Better late than never goes the saying. So last night at 11pm I was walking with a skip in my step as I headed toward a jetty somewhere in SoCo. The SW breeze was light and warm coming off the water (it was much chillier in the interior of the salt pond I visited later) and I began casting into the pocket formed by beach and rocks.
I thought I felt a bit of odd pressure on a drift, but it wasn’t until I felt a sharp tug a few casts later that my suspicions were confirmed. Once I realized I’d left my Korkers in the car, I walked the bass along the rocks and landed it on the beach. I wasn’t up for doing that all night, so I waded into the surf proper and had at it, casting parallel to beach break and mending my line over the sets. Sure enough, there was a school of two-year olds in close. What they lacked in size they made up for in ferocity. I was fishing a three fly team of a clam worm on top dropper, a small sand eel in the middle, and a Magog Smelt soft hackle on point. They liked the two baitfish flies.
It would have been nice if they were a little bigger, but I hadn’t caught a striped bass in the surf in Rhode Island in years. So these schooligans were a treat.
~
Why I like cheap (but good) cigars for fishing. Known among the cigar cognoscenti as canoeing, this is what happens when the wind is at an unfavorable angle to your stick.
~
A lousy photo of a peanut bunker bait ball. Stripers were darting in and out of its shape-shifting mass, picking off strays at will.
currentseams.com 
Smallies are better than donuts. Nice job as usual.
And I really love donuts….
Stripers in the surf are special!
These sure were. It’s been a while since I caught them at this spot. Like to renew the acquaintance in a few years!
oh to be you I will get to the beach’s of Rhode Island one day Steve but for now your post’s will have to do thanks and I enjoyed it as usual. Who knows maybe this will be there year that I can get to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for some fall fishing haven’t gotten to do that trip since the first child my oldest son was born almost 13 years but I still remember swinging Eel Punts on a floating line for some nice schoolies and looping in some lead core at need catching bass on a rays fly variants in the shadow of Bode Island lighthouse at the same place a man had caught a 35 to 40 pounder earlier in the tide sorry for babbling but those memories still sustain me until I can get to Salt water again. as for now the landlocked stripes and trout smallmouth carp muskie pickerel largemouth bluegill and even catfish will do but the beach will be there the kids are only young once. Thanks again for your writing those email notifications never get deleted. Jeff.
Thanks for reading, Jeff, and thanks for the response. Glad to be of service! 🙂