No Fluke

Block Island Tournament grows with partner tackle shops

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“The Block Island Inshore Fishing Tournament doubled the number of participants with tackle shop partners last year and added a fly fishing shore and boat division,” said Capt. Chris Willi of Block Island Fish Works, a bait & tackle shop/charter fishing business on Block Island.

This year the Tournament starts Saturday, July 22, at 5:30 a.m. and ends Sunday, July 23, at noon.  There will be an ‘After Party’ at Capt. Nick’s Rock & Roll Bar, Block Island on Sunday, July 23, from 2 to 4 p.m. with a brief Tournament awards ceremony.

“This is a length only (catch & release optional) Tournament. When registering, online participants download our Tournament app on their smartphone. When they want to make a Tournament entry they take a photo of their catch up against the Tournament supplied ruler and send their entry into the Tournament electronically,” said Capt. Willi.

Where’s the bite

Striped bass and bluefish: Fishing for striped bass and bluefish in Narragansett Bay has been very good but often times anglers are having to hunt for them. Tim Rounds of Idaho caught a 38” striped bass last week just off Popasquash Point, Bristol.

On Tuesday, we caught keeper bass (28” to less than 31”) and large bluefish north of Conimicut Point using light tackle with tube & worm with Bob Donald of North Kingstown catching bass to 33” Thursday.

Dave Henault of Ocean State Bait & Tackle said, “The striped bass and bluefish bite continues to be great north of Conimicut Light, all the way up to Providence, as this past week there has been an influx of pogies.”

“I landed nine very nice size striped bass at Narrow River last week and dropped three others. Most of the bass were in the 18” to 20” range. Four bass on my hot pink fly and then changed to my brown one the rest of the time,” said Ed Lombardo, fly fishing expert and guide.

Mike Swain of Coventry, a large bass fishing expert, said, “We caught our largest bass of the season this weekend live lining a pogie in the upper reaches of the Providence River. The striped bass was 30 pounds.”

East End Eddie Doherty, Cape Cod Canal fishing expert and author said, “There was a four-hour bite west of the Bourne Bridge that produced eight striped bass last week for Blackstone’s Mike Deryck, two in the mid-20-pound range and one that was well over 30, all on a large Green Mac Savage.”

Declan O’Donnell of Breachway Bait & Tackle, Charlestown said, “The bass bite out front around the island and up in the bay has been great this past week, with some aggressive surface feeding going on at times. The bass are chasing sand eels, bunker, and squid. There has also been good action for bass back in the salt ponds, and there has been a few small hatches this week. Bass in the salt ponds have been pretty finicky, but customers are still able to get some by switching to smaller profile baits or throwing eels in the evening. There are still some big bluefish around, especially around Point Judith and the Breachways.”

Scup, black sea bass and summer flounder

Angler Dariusz Kolodziejczak said, “Last week outside the center wall of Point Judith I caught a 10.17-pound summer flounder (fluke). The big fluke hit my buck tail tipped with gulp.”

“Fluke fishing is hit or miss, but definitely picking up. Some anglers doing very well and others still struggling to find the fish. The best reports for fluke seem to be coming from 40-plus feet of water. Scup are starting to show up in better numbers and there were reports of a few black sea bass caught last week,” said Declan O’Donnell of Breachway Bait & Tackle.

Neil Hayes of Quaker Lane said, “Anglers are starting to catch scup, keeper black sea bass and the fluke bite continues to improve both in the Bay particularly around the bridges, in front of Wickford and off our coastal shores.”

Dave Monti holds a captain’s master license and charter fishing license. Forward fishing news and photos to dmontifish@verizon.net or visit www.noflukefishing.com.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.