Connecticut and Rhode Island Fishing Report 8-31-12

Fluke Fishing Solid, Bonito and Albies Arrive!

The air feels a bit cooler and schools are starting back up, but it’s still summer out there as far as the fishing goes!  Bluefish to nearly 18-pounds are wreaking havoc just about everywhere. Striped bass fishing remains a night game with live eels being top producer. False albacore are just beginning to show in better numbers near the Rhode Island/Connecticut border.  The scup bite continues to impress and black seas bass are holding strong around Block Island. Some fluke anglers are throwing in the towel, but big baits in deeper water are weeding out shorts for keepers and the occasional doormat. In addition, fishing for snapper blues and crabbing for blue claws are as good as they’ve been all year!

Rhode Island

Many anglers are chomping at the bit for a favorite late-summer visitor, the false albacore, but it’s still early yet and this past week was indicative of that. It was hit or miss for plenty of boaters, some with only a brief shot or two while others were in the right place at the right time. A good friend of mine and his father experienced good numbers of albies mixed with bluefish on Watch Hill Reef Wednesday morning. During a high incoming tide, with only a handful of other boats around, Andy and Larry Haberman found several 6 to 8-pound speedsters using small epoxy flies, Maria jigs and Deadly Dicks. They said the bite shut off at slack tide, and then they jigged up several big scup and dink sea bass.

Mike at Watch Hill Outfitters has been hearing scattered reports of false albacore and bonito dining on three-inch squid and two-inch bay anchovies on Watch Hill Reef and behind Fisher’s Island, but as he found out his last time out they can be there one day and gone the next. Mike’s customers with better luck have been faring well using Umpqua gummy flies, Yozuri L-Jack jigs and soft plastics like Albie Snax.

Striped bass fishing remains an after dark activity for the most part, especially from shore. Anglers are still finding that occasional big bass, just ask Steve McKenna of Quaker Lane Outfitters who reeled in a cow along the Narragansett shoreline on Monday night. His fish measured 48.5-inches and ate a discontinued Spro plastic swimmer in a chicken-scratch pattern. Steve landed six other bass that night and a bunch more the night before, but they were all small except the one. Also good to hear was the amount of baitfish around. It was so thick where Steve was that he foul-hooked peanut bunker on a few retrieves.

Boat anglers drifting eels have been fighting through bluefish to reach their intended striped targets on bottom structure along the South Shore. Phil of Breachway Bait and Tackle relayed that Captain Ron’s charter trips on reefs between Charlestown Point Judith produced bass in the 30-pound class this past week, as well as bluefish in upwards of 16-pounds that put a hurting on the eel supply.

Small bass and bluefish have been cooperating from the Westerly shoreline and breachways in low-light or darkness. Robin at Quonny Bait and Tackle said anglers fishing whole squid are scoring a few bass from the beach and blues have been responding better to top-water lures like red and white poppers. She also spoke of the impressive amount of snapper blues everywhere and baitfish from peanut bunker to finger mullet.

It was another decent week of late-summer ground fishing trips for the Frances Fleet. Roger said some nice fluke have been hitting the decks lately. Two anglers tied for high-hook on Monday with six keepers each, one weighing 10-pounds. On Wednesday, high-hook for fluke took home five keepers and high-hook for black sea bass had 10 keepers. Roger reported that most trips have platter-sized porgies mixed in too. He noted that drift conditions varied wildly from day to day. On days with the more moderate to slow but steady drifts, Spro bucktail setups are king. Last Saturday, which featured an extremely fast drift, a spinner type bait rig produced better results, including fluke up to 7-pounds.

Closer to shore, Elisa from Snug Harbor Marina said the scup and black sea bass fishing remains strong. She just took her daughters out off Point Judith’s center wall where they landed a mixed bag of 50 of them up to two-pounds in an hour using squid on bottom. Howard at Galilee Bait and Tackle suggested bouncing a Kastmaster along the Harbor of Refuge’s sandy bottom for an occasional keeper fluke or you can stock up on bait by catching tinker mackerel on Sabiki rigs right from the docks.

Block Island

The method of drifting eels for quality stripers turned back on around the Island this week after big bluefish dissipated somewhat. John at Twin Maples hasn’t heard of any 50-pound class fish recently, but several bass from 30 to 40-pounds are falling to eels, both day and night along the south side and Southwest Ledge. As for artificial lures, Chris at Block Island Fishworks has been putting his clients on some nice stripers using six-inch Slug-Gos in pearl or rainbow patterns, mounted one-ounce Hurley jig heads.

