11-8: South County RI (Gannets & Shad)

[bdowning]

The subject sez it all. Shad City at C-town this AM, even more than a few days ago. These guys are like sunfish infesting a bass pond! And speaking of bass, zero stripers caught or even seen caught.

However, reconnaissance revealed occasional pods of bass breaking and hitting the beach at Napatree and Weekapaug, but very fast moving and finicky.

First gannets I've seen in RI this fall doing their dive-bombing routine about 100 ft offshore at Narragansett.

Couldn't stay past 10 AM so don't know what happened at dusk/night.

I do think it's worthwhile fishing through the weekend as there are clearly still schools moving through, if you don't mind mostly smalls and a lot of shad mixed in. After that, it's anybody's guess.

-bd


<img src="http://world.std.com/~bdowning/fishing_lg_wte.gif">

[Ray]

Are they taking flies?

What patterns?

Thanks

[bdowning]

Yes they were. Any old fly will do, although white seemed to work best. I used small white bunny fly and also a small white deceiver as droppers off a spinning rod and it was a shad on the dropper on nearly every cast.

-bd