The Day, 6/9/06

1. Reports are on the lean side this week due to the awful weather. The storm that blew through on Wednesday looked more like winter than the start of the summer. A surf fisherman said he could barely walk upright against the wind at Watch Hill around 2 p.m. He estimated it was blowing better than 35 mph at one point.
2. Prior to the storm, Al Golinski and Sherwood Lincoln tried their hands at fluking along the Rhode Island shore, landing a dozen or so fish for four hours effort, keeping a lone 4-pounder. The day prior, some other locals had a good catch of keepers to 7 pounds in the same waters. What a difference a day makes.
3. Capt. Don's Tackle Shop in Charlestown reported lots of small bass and hickory shad in Quonny Pond, a possible day saver if the wind cranks up again. Nobody but nobody got out in a small boat on Wednesday looking for fluke. The surf set are taking some 10-pound bass right inside Quonny Breachway, the action best either at the top or bottom of the tide went current slows way down.
4. We fished in the Salt Pond on Monday and Tuesday said Capt. Al Anderson, casting with fly rods at the junction buoy just across from George's Restaurant, landing jumbo hickory shad and school bass to about 4 pounds. Over the weekend he fished on the west side of Block Island from the Dump down to the Hooter Buoy for lots of small stripers and some that were just keepers along with some small blues centered mainly in the deep water around the Hooter. One of the fish had a tag put in it by the New Jersey Fish and Game a few months prior in Delaware Bay. Al has noticed, through tag returns, the first good charge of fish to hit Block Island in the spring migrates to our area from that part of the country. People drifting eels in the North Rip put up with loads of dogfish grabbing the striper baits.
5. King Cove in Stonington was just getting over the heavy northeaster, saying few people were back on the water. Prior to the wild, wet day, two fellows from, New Jersey fished out on the Watch Hill Reefs for one of the best striper trips they had in a long time. Fluking has been a matter of getting 10 shorts for every one keeper along the Rhode Island beaches from the Pink House past Green Hill. Shore anglers got schoolies right through the bad weather over along the Monsanto jetty in Stonington.
6. Cheryl at Shaffers Marina was upbeat about all the stripers caught in the evenings, weather permitting, from Sugar Reef, either fly rodding or casting plugs with a light spinning rods. Most of the fluke have been small though Capt. Bruce Meyers did have an 8-pounder on his Tuesday charter. People along some of the marina docks on the river caught small blues on light casting tackle.
7. Capt. Jack Balint at the Fish Connection was drying out from one wild day on Wednesday, saying it's been a very slow week to date. They did however weight in a 12-pound fluke from local waters but no other details were available. One fellow burned all the fuel needed for a trip to Montauk and back, coming home with two keeper fluke he figured cost him about $75 apiece. Bucktailing was working on bass in The Race though they did have a slow spell with tides barely hitting 2.1 knots at max velocity at times. The Watch Hill reefs have small and medium bass for the casting crew that likes to toss lures of various types into the many rips there.
8. Richard at Hillyers had to really scratch his head to come up with any fishing news at all due to all the bad weather. Before the intense northeaster, Capt. Howard Beers caught some keeper fluke in local waters along with jumbo porgies that took the fluke baits. Yesterday morning one of the bass sharpies caught some hickory shad in the river then ran them out to one of the nearby rips for two nice striped bass.
9. Capt. Kyle Douton of J&B Tackle reported nobody that he was aware of made the run offshore for sharks because of all the harsh weather. The Sunbeam, a large party boat, fished right through the Wednesday blow, its windblown patrons catching small fluke in Two Tree Channel then excellent numbers of striped bass in The Race. Kyle said the fish were really active, hitting bucktails on all drifts. At the beginning of the week even the charter boat pros were having a tough time putting together a catch from the famous rips due to very slow tides.
10. Mark Lewchik at River's End observed the lower Connecticut River was high and dirty from the storm but the persistent anglers were getting a small numbers of better bass at some of the casting spots between the RR Bridge and the mouth of the river. Mark said what fish were caught hit best at slack water not the strength of the tide as is the norm. Like bass fishing in The Race, catches at Hatchetts Reef were off due to those very weak tides.
11. We hate to mention it but the weatherman is calling for more rain for the first part of the weekend and also predicting another coastal storm for next Wednesday. Let's hope he is wrong. [Tim Coleman is The Day's ]