'Core On A Curve: Grading Rhody’s Albie Season - The Fisherman

‘Core On A Curve: Grading Rhody’s Albie Season

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The 2022 albie season favored the shore anglers in Rhode Island. Louis Schlaker photo.

How does the 2022 albie run measure up to those of the last 20 years?

Nothing tames the creeping tendrils of doubt like bald-faced consistency. Early on the morning of September 8th, consistency in my albie hunt, bald-faced or otherwise, was in short supply. In the weeks prior, I had seen one fish caught. I myself had a few curt tugs on my fly line. Some were followed by a green and silver flash peeling away beneath the surface, sublimating into the haze of the depths as suddenly as it came. Faint signs of fish, but no fish caught. Amidst the expletives and false casts, came the doubts. “Did that really just happen?” “Is that really what I saw?” “Do I still know how to do this?”

So it goes early in the albie season, and so it went the morning of the eighth as I dragged those doubts on the jetty behind me like a string of tin cans who’s clanging only I could hear. Once situated on my rock, the rhythm of the double haul was fishing tai chi, quashing the chorus of doubts and laying them as flat as the greasy calm sea before me.

Slack high loosened its fist, giving way to the early ebb, and with it came the albies, not a ton, but pods thick enough and eager enough to render an air of optimism. Too preoccupied with the fish porpoising at a distance, I damn near missed the fish breaking near the end of my line. Smart hands made up for an absent mind as they held fast against the strike. The line fled through fingers pursed and hopeful before forging a connection between fish and reel. At that union came a rather vocal disagreement between my Galvan’s drag and the albacore’s tail about which direction the fish was headed. The reel proved persuasive, and the albie came my way. When the fish came to be leadered, it was bouncing and sprightful, but obedient, like some yappy little thing taking a lap at the Westminster Dog Show. The doubts of earlier that morning would be the last for some time, as this albie would prove to be the first of many amidst the very steady action in the satisfying weeks to come.

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While the boaters certainly got their fill, 2022 lacked the massive open water feeds often seen during the very best seasons. Max Finch photo.

Judge & Jury

With or without the fish, 2022 would have proved a special year for me albie-wise as it marks 20 years of me chasing these stupid fish, mostly from the terra firma of Rhode Island’s coast. Twenty years is long enough to know that no two albie seasons are identical, just as no two albie fisheries are identical. Long Island Sound, Block Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island Sound, Buzzard’s Bay, Cape Cod, and The Islands, covers a vast area of water whose diversity can hardly be fathomed. To summarize a season for that area is difficult. To grade it on quality, even harder, so let’s focus it down to the waters of the smallest state in the union.

To judge the quality of fishing is inherently subjective. How long you’ve been albie fishing and the type of albie fishing that you do invariably shapes your perception of how good or bad it was. We fishermen are also a sensationalistic bunch who are both excited and discouraged with equal ease, and our fishing is often either terrible or fantastic in the moment. Time only serves to further erode any backbone our perception may have. However, if we can settle on a handful of variables, we can make a criteria (abundance, accessibility and cooperation) that we can hold up to the fishing and try to achieve a more objective view on how the season went. It will also slightly reduce the odds of me being called “the moron who badmouthed the best albie season ever” the next time my name is recognized in the tackle shop. Without further ado, we have:

Theoretically, abundance is the lynchpin variable, as the more albies there are, the more they’ll fill in geographically, and the more cooperative they’ll be due to both the simple fact of better odds as well as competition among fish, as competitive fish are aggressive fish. And generally speaking, this is what was seen in 2022. However, the interplay between all three is complicated as in the real world, bait concentrations, angling pressure, atmospheric and sea conditions all play their role too. As such, these all deserve a closer look before the red pen makes its mark on albie season 2022.

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The author battles one of the 41 albies he landed on the fly from the rocky shorelines of Rhode Island in 2022.

Abundance & Accessibility

Taken as a whole, there were a lot of fish inshore this year. For sheer numbers, the Cape and the Islands were arguably number one again as the reported size of the feeds greatly eclipsed what I saw in Rhode Island. The fish made a very respectable showing here however, and 2022 was a vastly superior season in comparison to 2021 for the smallest state. Long Island Sound also had fish in relatively high abundance. The notable thin spot in this otherwise dense showing of fish was central Buzzards Bay. The albies were there, but it was often frustrating whack-a-mole style fishing, chasing down small pods of three to four fish.

