A Bunker-Fueled Bass Bite Ignited 2016’s Strong Striper Fishing
The season got off to a fast start in Rhode Island with a very strong spring striped bass run. Many fishermen said the striped bass were larger and more plentiful than they have been in a few years. In the spring, Manny Macedo, of Lucky Bait and Tackle in Warren, said, “We have guys catching big bass in the 30- to 40-pound range in upper Narragansett Bay who have never caught a fish that big in their lifetimes.”
Fishermen believed it was the large number of Atlantic menhaden (bunker) in the water that improved striped bass fishing in the region. Patrick Paquette, a Massachusetts-based charter fishing operator and fish advocate, said, “We have been catching larger fish in Massachusetts primarily because of the abundance of Atlantic menhaden. It isn’t coincidental that the commercial fishery was reduced by twenty percent a couple of years ago, and striped bass fishing is now enhanced.”
The fishing season then turned the corner with a great summer flounder (fluke) and black sea bass bite off Block Island. We had a remarkable fall bluefish and striped bass bite along the south coast that stretched to the end of November. The season then had a very strong ending with great tautog, black sea bass, and cod bites through the end of the year.
Bunker was the Best Bait
One of the best techniques this season was fishing with Atlantic menhaden, either live-lining them or fishing with chunks, depending on what the fish wanted on any given day. Some of the largest striped bass in recent years were caught along our coast and in our bays with menhaden. Many anglers believe we had more menhaden in the water due to commercial quota restrictions, and the enhanced amount of bait led to a better striped bass bite. I believe that the coastwide reduction in striper limits also helped a great deal by leaving more fish in the water for all.
Surprising Sea Bass and Fluke Shift
The big surprise of the 2016 season was an extremely poor fluke and black sea bass bite off Newport and along the coast north to the Sakonnet River in Massachusetts. However, this was offset by an extremely good fluke and black sea bass bite in the area south and north of the wind farm off Block Island.
Captain Rick Bellavance, of Priority Too Charters and president of the Rhode Island Party and Charter Boat Association, said, “Before the wind farm was built, we had twenty boats fishing in that area, and now there are about a hundred boats on any given day. The wind farm has added fishing pressure to the area, and what we don’t know is if there were more fish there simply because they moved in from other areas. However, the bite was good starting in May and ran right through to the end of the summer.” Mike Wade, of Watch Hill Outfitters in Westerly, fished the south side of Block Island the first week of May around wind farm towers one and two (BIWF 1 and BIWF 2), and hooked up with over thirty fluke. Wade said, “We could have easily limited out with eighteen fish, but we had plenty and kept ten fish in the eighteen- to twenty-five-inch range. The drift was hot, and it took sixteen ounces to hold bottom, so we worked four dead-sticks (rods in holders), letting the boat do the work, and it paid off.”
Fall Tautog Season Outlook: Excellent
Beside the hot fluke and black sea bass bite out at Block Island, we had a remarkable tautog season in 2016. Tautog fishing remained strong into December along the coastal shore of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. I fished the last week of November with two anglers who managed to land eight keepers to 21 inches off Newport. (The ratio was about six or seven short fish to every keeper of 16 inches or larger.) Anglers were also catching cod and black sea bass when tautog fishing. Angler Gerald Pesch caught a 25-inch cod when tautog fishing with me off Seal Ledge, Newport, in November. Noted local fisherman Rich Hittinger, who serves as the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association’s vice president, said, “Fishing off Newport was great in late November. On the first drop, one of us caught a keeper cod, another a nice black sea bass, and a third angler on board caught a tautog. From then on, the action was nonstop.” Captain Frank Blount of the Frances Fleet said, “Limit catches were recorded in so-so to good numbers on every trip except one – the third week in November – and a few more cod have started to show up.”
Predictions for 2017
The striped bass season should be excellent next year and we will likely see more fish due to a few good year classes coming of age. With a nice supply of Atlantic menhaden, the fishing should be quite good. Summer flounder fishing will become more difficult, with a quota reduction expected and more conservative recreational fishing regulations on the way. The quota reduction is due in part to the summer flounder spawning stock biomass (SSB) being down for the past six years. Black sea bass regulations are expected to be liberalized a bit because good news is anticipated with the recent assessment. Tautog season should be good again in 2017. And, the cod just keep on coming, with strong numbers caught recreationally again this year. The hope is that the trend will continue in 2017.