In the days before printed fishing reports, fishermen relied on natural cues to tell them when certain species were in season. While today’s anglers are more likely to rely on online reports to let them know the fish have arrived, these old-time cues remain surprisingly accurate.
Region: Massachusetts
The appearance of the year’s first dandelions coincides with the return of the tautog from its deep-water wintering grounds to the bays and nearshore waters of New England. Dandelions are usually first spotted in the middle of April.
Region: Delaware Bay
“When the dogwoods bloom, the drum go boom,” goes the saying. Dogwoods are small trees that grow in well-drained, sandy soil. In April, they bloom four-petaled white (and sometimes pink) flowers, right around the same time black drum arrive in Delaware Bay to feed and spawn.
Regions: Delaware River, Hudson River, Connecticut River
The appearance of the white flower clusters on the shadbush happens in the early spring, right around the time that American shad are returning to the rivers to spawn. You can find shadbush in wet areas such as swamps and forested wetlands. It has rounded, elongated leaves with fine teeth along the edges, and the white, five-petaled flowers bloom from late March to early May, before the leaves grow back.
Region: Southern New England
When the apples grow heavy in the early fall, that’s when false albacore swarm the New England coast, earning albies their seldom-used nickname, “apple knockers.”
In the spring when the Forsythia bloom, the Striped Bass return to New England waters.
Lilacs=Stripers
ive had some dandelions in my lawn all winter long this year on the south shore of MA.
hope you went tog fishing.
Pros and cons on installing your own studs on the waiter boots V korkers
New Jersey ” When the forsythia bloom, the stiped bass loom.”