WESTERLY
Jim Gray at Gray’s Boatyard said the good fluking continued last week in the 45-55-foot depthas outside the A-frame cottage at Weekapaug. A growing fleet of skiffs has been working off Misquamicut search of keeper fluke, and reporting mixed results anywhere from the Pink House to the Carousel. Twenty-one-inch keepers are proving elusive for some, plentiful for others. The trick is that the guys trying to cull through small fish are struggling, while the guys remaining mobile, searching out bodies of bigger stuff to work on are faring much better. Bass results are fait at Watch Hill Reef, Sugar and Catumb, with the best results going to those soaking live or dead bunker on night tides. I’ve heard quiet rumors of several fish in the 50-pound class from the Reefs, and believe what I’ve heard.
Mike at Watch Hill Outfitters said the fluking is either very good or very frustrating, depending on who and where you are. There are lots of shorts for the catching, particularly if you set up in a pile of shorts and keep hammering them drift after drift. Guys are catching keepers as shallow as 30 feet and as deep as 70, and the best catches are going to those who keep looking when they land on a pile of rats. The scup fishing was tough from shore, but the boat guys working the hard pieces from Quonny west are finding porgies aplenty. A couple guys had larger stripers live-lining scup in Wicopesset Pass—the deeper water—and other guys had success fishing live and dead bunker at Catumb and Sugar Reef on hard-running night tides.
SNUG HARBOR
Joe Mollica at Snug Harbor Marine Service said the weather once again put a hurt on fishing effort last week. Some brave souls ventured out anyway, keeping a very sharp weather eye; many of these same brave souls had hair-raising sprints back to the barn with squalls and lightning hot on their tails. The fluking remains fairly good for the guys using some creativity, fishing in smaller crowds and tougher places. Sea bass are filling in on the lanes of broken bottom, spicing up the fluke catch. Best report for the week came from none other than Matt Squalante, a veteran surfman who built quite a reputation during the heyday of surfcasting for sticking huge bass from the churning waters on the south side of Gooseberry Island in Westport, MA. Joe remembers seeing him literally pulled off a rock in the deep of night by a cow bass that had taken down his outsized pencil popper. At any rate, for old time’s sake, Squalante headed down the bend in the East Wall, where the stones hook away to the southwest, and cast a classic blue/white Atom Swimmer into the rip that forms there on running tides. It’s a classic Narragansett surf fishing scenario: swimmers at the east wall in the deep night—right out of the cow-bass playbook. After some time, he hooked into a sizeable fish, fought it for a few minutes, and eventually brought her to the edge of the wall. Looking down at the 15 feet separating him from his fish, he noted how much shorter that distance had looked in his younger years. After some consideration, he accepted defeat and lost the fish, rather than attempting the perilous climb down. It’s the mark of the seasoned surfcaster to know when he’s licked, to know from intimate experience that no fish is worth his life. The Limas managed quite a few schoolies on the PJ side of the lower Pond on fly gear, plus some keeper fluke, some more schoolies up inside Potters, and some fluke and sea bass out front through the week. Shad have appeared off the pier in Jerusalem, adding another species to the LT surfcasting line-up, and another prime bait to the live-bait menu for the big-bass specialists working over at the Island.
Matt at Snug Harbor Marina said Giselle Golembeski took the lead in the month-long Snug Harbor fluke tournament, weighing in a fine 8.5-pounder on Sunday morning. There are more and more sea bass on the tougher bottom anywhere from Scarborough around to Nebraska Shoal., and the fluking remains strong for the folks using their noggins to find better big-fish drifts. The south shore striper activity lit up on Friday when a good heave put them on a feed; Matt himself took a nice 25-pounder swimming a live jumbo scup on a swmall boulder pile not far from the wash somewhere between Matunuck and Charlestown. Don Smith weighed in a 51-pounder from the SW Corner late-week, and Jack Linton took a 53 fishing live eels over in that same vicinity. That game is influenced heavily by the record-breaking biomass of dogfish: guys who are succeeding are getting their biggest and their most fish during peak tidal flows.
Capt. Al Anderson on the Prowler fished Tuesday with the Brian Taft party over at the north rip, where they found quite a few bass working topside on the inner Bar. The group struggled to get a line all the way out before a fish could climb on, and they wound up the morning with a total tally of 40 bass, four of which were kept, 36 of which were tagged for the ALS. The party finished up their day drift6ing out in front of the Center Wall, taking a mix of keeper and short fluke and sea bass. Friday morning was a trip offshore with the Vincent Grimaldi party; the details of that report are in this week’s offshore report.
