On The Water, 8/25/05

1. Those bluefin tuna that have been creating such a stir seem to be moving to the east since the weekend. There are still sporadic and scattered reports, primarily from The Race and off Sakonnet, Rhode Island, but for the most part chatter about these fish has stopped since the last report. It’s not to say they won’t return, but at least for the moment it seems to have quieted down in the bluefin tuna department.
2. The good news is that in some areas, namely the Point Judith area to Newport, they have been replaced by bonito. Nothing in the way of reports of false albacore anywhere this week. It’s all bonito or rare bluefin tuna. Otherwise it’s pretty much a night bite for bass, bluefish are all over the place and fluke are a steady pick of mostly small fish. Porgies are big and easy to find and catch. Pretty much across the board from Newport to Norwalk, the shops are talking about a much better than average run of snapper bluefish, which bodes well for the action a couple of years down the line.
3. Jimmy of Quaker Lane Bait and Tackle, North Kingstown told us the tuna were gone as of Wednesday. The last report he had was that they were about 15 miles off to the east of Newport and heading to the Cape.
4. Striper fishing is running hot and cold, basically a nighttime proposition, with fish up to 30 pounds coming out of Narragansett and Scarborough beaches. The bay is producing mostly schoolies, some bluefish and a few fluke.
5. Bonito are showing up at Newport, the mouth of Narrow River and off the Center Wall at Point Judith. Not in huge numbers, but where there were 30-pound tuna last week, it’s now 4- or 5-pound bonito.
6. Fluke fishing is holding up with fish to about six pounds being caught up inside the bay, as well as along the south shore beaches but nothing spectacular to report other than a pick on fluke.
7. Bluefishing is off in the bay due to all the bait outside. Jimmy said the common idea is that they don’t have to come in to the bay due to all the bait that’s easy to find and eat outside in the ocean.
8. Peter at Saltwater Edge, Newport also reported that the tuna have all but disappeared. They were out off First Beach Tuesday but were gone on Wednesday. Late last week there were some skipjacks and even a school of mahi mahi reported off Field Ledge and Haycock Ledge but are gone, as well.
9. The bonito have taken the place of the bluefins off Newport. So far the bonito fishing is as good as it’s been in a year or more, with high-liners taking a dozen fish per day out in front of the bay and across to Point Judith.
10. Bass fishing in town has been weak since the tuna left. Peter speculated that the tunas might have pushed the bait the bass were eating up inside the bay or somewhere else, possibly to the west. Fishing is better for stripers in Scarborough and Narragansett than around Newport for the moment. Bluefish are around in numbers but not size.
11. Justin at Breachway Tackle, Charlestown said the bass are still providing good action to night-fishermen who are using eels along the beaches and around the breachway. Ronnie is doing his thing and limiting out most mornings before work.
12. Fluke fishing is coming back after a couple of slow weeks. Numbers are still up and down depending on whom you talk to, but this week’s top fish was a 6.7-pounder caught in the Charlestown area. Anglers are doing well some days and not on others, which is pretty much the fluke story most have been telling all season long.
13. Bluefish of 10 pounds are showing up in the breachway lately, along with the run-of-the-mill 3-pounders that have been so prevalent this season. Snappers are running big time up inside the salt pond.
14. Occasionally anglers are picking up weakfish of legal size while trolling for bass along the beach using jigs or umbrella rigs. Shad are still around in good numbers, so anglers can have fun catching them for sport on light tackle or opt to use them as very effective “big bass” live hook bait. Here, like everywhere else, scup are abundant and easy to catch.
15. Bonito are around “out front,” as they say, which means off the beaches and in the breachway, as well as around the walls at Point Judith. Basically they will be wherever the birds are working, although at times bluefish and/or striped bass will cause the fray.
16. The bluefins have moved out of this area, as well.
17. Bob at Wildwood Outfitters in Wakefield was busy or out of the store when we called on Wednesday.
18. John Swienton, owner of Twin Maples Tackle out on Block Island, told us he hasn’t had any bluefin reports as of Wednesday, but there were still some fish a half-mile south of Black Rock Can. John added that all indications are that these fish are thinning out after providing more than a week of action around the perimeter of the island.
19. The good news is that the bonito showed up hot and heavy in the Coast Guard Channel and as usual were hitting Deadly Dicks, Kastmasters and Fin-S lures. I’ve caught and seen them caught on Slug-Gos, Salt Shakers and other shad-type swimming jigs, as well as on Rattle Traps and other freshwater-size rattling crankbaits. Just change the hooks to modify these lures for use in the ocean.
