Autumn officially clocks in on Friday morning, yet fall-like fishing has been going on for a few weeks now and it’s still heating up. After two weeks of some insane false albacore fishing, things came back down to reality a bit. There are still boatloads of albies across the region, they just went from “punch drunk” to a little pickier about what they’re eating. Bait stacked along the Rhode Island shoreline continues to fuel great inshore fishing for striped bass and bluefish. The Block Island striped bass and sea bass bite is going strong. Overall, Long Island Sound is fishing well, with the western Sound finally picking up after the east has dominated positive reports for the last several weeks.
In the freshwater scene, rivers and streams around the area have dropped back down to normal flows after some wild fluctuation in recent weeks and trout fishing reports are encouraging with help from some stocking truck visits. Hopefully Friday’s rain won’t change that too much.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island inshore fishing busted wide open over the last couple weeks and is showing no signs of slowing down. There are striped bass, bluefish and false albacore being landed by both shore and boat anglers up and down South County. Fueling it all is the impressive amount of bait in the area from adult and peanut bunker, to mullet, silversides, and rain bait.
Dave at River and Riptide Anglers reported schools of adult menhaden near the mouth of the east passage of Narragansett Bay being mauled by big bass and blues. He also told me that albies are popping up near the mouth of the Narrow River and that 20 were caught along the West Wall one morning this week on a mix of flies and lures. Dave’s favorite flies for false albacore right now are white bonito bunnies and bay anchovy imitations.
Steve at Breachway Bait and Tackle told me the whole south shore has been hot with many keeper bass coming to the hand and the occasional 40-incher in the mix. The action has been evenly spread amongst the open beaches, rock piles, and at the breachways. He said the best feeds have been around sunrise, sunset and throughout the night. On Sunday morning, Ron from the shop fished the reef just off Charlestown Breachway that he named ‘Old No. #7’ because it was one of the earliest waypoints put in his GPS. It took him only two drifts with a live eel before pulling a solid 35-pound striper over the rail.
Robin at Quonny Breachway was happy to report that the surf action turned on like a light switch since last Friday. She said that Capt. Mark Silveri took a break from his boat, Striper Nightmare, to try his hand at surfcasting and found a great bite one late afternoon this week that improved as sunset neared. He reported so much mullet in the water that he was snagging them while retrieved his plugs. Mike and friends landed blues averaging 28 inches and stripers up to 42 inches on bottle plugs, poppers and needlefish. White was their hottest color. Robin also noted that a reliable source told her about a 40-pound bass taken off one of the local breachways on a yellow darter this week.
Mike at Watch Hill Outfitters reported solid action under the Watch Hill Lighthouse for nice stripers mixed in with small bluefish. The key, he told me, have been the higher tides, especially the incoming. Large poppers, subsurface swimmers, needlefish, and live eels have been doing the trick. Mike also noted that Watch Hill Reef remains littered with albies. He’s been having a tough time keeping Zoom Super Flukes on the shelves because they’ve been so effective for the speedsters.
For the tog-lovers, Rob at Quaker Lane told me that the blackfish bite appears to be picking up near rocky areas, especially Beavertail Light, by the amount of customers buying green crabs. Currently, you can take home three tautog per day, until October 15 when that bumps up to six. The minimum length of a keeper is 16-inches.
Block Island
Quality striped bass remain cooperative all around Block Island. Chris of Block Island Fish Works has had a steady pick of nice stripers along the south shore using live eels and 1 to 3 ounces of lead to get them to the bottom. On Tuesday morning, however, the fish wouldn’t touch eels, so he switched to 7-inch Cape Cod Sand Eels by Bill Hurley Lures and landed two 40-pound bass. On Wednesday, a strong eel bite was back on and the bass wouldn’t eat anything else. So while Chris noted while the bass fishing is quite good at the moment, their meal preference seems to vary from outing to outing.
The false albacore fishing was consistent last weekend around Charlestown Beach and the entrance of New Harbor, but Chris mentioned that action has waned over the last few days. There is a ton of small bait around that area, so albies can pop up at any moment. The Coast Guard Channel remains one of the better spots for shore anglers having a shot at these speedsters. Chris also talked about a decent black sea bass bite in deeper water, around 50 to 60 feet, along Southwest Corner and the entire south side of the Island. Jigs like a 3-ounce Shimano Lucanus tipped with a squid strip have been doing the trick.
