TheDay 10/28/05

1. In between storms, black fishing is quite good on most of the local rockpiles. Within the last week, Richard at Hillyers Tackle in Waterford weighed in a 13.7-pounder along with one a little over 10 pounds and a couple of eights.
2. Two customers came back to say they culled their limits from a catch of 40 fish and two more had the same tale from a total of 26 fish. They were caught from a variety of spots like the Bartlett's Spindle, Goshen Reefs and the ledge on the east side of Millstone outflow.
3. Dave Motherway of Stonington said he dropped his daughter's boat off for servicing at Boats Inc. on a day they had a blackfish tournament going on. He saw lots of large fish on the scales, a couple of them over 12 pounds.
4. Al Golinski got out on Monday before the wind started blowing for some large porgies on the rocks off Charlestown then some jumbo blues on the Watch Hill reefs. He marked some stripers in his bass holes but they didn't seem interested even in live bait dangled in front of their noses. He saw four boats all the way from Montauk anchored just off the beach at Weekapaug on his way east in the morning, presumably catching tautog.
5. Capt. Don's in Charlestown reported the surf fishing is still very slow with a small number of blues and bass caught between here and Watch Hill. Lou Blanchard had a 21-pounder on a pencil popper Monday evening along the west part of Weekapaug Beach, the same spot where Del Barber of Westerly had some blues and schoolies at sunrise the same day. Black fishing is shaping up very well on the days the wind lays down enough for small boats to get out.
6. Capt. Al Anderson of Snug Harbor got out last weekend for a total of 80 bass and blues on both Saturday and Sunday trolling wire line with jigs or tubes on the shallow part of the North Rip. The bass ranged from shorts to keepers and blues from 3 to 7 pounds, all on the early morning ebb tide in water that's dropped to 61 degrees since last report. Later on Saturday they towed three stranded people in a 17-foot ski boat off Clay Head, motor dead, winds blowing 15 to 20 from the northeast. On the tow back to Point Judith the seas were so bad the three had to continually bail the small boat to keep it from filling with water.
7. Shaffers in Mystic weighed a 59-pound striper caught last Friday early in the morning on a live eel on the backside of Fishers Island. On the nicer days people are buying lots of eels to catch bass at various spots around Fishers. Black fishing was good last weekend and on Wednesday the cove by the marina was full of hickory shad, the second time this fall that happened after heavy rain stopped and front passed through.
8. Joe Balint was handling the duties at the Fish Connection when I called. He said you can get schoolies from shore along the Thames River. The runoff from the last storm chased a school of blues to about 7 pounds down river from their former positions around Lehigh Oil and Trading Cove. Look for schoolie bass and a couple blues early in the day from Ocean Beach to Avery Point. A school of false albacore pushed inside Pine Island one day then departed just as quick. Dennis from the shop caught only short blackfish at Latimers on his last day off but observed other boats nearby with keepers.
9. Stephanie Cramer had another tag returned from a striper she tagged in the Thames River on April 28. It was recovered on May 25 from the Westport River in Massachusetts — in an osprey nest. How I wonder did that tag get there? Did the osprey eat a small bass and leave the tag?
10. Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat said they fished five of seven days last week and found the blue fishing in The Race “phenomenal.” Blues were going nuts chasing both butterfish and anchovies, all in constant frenzy.
11. The slower bass hit just around the change of the tide about the only time the blues seemed to ease off. They even caught a false albacore on a bluefish rig. Tops for the week was a 17-pound striper by Brian Patterson of Norwich, a man who spends considerable time on the boat. Their last trip of the season will be Sunday, Oct. 30.
12. Capt. Kyle Dotton of J&B Tackle saw their charter boat unload a large catch of blues from The Race. He also said the bass fishing during the day is pretty good and night trips also good when they had a bright moon. With water temps what they are he predicted some good scores on the upcoming November full moon. There hasn't seen any top water casting for blues and bass in Niantic Bay, normally good at this time of year. Blackfish reports were good to outstanding, weather permitting, from Black Point to the Weakfish Ridge to Race Rock.
13. Sherwood Lincoln of East Lyme made a trip for sea bass on Oct. 21. Leaving from Niantic he fished Block Island for fair results. Stops on the way back on some of the lesser-know wrecks off the Rhode Island shore produced a bumper load of sea bass, large porgies, jumbo cunners and some bluefish that took the small strips of squid meant for sea bass.
14. Black fishing is worth your time on the rockpiles outside the mouth of Niantic Bay if a storm isn't howling around us.
15. River's End in Old Saybrook said it was a slower week due to wind keeping many people on shore. Those that did get out had good results with blackfish from Black Point to Seaside and big numbers of blues and some bass drifting bucktails in the Middle Race and Valiant Shoal during the day.