Saturday morning I had a striper fishing trip on the lower Saint George River in the morning. I have had fish chasing bait to the surface in several places over the last week and Saturday when I pulled up to one of the most likely spot there were two adult eagles sitting in an oak tree. I had seen them the day before, in fact they were right in amongst the gulls working on the bait that the stripers were chasing to the surface. A great addition to any fishing trip but a real treat on the salt water.
The weather has gone from unbearably hot to the most pleasant cool summer days anyone could ask for. The sandpipers have started to gather for their migration on the local mud flats and last week I noticed flocks of cormorants and geese headed south. Over the next few weeks an amazing number of shore birds will gather on the local flats. The young terns are also in the river with their parents eagerly learning how to fish. You can always tell the young ones because they will readily follow a lure or fly.
The fall run of stripers is shaping up to be a good one. I have noticed huge schools of immature alewives while fishing and canoeing in Round Pond and there are a good number of stripers in the tidal section of the river. As the alewives begin to drop out of the river they should meet the stripers for a frenzied time of feeding in September and early October. Of course one can never really predict what will happen in the outdoors but all of the signs are there.
