Tautog fishing on fire; Cape Cod Canal striper fishing still hot

Connor Swartz of Red Top Sporting Goods, Buzzard’s Bay, said, “We continue to have great top water action with a lot of bait still in the water with a great striped bass bite from slot sized fish 28”<31” to 38 to 40 pound fish. So fishing is pretty good. Anglers are also catching bonito in great abundance.”

“Bait is still holding in the Canal. A healthy 39-inch bass exploded on Slap Shot Scottie Ewells green left hook, just one of many nice fish caught on the surface,” said East End Eddie Doherty, expert Canal angler and author. “Multi colored lures did the trick at various levels of the water column. Bruno DeSouza caught 5 bass including a 33-inch fighter with an Al Gags wacky mack soft plastic paddle tail jig on the west ebb tide. Six year old Sage Nicholson had her wacky mack FishLab working as she reeled in 39 & 34 inch linesiders from a rising east tide.”

Fly fishing clinic for women

The Rhode Island Chapter of Trout Unlimited, in conjunction with the South Kingstown Land Trust, will conduct a Fly Fishing Clinic for Women on Saturday, Oct. 19 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the South Kingstown Land Trust Barn, 17 Matunuck Beach Road, Wakefield.
Sheila Hassan of Cast90, a Fly Fishers International Master Casting Instructor, will lead the Clinic. Key Clinic instruction components include an overview of fly fishing rods, reels and lines; essential fly fishing knots and terminology; how to make a roll cast and basic cast; as well as false casting and shooting line.

The $25 program cost includes lunch. Register by October 16; the clinic is limited to twenty women. Register at https://secure.etransfer.com/RICTU/WomensClinic.cfm or email Susan Estabrook at susan@ysrinc.com and please put “women’s clinic” in subject line.

Waterways stocked with trout

The states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have been busy for the past couple of weeks stocking ponds with trout for fall fishing.
Stocking locations in Massachusetts are updated daily, visit Trout stocking report at Mass.gov for an interactive map. Click any point on the map for more information and do not forget your fishing license, which you can buy online at MassFishHunt.

In Rhode Island the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is conducting fall trout stocking in advance of the Columbus Day holiday weekend, in selected areas. Visit www.dem.ri.gov/fishing, or call 401-789-0281 or 401-539-0019 for additional information.
The largemouth bass bite has been outstanding this week too. Jeff Sullivan of Lucky Bait & Tackle, Warren, said, “Monday I caught fish after fish in the 4 to 6 pound range. The largemouth were holding in areas where they traditionally stage at the start of Fall.”

Where’s the bite?

Striped bass, bluefish, bonito:
“We saw a bit uptick in the amount of school and keeper bass in Apponaug Cove and Greenwich Bay this past week with larger fish being caught off Newport and in the East Passage,” said Tom Olson of Ponaug Bait & Tackle, Warwick. Declan O’Donnell of Breachway Bait & Tackle, Charlestown, said, “This time of year I tell the blitz hunters that stripers will feed during the middle of the day when there is an abundance of bait so fish for them then. Otherwise, striped bass do most of their feeding during and between dawn and dusk. In general shoreline stripers are nocturnal feeders. I am saying this because blitz fishing off the beaches has been slow this week. We still have time and a lot more fish need to move through our area, so don't stop looking. If you are fishing the beach during the day fish rock structure and sand structure. Look for the beach lip, sandbars, cuts and troughs.” Jeff Sullivan, expert angler and associate a Lucky’s Bait & Tackle, Warren, said, “We set out to tautog fish Sunday but were soon distracted by thick schools of large bonito. We fished most of the morning from the Sakonnet to Newport. Most fish were caught with SP Minnows. The epoxy jigs were actually spooking them when they hit the water.

Cod fishing:
Cod fishing off Rhode Island has been hit or miss. Some days fishing is good at East Grounds off Block Island and at Cox Ledge or Sharks Ledge and other days it is off. Rich Hittinger, angler and 1st Vice President of the RI Saltwater Anglers Association said, “The cod fishing was great yesterday (Saturday) on the RISAA trip out of Hyannis. The trip was with the Helen H and was actually on the Capt. John which they now own. We had a mix of experienced party boat cod fishermen and some novices. We had great weather with very little wind and some ground swell that was no problem. We were fishing somewhere east of Monomoy Point near the shipping lanes and the area was no secret because there were dozens of other boats fishing the same general area. We caught many cod with most anglers getting at least 3 (limit in that water is 5 per angler at 23” minimum). We also caught many pollack and haddock. I caught 4 nice cod with 2 right around 12 pounds. The pool contenders were both at 20 pounds.”

Fluke (summer flounder), black sea bass, scup and cod:
The black sea bass bite is still good however, the summer flounder (fluke) bite has faded.

Tautog:
“Tautog fishing has been on fire. With customers easily catching their limit and having fun pulling up by catch. Many reports of guys catching Weakfish, stripers, and even fluke on crab. I've also heard some reports of decent fluke fishing. “It appears a lot are heading out of the bay and are staging up putting on a good feed before heading into deeper water,” said Declan O’Donnell of Breachway Bait & Tackle. Tom Olson of Ponaug Bait & Tackle said, “Tautog fishing exploded this week with customers catching their limit of three fish with the General Rock and Hope Island North Kingstown areas working well for anglers.” Connor Swartz of Red Top Sporting Goods said, “The tautog bite in Buzzard’s Bay is hot with fish being taken at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal too.” I fished the General Rock, North Kingstown area Friday and caught an eight pound tautog and two other keepers in about two hours of fishing. I intentionally monitored the Revolution Wind cable installation barge and its safety vessels on channel 16, there was no activity in the area on this day. “Tautog fishing was actually better in the Bay than out in front of Newport this past week as more bait now seems to be holding in the Bay,” said Jeff Sullivan of Lucky Bait.

Tuna:
Declan O’Donnell of Breachway Bait & Tackle said, “Tuna bite remains good with some fish still around the Gully and some giants in local waters and off Block Island. Bait on the bottom or chunking seems to be getting it done.”

Dave Monti holds a master captain’s license and charter fishing license. He serves on a variety of boards and commissions and has a consulting business focusing on clean oceans, habitat preservation, conservation, renewable energy, and fisheries related issues and clients. Forward fishing news and photos to dmontifish@verison.net or visit www.noflukefishing.com.