From what I heard on the Cape, both boaters and shore fishermen had their shots at fish, but boaters had the edge of greater access. But, as it so often goes, those that put in the most time reaped the best rewards, longtime Red Top employee said of the 2022 season, “For me, it was the best season I’ve ever had chasing albies from the shores of Nantucket Sound.” Rhode Island’s albies favored the shore angler, which overall is not especially atypical for those waters. The reason 2022’s albies seemed to favor the surfcaster is Rhody’s notorious rocks. Rocks hold bait, bait brings fish, and these rocks were awash in what some days was essentially silverside soup, drawing the fish in exceptionally close to shore. But with that said, most boat and kayak anglers fishing Ocean State waters reported solid results. Hardcore angler Todd Treonze said of the 2022 season in Rhode Island, “I would rate the 2022 season a 7.5/10. The early push around Point Judith was reminiscent of North Carolina albie fishing, with acres of fish for shore and boat anglers alike. After that week, things cooled considerably and never achieved the frenzy of that early push again.”

In terms of arrival, the Cape led the charge as it often does with albies showing the second week of August or so with solidly targetable numbers by the third week. This made for an excruciating waiting game in Rhode Island whose season started with a trickle rather than a flood. Oddly too, the earliest fish were brutes (10 pounds and over), matching the size of the fish that dominated the Cape fishery, but were replaced by much smaller fish (3 to 4 pounds) as the action steadied. Larger albies wouldn’t be readily encountered again until the season began to wind down. And it is here, in the wind down phase, where things get wild. I’m currently writing this in the third week of November, and the season is still not quite over. Both Cape and Connecticut waters have seen what amounted to albie armadas in recent weeks, hundreds of fish feeding with a vengeance. Here in Rhode Island, errant pods are still popping up in the waters around Brenton Reef. It snowed two days ago and my back yard is hopping with dark-eyed juncos. Strange times we live in.

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During the second half of September shore anglers were treated to an intense ‘blind bite’ which gave up some great catches for those who were lucky enough to be there. Chris Lawton photo.

Cooperation

If you have hundreds of fish in front of you, but you can’t get them to bite, did you really have good fishing? The answer is a frustrating, “No.” Rhode Island arguably had fewer fish present than the Cape did, but the fish were among the least selective albies ever to grace these waters. Fly or lure, if you could get one of the typical offerings out there, you stood a very good chance of catching. This was particularly true of the “blind bite” that developed around mid-September. Rhody’s issue though was that its bite lacked momentum. The fishing repeatedly would build to a fever pitch only to be snuffed out by a stiff blow and dirty water, having to be rebuilt all over. This has been the state’s albie hindrance over the past eight years or so. The water, especially along the south shore, dirties far more easily than it once did. Whatever the reason, it’s become a variable to deal with each year.

In 2021, the albies were inconsistent in a geographical sense; some areas hosted a bounty of fish, while several others experienced a total dearth; 2022 had its feasts and famines as well, but they were largely of time rather than of space. Those that hit the fishing just right certainly had a different take than those who didn’t. An apt characterization of this past season is that there were grade “A” days, but really not enough of them to string together a grade “A” season.

However, I am and forever will be, of the mentality that any day you manage to catch one albie, is a good day. Therefore, “A” days of fantastic fishing are something to be particularly grateful for and their presence in a season invariably elevates its overall standing. Crunching on all of this, I would grade albie season 2022 a “B.” The fish overall made a solid showing with some incredible action to be found over a four month period. But taken as a whole, it was “typical” albie fishing: manically fast action nestled amidst ample servings of frustration. 2022 was decidedly better than average, but not necessarily one for the books. I had 41 fish on the fly rod, five on spinning gear, all from shore, so I ain’t crying by any means and I’m certainly not looking this gift horse in the mouth. I am trying to be objective, but objectivity’s weight need not crush gratitude or a sense of fun.

The essence of fishing is in the hunt, the hoping, and being there. No number or arbitrary metric can capture that. Albie season is short, so it’s distilled down into something bittersweet. If we caught them non-stop for nine months the whole thing would lose its magic. So I don’t care if it’s an “A” season, “B” season, or “C” season, I just can’t wait until next season. Happy hunting.

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