Where's the bite?

Freshwater fishing has slowed only because many anglers are still targeting saltwater fish. That will likely change this week with Rhode Island stocking area ponds with trout (see above). Those that have been fishing are doing well, particularly with largemouth bass. Angler John Migliori said, “I fished one of my favorite ponds on Aquidneck Island and landed a nice largemouth bass on a new spinner lure I had just purchased. By the way, I changed the hooks out for large, stronger hooks which I do with all fresh and saltwater lures.” John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle, Riverside said, “Freshwater fishing will improve this week because anglers will want to take advantage of the Rhode Island DEM trout stocking. Up until now most anglers seem to be focusing on the outstanding saltwater fishing we have been having.”

Striped bass, bluefish and false albacore. “False albacore left the upper reaches of Narragansett Bay and the Providence River but anglers are doing well with bluefish of all sizes at places like Barrington Beach and striped bass, school size fish, have been around just about everywhere. One customer has been catching keepers at night in the Warren River using eels.” Benjamin Cray reports on the RISAA blog that this weekend “all the bass you could catch were around the corner behind PJ lighthouse. Cocahoe minnow, every cast. We found and scored with some feisty albies scattered about 2 miles out from Scarborough beach. And one hit a Cocahoe. Tough though for the albies, they would pop up, then quickly disappear.” Lee Pepin said, “Went Saturday afternoon about 4 to 6:30 and today 6 to 9 a.m. Lots of bass 20” to 27” maybe a keeper here and there from Aunt Carries to Scarborough white slugos worked well.” Angler Roger Lema of Narragansett said, “Inside the Harbor of Refuge were all the school bass you want from 18” to 28]”. We caught over 100 fish casting a Cocahoe minnow.” It was a mixed bag in the West Passage from Quonset Pont to Beavertail anglers where hooking up with false albacore, bluefish and school bass with an occasional keeper mixed in all last week before the bad weather.

Tautog fishing continues to be slow in low water. Littlefield said, “Customers are catching a lot of short tautog from Conimicut Point and north up the River.” Off Newport we had a slow pick early this week but did manage five nice keepers to 23” south of Seal Ledge. The bite was soft for this time of year, accept for the 23” fish which took half of a green crab on a light green tautog jig. Angler Steve Brustein said, “The tautog hit and I said I am going to need the net.” The fish had two good runs before it was boated as it took a bit to get it up out of 60 feet of water. Capt. Frank Blount of the Frances Fleet said, “There has been some reports around of fish showing up and it is only going to get better with the temperatures dropping.”

Offshore. Capt. Frank Blount of the Frances Fleet said, “Cod fishing has been plagued by scup and sea bass. It is a blessing and a curse at the same time. You set up on a spot pick some nice cod and then all of a sudden its double header scup. Anglers who have wanted scup have had no problem limiting out. Sea bass limits have been the norm as well with knob heads to 6 pounds. Biggest cod of the week was around 20 pounds. Last weekend’s tuna trip was nothing short of amazing. We left super early to take the long ride but it paid off. We picked a few fish on the troll but once we set the hook for the night, there was 6 fish on. We picked away a fish here and there all night but around 5am it was like a bomb went off. We boated 32 yellowfin in an hour. Jigs were the way to go with high hooks have 7 and 6 fish. There were all sizes from 28" to 75 pounds. It was something that was just short of amazing. We also went 1-4 on swords on the night with losing a fish over 200 pounds boat side due to a tangle.”

Dave Monti holds a captain’s master license and a charter fishing license. He is a RISAA board member, a member of the RI Party & Charter Boat Association, the American Saltwater Guides Association and the RI Marine Fisheries Council. Forward fishing news and photos to Capt. Dave at dmontifish@verizon.net or visit www.noflukefishing.com and his blog at www.noflukefishing.blogspot.com.