POINT JUDITH
Capt. Frank Blount of the Frances Fleet sent along the following e-mail report Sunday afternoon: “The Striped Bass fishing broke wide open late this past week. Capt. Ray said the action was wild with rods doubled over on big stripers drift after drift. On both Thursday and Friday nights, most customers limited out and some caught as many as 7 or 8 big bass apiece, retaining only their limit of course. Many anglers thought catch and release was just as much fun and a few anglers chose to do only catch and release. Both nights had several fish each night in the 30’s battling it out for the pool. Bass in the 20-pound range were commonplace and between the two nights only two short bass were caught and released. Just a few bluefish and hardly a single dogfish, except early on Friday evening before the tide got moving. We look forward to a summer of this good fishing for this hard fighting salt water game fish. Bass fishing has now expanded to a four day per week sailing schedule sailing Wednesday through Saturday nights at 7 p.m. by reservation. The other big story this was the excellent run of Jumbo Fluke. The 7 am boat had nearly a boat limit on Thursday this past week. All other trips were very good as well with limits of big fluke not at all uncommon. Lots of big fluke coming to the net with fish in the 5- to 7-pound range commonplace, and the pool winners in the 8- to 9-pound range most days. A nice mix of sea bass to 4 pounds on most outings as well. Viper spoons tipped with whole squid, Spro jig combos, and whole squid or whole tinker mackerel were the hot producers. The 8 a.m. full day fluke boat continued its run of red hot action with fluke flying over the rails all day long keeping anglers very busy, on some days quite a few of them went right back over the rails. Nevertheless a respectable number of jumbo fluke to 9 went into anglers’ coolers and bags and there were some limit catches as well during the past week. For example Steve from Tampa Florida up here on vacation was limited out on doormat fluke to 9 pounds by 11 a.m. on Wednesday’s run. Still some great numbers of sea bass, too. Tese sea bass have all been taken on the open bottom on fluke rigs while drifting for fluke. The amount of squid in residence along the beach is rather mind blowing. Some excellent fishing on the Half day trips as well this past week. Quite a few sea bass as well on these trips with one angler getting 10 keeper sea bass on a recent outing on only a half-day. Biggest sea bass was 5 pounds for the half day this past week. Blue fishing will begin this coming Friday Night, leaving at 7pm both Friday and Saturday Nights through the end of August. Due to the enormous amount of squid still along Rhode Island’s south shore beaches we would like to put together a squid/finfish combo trip on Saturday Night July 18th leaving at 7 p.m. and returning at 1 a.m. This trip will require reservations. Check our frequently updated web site for the latest fishing reports and sailing schedule at www.francesfleet.com.”
Capt. Russ Benn on the Seven B’s V had a busy week on the fluke and striper grounds. Half-day trips, now sailing daily, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., showed some signs of promise; naturally, the quality of any given day’s fishing had everything to do with drift conditions. Pool fish have averaged anywhere from 6 to 9 pounds on most trips. Big news last week was the continued excellent striped bass fishing over at the Island. Though Wednesday night’s trip was scrubbed due to iffy weather and light reservations, Friday night’s run found absolute lock-and-load action at the north end, with a full boat limit for the 20-plus person group, and some legal-sized throwbacks. Pool fish for the evening was a fat, well-built 32-pounder, and there were quite a few fish in the 20-pound class. Capt. Benn was preparing to depart again Sunday evening when I talked to him. Striper trips sail by reservation only, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Call the office for details.
Capt. Fred Gallagher on the Kerritim managed only one trip last week, that run on Thursday with the trio of Sean Devault, Mark Lowney and Steve Taksar. They managed a limit of fat stripers trolling frames out toward the three-mile line at Block Island’s SW Corner. Capt. Fred is excited that the weather has finally turned a corner, and he still has plenty of free days; call now while the fishing is still red-hot.
Capt. Andre’ Ledoux on the Sea Donkey logged two days of quality fluking over at Sakonnet over the weekend. Saturday saw good drift conditions and a near-limit of slabs to 6.5 pounds for Paul Willis and friends. Sunday’s tougher drift conditions made it a tougher go, but Ledoux and some buddies still put together a good tally of keeper fluke for the freezer.
Capt. Duane Sousa on the Big Boy II sent along the following e-mail Sunday afternoon: “We started off the week on Sunday, June 28 offshore at the 40-Fathom line looking for Tuna and Shark. Our crew, including Dan Palladino and friends, left Galilee at 5 a.m. and headed out to Block to round up some live blues for hook baits. Blue Sharks were everywhere. We finished up the day back at the Island, loading the boat with keeper Stripers. From Monday June 29 to Thursday, July 2 we fished with our friend Bruce Raiffe and his son Dusty from NJ. Over those four days, they hauled up a variety of species, from stripers and blues, to fluke, scup and sea bass. July fourth was a half day trip with Mike Cutting and his family; that trip saw a handful of keeper bass land in the cockpit before they pulled the plug and headed to an afternoon cookout.”
Capt. John Rainone on the L’il Toot did battle with his engine early last week, then managed a couple outings between stretches of downright horrendous weather. Thursday, Tony D’Errico and gang trolled frames over at the Island for a mix of keeper and throwback bass and some blues on a short trip. Friday, Rob Douglas and crew tallied some good bass over at the Island before heading back to the beach to tangle with a mix of cellar dwellers—mainly fluke and sea bass.
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