TheDay, 10/1/05

• It's that time of year when eastern Connecticut fishermen head over to the Rhode Island beaches from Watch Hill to Green Hill to take advantage of the great surf fishing now going on. Del Barber from Westerly caught bass off and on all day on Monday in the white water on the east side of Watch Hill Light on homemade poppers and plastic shads.
• Capt. Don Cameron in Charlestown said he took some time off from the store to fish Quonny Beach yesterday morning for 25 stripers on a red and white Habs pencil popper. When he returned to the shop, he found anglers waiting to weigh in six blues to 13 pounds for the Swamp Yankee Fishing Tournament that runs through until November. Other people found bonito and false albacore on some days in Weekapaug Breachway.
• Stephanie Cramer sent in her weekly e-mail about a co-worker of hers at the Mystic Aquarium doing very well with schoolie stripers at night wading the Rhode Island salt ponds, casting a popper with spinning tackle.
• Al Golinski of Misquamicut fished live bunker in his usual spots between Wicopesset Island and Race Rock over the weekend for a fair catch of stripers to 38 pounds. The sea bassing is good on a lot of the wrecks and rockpiles between Misquamicut and Charlestown.
• Capt. Al Anderson of Snug Harbor observed the offshore fishing isn't the best right now. They picked up some bluefin and a few green bonito at times in the Mud Hole off Block Island but found the place full of dogfish at others. They trolled small lures south of Block one windy day for a mix of skipjacks, green bonito, false albacore and a couple small bluefin. On another trip they ran off for a thresher shark and some blue dogs but no tuna. They did have a white marlin come into the slick in water dropping into the mid-60s but it wasn't interested in any of their baits.
• Don at King Cove reported bass weigh-ins from the reefs and the south side of Fishers Island on the tube and worm before the weather turned windy on Monday. Biggest of the lot was a 51.60-pounder by Armando Simao. Casters in small boats found schoolies and blues off Sandy Point. They also saw schoolie bass chasing bait under clouds of birds in Little Narragansett Bay. Shore anglers caught stripers and blues from the Rhode Island beaches and Stonington Point and the Monsanto jetty.
• Allen at Shaffers in Mystic said one of his regular customers bought some lures for shore fishing in Rhode Island. He went to Watch Hill, managed to break his reel, drove back, bought a new one and drove back to Watch Hill for more casting to stripers chasing schools of 4-6-inch mullet in the white water.
• In other news, Allen said he's seeing the first of the blackfish catches. Jim Sullivan of Mystic had two nice ones at Ellis Reef in bad weather and Larry Troutman and his friend returned over the weekend with a good catch. Fluke fishing is over until next spring. Rental boats still landed large porgies and Greg Jankowksi brought back the biggest striper of the week, 41.8 pounds fooled by an umbrella rig trolled around Catumb Reef on Monday. One fellow, fishing for bonito around Wicopesset, hooked what sounded like a schoolie bluefin. The fish broke his line so came back to Shaffers where he spooled his spinning reel up with 80-pound Power Pro to keep that from happening again.
• Capt. Jack Balint at the Fish Connection noted there are false albacore in the Montauk rips but refuses to take his charters there because of the rude behavior of many of the boats out that way. Instead he's been connecting between the Sluiceway and Watch Hill though the fish are never in the same spot two days in a row. His best lures are a 3 or 4-inch Zoom Super Fluke or No. 6 or No. 7 Swedish Pimple tied direct to either 12 or 15-pound mono. You get hookups with albies this way but also loose a lot of lures to bluefish. On of one trip this week he went through 50 lead heads and plastic baits with two to three people casting.
• Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat had news about working harder for blues in The Race than the past few weeks because of some current problems but overall folks still managed to catch their fill of bluefish and a few bass on the right stage of the tide. They will continue sailing for bluefish until Oct. 30. Big fish of the week was a 16-pound striper by John Lowther of Vernon.
• Capt. Howard Beers at Hillyers Tackle Shop in Waterford reported blue fishing still holding up overall in The Race and best bass catches on live eels after dark but not each and every trip. Some of the guys went through a lot of live eels even at night but returned with only a couple stripers for a full tide. Snappers to 12 inches can be caught around the Niantic Bridge and Jordan Cove. Rob, the false albacore expert at the shop, used his fly rod to catch the speedsters at Pleasure Beach at times and also the West Wall at Point Judith.
• Sherwood Lincoln of East Lyme ran his boat from Port Niantic over to Rhode Island for another good catch of sea bass to 6 pounds and some very large porgies on his pet lumps and wrecks in deeper water. One day he stayed locally in the eastern Sound to land two 40-pound bass on live bait on a deep hump off Black Point but could NOT get a single sea bass off four deep-water rockpiles.
• River's End Tackle said to look for false albacore in the Sluiceway on the ebb tide or around Plum Gut. The fish are usually in one of the two places. Black fishing is just fair and will get better as water temps drop further. Small boaters found blues and bass on top at times around the mouth of the Connecticut River and shore anglers landed smaller bass at Saybrook Point with chunks of frozen bait on the bottom.