There was an early and frigid start to the fairly cold winter of 2005 which was followed by a cold lingering spring, that wiped out most of our local blue crab population for the fourth year in a row.
All spring, the nights were cold and days often brought high, cooling winds and frequent rains. Water temperatures didn't break 50 degrees in the Sound until well into June and it was still only 56 to 59 degrees on June 25. Then the conditions went from being unseasonably wet and cool to being unseasonably hot and dry July through September.
The striped bass came in pretty much on schedule but cold temps and a lack of bait in some areas made fishing difficult early in the season. The worm spawns at Ninigret Salt Pond in Charleston, R. I., were all out of kilter due to the weather and never shaped up very well during May.
Fluke fishing was the worst in years according to many hardcore "fluke meisters" from the area. Cold weather, lack of bait and possibly excessive harvest by the commercial sector were most likely to blame.
Both fluke and the early summer run of jumbo stripers were three weeks or so later than previous few years due primarily to cool water temps. However, when they first showed up, there were more reports of 10-pound doormat fluke and 50-pound or better stripers than I've ever heard of in 33 years of writing this column and 30-pound stripers were common all season long. [by Bob Sampson Jr.]
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