Fishing for fluke and black sea bass continues to be worth the effort around Block. John at Twin Maples said some doormats were weighed-in over the weekend, taken just off Southeast Light. There were two productive zones, one from 18 to 26-feet of water and the other in about 55-feet of water, but not much in between. The unnamed anglers who brought in the 11-pounder, eight-pounder and pair of six pounders were using whole squid for bait with an added stinger hook. John also stated that the sea bass bite is red hot with a lot of keepers up to 5.5-pounds in the mix. One of the better areas at the moment is 45 to 50-feet of water west of the Whistle buoy. He suggested using strips of squid tipped with spearing on a fluke rig with a wide-gap hook.

In regards to bonito and false albacore, other than intermittent and brief pop-ups around the Coast Guard channel, Chris said the numbers we’re looking for just aren’t there yet.  Any day now though he believes.

Connecticut

Big blues continue to dominate fishing reports in Long Island Sound. The leader board from last weekend’s bluefish tournament will give you an idea just how large some are getting thanks to all the bait around. The biggest, weighed-in by Jerry Peturica with just a half hour to go, tipped the scale to 17.68-pounds!  It bumped to second a beast of 17.14-pounds caught by Nicola Perpepaj. Coming in at third was Brian Gillespie’s 16.92-pounder. That’s an impressive top three, especially after last year’s 15.41-pound winner from a whole two weeks later in the year! Q at River’s End said the mouth of the Connecticut River still has huge blues feeding on bunker.  Anglers chunking from shore there are scoring some nice impressive choppers and the same goes for boaters throwing top-water lures along Great Island during morning hours. Chris at Stratford Bait and Tackle said the lower Housatonic River continues to host gator blues, including nine entries in last weekend’s tournament that were on the leader board at one point or another.

The hordes of blues are one of the reasons striped bass fishing is more or less a night shift right now. Matt at Hillyers says don’t bother putting an eel in the water until the sun goes down, but it’s still not a cure-all.  For pretty consistent bass action, Kerry at J&B Tackle recommended three-waying bucktails with pork rinds at the Race between sundown and sunup. The full moon tides could make for some interesting fishing out there in deep water this weekend. For surfcasters targeting big stripers, think late tides with live eels and target areas in close proximity to deep water.

As for fluking, Andrew at Fishin’ Factory III told me to go with big baits in deep water or go home. He noted that 90 to 100-feet off Black Point has been giving up some respectable flat fish recently, but it’s by no means lights out. When fishing that deep, Andrew likes a heavy bucktail on bottom around eight-ounces tipped with a tinker mackerel or snapper blue. As a dropper above that, he ties on a ¾-ounce Spro bucktail laced with squid and spearing. Most of the time, Andrew has fluke take the smaller bait on top, but the occasional doormat will fall for the larger offering on bottom.

The scup fishing around the Sound remains top notch. Matt at Hillyers reported that plenty of dinner plate-sized porgies are hanging around inshore rock piles and pieces of squid or clam on a high/low rig should do the trick. He recommended trying around Race Rock, Buoy 6 by Black Point, and between the Spindle and the can at Bartlett’s. Nick at Fisherman’s World said the western Sound also has huge porgies playing nice. His customer John Rossi recently found several of them using sandworms and clams in 30-feet of water around Buoy 26 off Copps Island.

I hate to sound like a broken record every week, but blue crabbing and snapper fishing are red hot right now. For crabs, Cappy at Captain Morgan Bait and Tackle said it’s not quite as good as 2010, but this year is blowing last year away. With water temps being as warm as they are, he recommended finding the deepest, coolest spot along a tidal river or cove during an incoming tide to find big “jimmies.” Cappy enjoys trapping them with bunker as bait, but scoop-netting early or late is another fine option. Some crabbers swear by a hand-line and raw chicken and someone just put me onto a gizmo called the Crabhawk, which is light-weight trap that can be cast to deep water via rod and reel. And for snappers, it’s hard to miss them off your local docks and jetties by dangling a silverside or mummichog under a bobber or popping a snapper float with tube fly trailing behind it.

Best Bets for the Weekend

We have a long weekend on tap with pleasant weather and a full (blue!) moon. That scenario screams fishing to me and there are plenty of options to choose from. You will have to deal with other boats, but if you want a crack a false albacore or bonito, look for them popping up between Watch Hill Reef and the backside of Fisher’s Island. If you can’t find them, more dependable backups are black sea bass off Block Island’s southwest corner or drifting live eels along the south side for heavy striped bass. For trophy bluefish, head to Long Island Sound where its major river mouths have been giving up gators to live or chunked bunker.  For a change of pace, bring the kids scup fishing on the rocks, snapper fishing off the docks, or blue crabbing along tidal rivers and coves!