Rhody Fall Run

[eelman]

Originally Posted by fishaholic18

Yup, UHHU, Keep thinking that....

Dave and I dont mean to be critical, you guys bang a few fish over on the east bay and think that it is the end of the world, huge migration, yippie...that is nothing compared to what used to happen. The main push of fish has left, one pocket of fish does not a fall migration make, most likely the fish you are catching are also fish that summered offshore and are poking around looking for food, heck there is loads of fish in barrington right now!! Its no secret, there is more of a holdover population than people think, when they think they hit the migrating bass what they really hit are fish that are winter overs heading up the westport, seekonk, barrington, providence etc... I think most here should have witnessed a real fall that last happend in the early 90s.. You cant judge a migration with tunnel vision, just because there are a few on the east side .

The run is all but over, its chasing dreams and yesterdays news, paul is right the reality is that even if there are fish it wont last but maybe another week tops.

Beside many stories everyone hears about these huge fish runs are in fact blown way out of proportion and embelished to the tenth degree, the reality is most of the fish are schoolies with an occasional decent fish in the mix.

Can it happen? sure someone will be at a breachway and luck into a few fish and say here they are? that will last for the moment only. To do that you need to spend eveywaking moment at the spot and hope to luck into a few.

It used be that the fall fishing was very consitant, you would have fish and count on fish being there nightly....not anymore....I think most of this post however is stirring the pot and being a sharpie dave you know its nearing a fast end

[eelman]

Ask johnR What consitancy is, he will tell you about at least two solid weeks of very large fish in a certain spot from the last week of october thru the full first week of november and that was as recent as 1997-98! There was also a beach spot that had consitant cows all of october into mid november ( CB) John to refresh your memory, You could count on a large there every single night for years..........Those were some good fall runs, in fact 98 was the last of that from what I have heard......

Then Charlestown, the breach had cows after that...It was awesome.....

[RIJIMMY]

Soooooooooooo Kippy, I guess the answer is No, it has not been a good fall run.

[The Iceman 6]

I was with John R on a breachway around Thanksgiving, John landed a nice fishy. Like I said previously, I'll head out one or two more times up to end of November. One thing I do know is "you gotta be in it to win it"

Ice

[choggieman]

This has been a very odd year for me. I fish the boat and the surf and in neither fashion am I seeing bait like I hope to. Fishing is spotty at best and the only concentration of fish I found were on mullett back in september. I never saw the massive schools of blues I usually see in narragansett bay, nor anywhere else. I am buying into the theory that lots of bait has been pushed off shore and the fish are following, or so I keep telling myself.
I fished in the boat Saturday and we never marked a bit of bait in an area that always has fish and bait. Two trips on 2 consecutive weekends to this spot have come up empty handed, which is outrageous considering the history of this area over my fishing career. Frustrating to say the least. But this seems to be a trend, as the falls are seemingly worse and worse the last few years. No consistency at all in the fishing from the boat or beach.
In the summer I spent some time in back bays and saw incredible amounts of mullet and peanut bunker, numbers like I have never seen. The mullet came through, but where are the peanuts? They are not in those bays, thats for sure. I am guessing that they dumped just in time to get washed out with all that wind and all those storms.
I have had more skunks in the surf this year than I ever have so I am hoping it is due to the lack of bait where I fish, and not my ineptitude. I can relate to that theory that there are less fish, but is that due to less bait? As a kid I remeber huge shoals of adult bunker every fall, so many we took it for granted they'd be there. Now the word of a few menhaden is very few and far between.
Nothing is like it used to be, but with all the conservation and research shouldn't things be getting better not worse? I think some of the methods used and ideas in place that are behind the research that tell us the condition of a fishery are beyond archaic.
If this is a trend that many of us are noticing, aren't we the people who should bring it to light that something is wrong? All around us fisheries are collapsing, cod, herring, eels etc...are stripers on their way out too?

[kippy]

Originally Posted by RIJIMMY

Soooooooooooo Kippy, I guess the answer is No, it has not been a good fall run.

Wow, I didn't realize the thread was going to blow up like this. I guess you're right.

[fishaholic18]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

its chasing dreams

Yup, and YOU, like ME will continue chasing dreams till our hands fall off.
I told you, it's in our blood unfortunately, so lets keep doing what we do and have fun doing it and maybe we'll get lucky...

[piemma]

You are right. That's what makes us surf fishermen. It's in our blood. There is no tougher thing to do in November or for that matter in July. You climb the rocks. You loose sleep. You freeze till your hands are numb and you are wet most of the time. And for what? A big fish with 7 stripes on her
God I love it so.