20. The bass were hitting surface plugs better than they were eels on Tuesday night for John when he and his son were fishing off Black Rock. He started using eels and didn’t do much with them. He could see the fish on the depthfinder, and they would rush up off the bottom and slam the poppers as they came over their positions. The neat thing is these were tackle-busting hook-straightening bruiser stripers. His son caught a fish of 50 inches on a popper during the hour or so they spent casting to this incredible school of big striped bass! John mentioned that earlier in the day a friend had fished that spot and done nothing, but by about 7 p.m. these jumbo fish were all over the place.
21. He said the fish were so big they were breaking the treble hooks off their poppers. One nice thing was the fact that while those huge stripers were there and feeding, there wasn’t the usual array of two-pound bluefish around to get in the way. Yet, at the same time, Sandy Point at the opposite end of the island was chock-full of bluefish. A situation where the two ends of Block Island were each alive with fish but of different species, when more often than not the action would be a mix of bass and blues.
22. I was late doing my calls due to phone problems and missed Captain Don of Captain Don’s Tackle, Charlestown, Rhode Island, so we don’t have his always interesting take on the fishing scene this week.
23. Bill at King Cove Marina, Stonington told us he has not heard about any bluefins in the Fishers Island area for the past few days. However, reportedly there were bonito over in the Quonny Breachway.
24. Remember, all reports of any species in the tuna family are old by the time anyone hears them. Use these reports as starting points, but don’t be surprised if the tunoids are in a totally different spot when you go looking for them.
25. Bass fishing was very good all day Wednesday off the Watch Hill Reef area where a sizable school of stripers was feeding on the tons of bait that included squid, baby bunker and some other small baitfish that couldn’t be easily identified. The angler who made this report said he caught fish up to 38 inches on light tackle and a variety of small lures, including Storm minnows, jigs and a Crippled Herring.
26. Fluke fishing is holding up pretty well, with customers catching good numbers of legal fish but no monster doormats. The good thing is everyone is fairly happy with their fluke catches lately, despite having to cull shorts to put a few keepers in the livewell. Most anglers were fluking over the weekend, not as many people were out very far offshore due to fog.
27. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic reported the same sort of low-level fishing focused mostly on fluke as a result of the weekend fog banks. She has been seeing loads of fluke coming in from Ram Island Reef and other local spots in the Mystic area. Fishing has been consistently pretty good from White Rock to Groton Long Point. Captain Al Fee also reported catching a few decent fluke with one of his charters late last week around White Rock as a capper to a decent outing to Race Rock and Point for bass and bluefish.
28. One group of people at the marina said that “the stripers off Misquamicut have been hitting like bluefish, with reckless abandon lately, due to all the bait that’s in the water.”
29. The full moon brought a slowdown on bass catches for some reason this week. At first light, bass were active around Valiant Rock and Race Rock over the weekend, but not so on Monday. After the full moon it dropped off a tad. Al said there were bonito in The Race over the weekend.
30. Bluefish have been thick in The Race and Latimer Light for the past month and don’t show any sign of thinning out in the near future. The bonito have been sparse other than the one Al’s customer hooked and lost off Race Rock on Friday morning. That hungry little bonito hit a Creek Chub Popper that was intended for stripers.
31. Porgies are up to 15 inches in all the local spots. Anyone who wants to can load up on these sporty, easy-to-catch and good-eating little scrappers. Shad are still around the Mystic River area for those looking for bass bait in lieu of hard-to-get eels.
32. Captain Jack Balint of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames has been seeing a few tunas out in The Race this week and up to Tuesday but said they are definitely a good deal harder to find since the weekend.
33. Bob Zabuleski caught a tuna on Monday during the trip that Jack donated to the Jim Spignesi Scholarship Fund Banquet last spring. Jack was seeing bluefins from Fishers Island to Sakonnet, just short of Cuttyhunk last week. One day, he saw some mahi mahi but couldn’t get them to bite on anything. The water was flat and clear, and they were uncooperative. These are probably the same school of fish that the boys from Saltwater Edge Tackle of Newport were talking about.
34. Jack said he’s never seen as much bait, floating mats of eelgrass in the water south of Fishers Island, and fog as he’s encountered this year. Some days he can’t even tube-and-worm the island due to the junk, and some of those days he’s been running home on radar. The fog has been incredible due to all the heat and resulting evaporation.
35. Fluke fishing has been good in close from Bluff Point to Goshen Reef, Waterford, so there is no need to make the long gas-guzzling run to Misquamicut if you are looking for a few eating-size fluke. Porgies are all over and easy to catch in the eastern end of the Sound, like everywhere else.
36. There are big bluefish up to about 10 pounds in good numbers being caught in The Race lately, along with bass deep and at night, and the occasional bluefin tuna or bonito. It’s a veritable smorgasbord out there lately. The smaller blues have thinned out in comparison, with more bigger stuff lately than those bait-size “cocktail blues” that dominated the fishery early on before the big postspawn adults moved inshore for the summer.