Connecticut
Rhode Island is so hot that many Connecticut anglers are heading east, or at least hopeful that those fish make their way to Long Island Sound soon. However, the eastern Sound is still chockfull of false albacore, but even a day-old report is sometimes of little use when looking for these speedsters. Regardless, good areas to start your albie search include the Race, the Sluiceway, the backside of Fisher’s Island, and Niantic Bay. Boaters shouldn’t have a hard time locating the fleets of boats that are glued to blitzing fish and working birds. You can also stray from the ‘run & gun’ crowd and find your own pods. Don’t be afraid to try blind casting in fishy water either. There’s a long list of artificials that have been working well, such as Zoom Super Flukes, Deadly Dicks, small Got Strypers, or Long Cast Plastics’ Albie Snax, which are hand-poured in Connecticut.
Matt at Hillyers believes, as a whole, striper fishing is pretty darn good in the Sound at the moment. He still stressed targeting bass from sundown to sunup just because of the sheer amount of bluefish in the area. There are many bass in the 20 to 30-pound class being caught, especially for those three-waying bucktail jigs and eels, or live-lining bunker if you can find them. Phil at River’s End added that boaters are battling through bluefish to catch some really nice striped bass on slow-trolled tube and worms in broad daylight.
Striper activity is picking up in some of the tidal rivers again too. A few nice striped bass are making their way back into the Thames River for example. Cheyenne form The Fish Connection said the Norwich Harbor area is starting to produce for chunkers, with several striped bass in the low to mid 30-inch range. Lower in the river is also producing for anglers tossing chunked bait, especially around Buoy 27.
I had the pleasure of joining OTW contributor Captain Chris Elser on Tuesday for a western Sound reconnaissance mission. We covered 30 miles of water from the mouth of the Housatonic River to Middle Grounds to the north shore of Long Island and back. We were the only suckers battling three to four-foot seas and cold rain for small bluefish. No signs of false albacore that far west yet, but it could still happen. Chris called me less than 24 hours after our subpar outing and his exact words were, “What a difference a day makes!” Part of me didn’t want to hear the rest, but he went on to say he landed four bass from 15 to 27 pounds and bluefish up to 16 pounds in some of the same water that appeared barren only the day before. Certainly a positive sign for western Long Island Sound and hopefully there’s more where that came from.
Nick at Fisherman’s World reported good diamond jigging for 8- to 10-pound blues off 11B and solid topwater action for smaller blues around the Norwalk Islands. The tube and worm is accounting for some schoolies and small keeper bass around the Islands too. Nick also reminded me that recreational porgy fishing ends on September 26, but the bite remains excellent on most rock piles. He specifically called out Can 1 off Westport and Buoy 28 as great spots to try for porgies.
For freshwater anglers, the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) has begun their autumn trout stockings in Connecticut waterways. From now through mid October, DEEP will release nearly 30,000 trophy and adult sized trout into 21 lakes and ponds, 18 rivers and streams, and seven Trout Parks, which are areas managed to enhance fishing opportunities for families and novice anglers and are easily accessible. DEEP will also be stocking 33,000 “yearling” trout into selected waters throughout the state. For a full list of stocking sites, you can visit DEEP’s website: www.ct.gov/dep/fishing.
Best Bets for the Weekend
Whether it’s stripers and bluefish from the beaches and breachways, or false albacore along the West Wall and Watch Hill Reef, or cow bass along the south shore of Block Island, Rhody is the place to be spending your time right now. Shore anglers should pack a mixed bag of topwater plugs for bass and blues during low-light periods, and swimmers, needlefish and eels for the night-shifts. Be sure to include a few small metal lures like Deadly Dicks in your selection too just in case albies pop up within casting range. Boaters may want to try their hand on Watch Hill Reef or all along the south shore for albies, or take a trip with a bucket of live eels for drifting the south side of Block Island. Pick your poison because all inshore saltwater fishing seems to be firing on all cylinders in the Ocean State right now.