Connecticut & Rhode Island Fishing Report: 10-29-11

 

There are several worthy fishing opportunities as we stand on the doorstep of October.

Fishing for false albacore and striped bass hit a wall this week from Point Judith to eastern Long Island, yet in other pockets around the region, like Newport, Block Island, and western Long Island Sound, things are faring much better.  Meanwhile, fishing for porgies is on fire, with an added bonus of a season-extension in Rhode Island and Connecticut.  Black sea bass action remains hot going into the last weekend of that season.  Bluefish are still marauding baitfish just about everywhere in southern New England and blackfish action is heating up in Rhode Island and the season opens in Connecticut this Saturday.

Rhode Island

Captain Thom at Quaker Lane Bait and Tackle reported that there is a lot of adult menhaden in the East Greenwich area of Narragansett Bay.  Good spots to intercept pods of the baitfish are Spindle Rock and Warwick Light.  Plenty of big bluefish upwards of 10-pounds are cashing in on the food buffet and providing anglers with tackle-testing fun.  Thom mentioned three popular methods of getting in on this bite as live-lining on the edges of the schools, chunking underneath them, or throwing poppers into the fray.  Thom also tried his hand at tautog fishing this week in 25-feet of water east of the Point Judith lighthouse.  Using green crabs, he landed one 8.5-pound slob and the rest were borderline keepers that he released to be caught again.

Chris of Saltwater Edge got into some false albacore from the beach in Newport on Wednesday morning before heading to work.  It was an hour and a half of blind-casting for nothing followed by 20 minutes of insanity.  The lure that did the trick was a 1.5-ounce Point Jude PoJee, which he likes to switch the single hook out for a #1 treble with a little flash tied in.  Chris also noted that some tight-lipped surfcasters are taking a steady pick of striped bass at night on eels along rocky stretches, but there were no stripers weighed-in during this past weekend’s annual Sargent Pott’s Fishing Tournament on Aquidneck Island.

Robin at Quonny Bait and Tackle said it is a whole different ballgame in the local surf scene compared to just a week ago.  Things have quieted down a bunch in the striper, blue and albie departments, so much that she hasn’t had a fish weighed on her shop’s scale in five days.  Some good news that did come in was the word of the extension of the recreational scup season until December 31.  She noted that the extension came at a perfect time because the scup fishing is excellent for anglers using clams and sandworms in rocky areas.

When I spoke to Dave at River and Riptide Angler this week, he jokingly posed the question, “Where’d all the fish go?”  He was on the water Wednesday morning and found no fish, but encountered five-foot swells at Watch Hill Reef and swells larger than he’d ever seen in the Race.  Between extreme tides from the new moon and Wednesday’s easterly wind, there is a lot of debris and filthy water in the area.  Dave’s confident that once the snotty conditions calm down and the water clears up a bit, the false albacore will pounce back on the bait that’s hopefully still hanging around.

Block Island

Captain Ron from Breachway Bait and Tackle informed me that the striped bass bite along Block Island’s Southwest Corner remains red hot.  Every morning this week he found stripers in the 30-pound class using live eels with eggs sinkers to get them down.  Most outings, Ron only needs a half-ounce of lead there and never more than one ounce.  Tide hasn’t seemed to matter much as long as it’s been moving, and during slack tides, Ron reported that jerking parachutes on wire is producing nice stripers as well.  Surprisingly, bass wouldn’t touch his eels during slack tides

During a false albacore mission on Monday, friends and I made a pit stop along the western side of Block Island and hammered whopper porgies and black sea bass in approximately 40 feet of water.  We were jigging 1-ounce Deadly Dicks just off bottom and had non-stop action from the first drop until we left them biting.  I’ve never really done that type of fishing before and was blown away by effective jigging was, especially without bait tipped on the hooks.  Even if you’re not taking home fillets, which were delicious by the way, the hits were explosive and fights were fun on light-tackle.

Connecticut

What a difference a week can make in the false albacore department.  Last week anglers in eastern Long Island Sound were pulling 20-fish days and occasionally more.  This week the same area looked barren and the albies that were found were hard to entice.  I had the pleasure of fishing on Captain Blaine Anderson’s boat on Monday and we covered over 100 miles from Niantic to Montauk to Block Island to Point Judith to Watch Hill before we finally found a handful of skittish albies behind Fisher’s Island.  We each landed one hard-earned false albacore by quickly retrieving and twitching white soft-plastic baits.  Albie Snax made by Long Cast Plastics lived up to their company name, casting farther than other soft-plastic baits in their size range, a valuable asset when metal lures like Deadly Dicks aren’t working.

Western Long Island Sound has been another story altogether.  OTW contributor Captain Chris Elser reported that willing pods of false albacore have finally popped up in areas from Branford to Stamford.  He had a charter on Monday in the Milford and Stratford area and found albies feeding on juvenile spearing.  He got them to eat by adding an anchovy fly as a teaser a few feet above a Deadly Dick essentially used as a casting weight.  Nick from Fisherman’s World told me anglers are cleaning up on unmolested pods of albies around Middle Ground and off Sheffield Island in Norwalk.  Unlike the popular eastern Sound spots, there is much less pressure on these fish at the moment and it’s not rare to find pods to yourself.

In other news, Andrew from Fishing Factory 3 and I talked about Connecticut’s scup season that has been extended until December 31, which was well received by many anglers as Long Island Sound is chockfull of them right, with some hubcap-sized ones to boot.  In addition, he reminded me about the opening of blackfish season on October 1.  Andrew suggested starting on shallow rock piles in 10 to 15-feet of water and targeting deeper water as the season moves forward.  Fishing green crabs broken in half or whole Asian crabs on a high-low rig is a proven method for blackfish any time of year.

As for striped bass, Andrew received positive reports from anglers’ three-waying eels on Long Sand Shoal.  Captain Chris Elser found some large stripers in the 30-pound range on live eels in the Milford area last weekend.  Chris from Stratford Bait and Tackle said some bass are being taken at the mouth of the Housatonic River on chunked mackerel and one very large specimen over 50-inches on a live eel near the Derby Dam this week.  Captain Mike of Reel Cast Charters experienced some fantastic topwater action with big bluefish on spooks and pencil poppers just off Stratford.

Best Bets for the Weekend

Finally, western Long Island Sound just may be your best shot at a false albacore this weekend in Connecticut or Rhode Island waters.  For striped bass, once again, Southwest Corner of Block Island is the place to be with live eels.  Narragansett Bay is a good bet for big blues this weekend if you can find the wandering pods of bunker there.  Another great option is a Cape Cod road trip for OTW’s Striper Fest on Saturday.  Go celebrate the fall run and network with hundreds of other striped bass fanatics and wet a line before or after in the Cape Cod Canal or Buzzards Bay.