37. The Thames has been producing blues and school bass but has slowed down a good deal due to all the heat. Water temps are simply too high for the bass and possibly even the bluefish or the bait they are eating.
38. Fishers Island has been good for striper fishing when you can fish around the floating mats of eelgrass. Nighttime is better than the day, but the fish seem to be all over the place, it’s a matter of being able to reach them with an appropriate bait or lure.
39. Matt at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford also said the bluefish are stacked up out in The Race. Fish deep, shallow and in-between, and use about any method known to man. Everyone out there is catching blues. By day the blues are dominant, and there should be large fish out there to be competitive for anglers who are planning to fish the WICC bluefish tournament this weekend. Be sure to check the rules on just where it is legal to fish. The Race is a border of sorts, and you may disqualify yourself during the ebb tide if you are not careful.
40. Anglers who are looking for bass will find them down deep in The Race after dark, not so much during the day due to interference from all the blues cruising around. Bass fishing as always is best at night. There are reportedly some schoolies in around Bartlett and Hatchet reefs that were up on top during the week, but they seem to get spooked by all the boat traffic on the weekends.
41. Fluke fishing has been holding up, with many shorts in anglers’ catches. Those who fish hard are culling through to get a few keepers, although limits are not common. It’s a matter of being persistent and patient. If you luck out, it is possible to catch a Connecticut 5-fish limit of 17.5-inchers, but it will take some effort most days.
42. Matt also mentioned how there are all sorts of bait around, including bunker and snappers, more than he’s seen in a few years, and anchovies. There was even a tinker mackerel caught between the bridges one day this week, and that’s the first time he’s heard of a tinker mackerel caught in that spot in quite a while.
43. The bluefins are still popping in and out of The Race but not like they were a week or so ago.
44. Porgy fishing is excellent on big fish, and there are plenty of them around the bell buoy #6 in the bay. Tons of scup are everywhere – “You can’t get away from them around the rock piles,” Matt noted. Bonito and false albacore were spotted by Niantic Bob off the West Wall, Point Judith on Monday, but none are in the bay yet. Matt said, “We are coming up on the prime time of September and October when the fishing stays good all week long and the weekend crowds begin to diminish with the opening of school.”
45. “Q” of River’s End, Saybrook has been sea bass fishing and did well earlier this week on a trip he made to Montauk and Block Island.
46. Fluke are not being caught as well in the river as they were a week ago. There are still a few being caught off Sound View, with an occasional slammer doormat being dredged up from the deep waters off Black Point, but it’s a hard day on the water to catch one.
47. School bass are thick off Bartlett Reef, but Hatchet was slow on Tuesday evening for large bass.
48. A few bonito came in through Plum Gut, along with a parcel of bluefish earlier this week, but there, as everywhere, the action is sporadic at best for these speedsters. “Q” added that big live baits will produce big bass if you can get them through all the bluefish.
49. In the Gut, he heard of the bluefins in The Race on Tuesday, like others up the way but nothing consistent, you have to be in the right place at the right time to catch one of these super-charged fish.
50. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said that bluefish are shaping up well in his midstate area for this weekend’s WICC $20,000 World’s Greatest Bluefish Contest. He was busy signing up anglers, so we will talk to him next week after he’s had a chance to rest and collect his thoughts.
51. He said there are still a few big bass around the reefs like Kimberly, Six Mile and Falkner, but they are pretty much on a night bite. For him it’s coffee and all-nighters until after the big contest.
52. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle, Stratford said not much has happened this week in the waters from East Haven to Bridgeport. Mostly small blues and porgies are around, the bass are pretty much non-existent due to the warm water in the Sound. Chris said he fished Greenwich Harbor Monday and caught blues up to 6 pounds down there where reports were of fish to 15 pounds. He said they didn’t see any bait on that trip and things were generally slow. A few anglers caught big fish that he saw photos of, but they were not saying where due to the upcoming contest.
53. Fluke have been pretty slow lately, as well. One husband-and-wife team he sees for bait on a weekly basis is still catching a few keeper fluke up to about five pounds off the New Haven breakwalls, but they are fishing all day for a few keepers. Fluke are a slow pick in the Stratford area, with mostly little stuff being reported.
54. The western end of the Sound is pretty much in the summer doldrums, which means bluefish, bluefish and more bluefish, with porgies around for anyone who wants to set the anchor.
55. Best bets this weekend are of course bluefish and porgies, pretty much any place you care to look for them. Stripers are around more so in the eastern half of the Sound and around deep-water reefs where they are being caught by dredging the bottom with live baits by day or eels after dark.
56. Look for possible encounters with bonito or even a stray bluefin in The Race off the southwestern corner of Block Island or east of Newport. It looks like the great inshore school bluefin tuna bite of 2005 may be over, at least for the time being. Look for a return later on in the season.