekends in a row. It is that time of year where most of us gather up a big last month long push and a few more keep at it past Thanksgiving as our striped friends head south for the winter. Places like The Ditch, Ballston’s and Head of the Meadow, Race point and the Wellfleet Hollows, Nauset & Chatham, Nantucket, MV, The Elizabeth Islands, Block Island, Watch Hill (and associated long walks), Montauk, Fisher's Island. The list goes on and on.

Last year, I was fortunate to spend a week on MV for the derby and many strong nights on the Mass South Shore, Cape & Rhody. This fall will be a very busy fall for me but not much time as I'd like will be time on the water. There is always next year for me.

But how are you going to spend your Fall Run???