Block Island bass still very large

Ed Nobolowski of Great Barrington, Massachusetts caught this 58 pound striped bass on the southwest side of Block Island last week as his family looked on aboard Maridee II Charters out of Point Judith, RI.

Jen, Dave and Riley Eike from Rochester, NY enjoyed a day of charter fishing Sunday under the Newport Bridge landing fluke (summer flounder), scup and black sea bass.

Block Island striped bass still very large

Captain Andy Dangelo of Maridee Charters, Pont Judith, RI said, “We landed a 58 pound striped bass on the southwest side of Block Island Sunday using a buck tail jig, actually a Poly Jig.  Angler Ed Nobolowfki of Great Barrington, Massachusetts caught the fish during the day.  It was a great fish and wonderful for Ed to land the bass as his family looked on.”

Vendor space available at the Galilee Fishing Tournament and Food Festival
“Although the September 7th to 9th event will feature the best of seafood and other treats, there will be 40 booths available for other types of vendors.”, said Steve Medeiros, president of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association (RISAA) and one of the event organizers.  Mr. Medeiros said the event is expected to draw families to the food and entertainment, recreational anglers as well as tourists visiting Galilee. The theme of the Festival is “Fishing for a cause” and will be held at the Port of Galilee in Narragansett, RI.  Striped bass, summer flounder (fluke) and blue fish are part of the Tournament which is sponsored by the RI Department of Environmental Management, Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association and the Narragansett Parks & Recreation Department.   All proceeds from the Tournament and Festival will be donated to Hasbro Children’s Hospital, the Johnnycake Center Food Bank and the Narragansett Parks & Recreation financial aid program.  For more information about the fishing tournament, festival and vendor information visit www.galileetourney.com .

Tautog season opened

If you are a tautog fisherman you likely know that the second season started August 1 and will run until October 19 with a three fish/per person/per day limit.  The third phase of the season will run from October 20 to December 15 with a six fish/ per person/day limit.  A maximum of ten fish per vessel is in effect for all periods (does not apply to charter and party boats).

BOEM makes Block Island wind farm announcement

Last week the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the determination of no competitive interest for the construction of a transmission system between the Rhode Island coastline and Block Island.  The determination of no competitive interest is another important step in evaluating the transmission project proposed by Deepwater Wind that would deliver electrical power from its proposed 30 megawatt Block Island Wind Farm in state waters.

 BOEM received an application from Deepwater Wind requesting a right-of-way grant for an eight nautical mile-long, 200-foot wide corridor in federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to connect their proposed offshore wind farm, located in Rhode Island state waters approximately 2.5 nautical miles southeast of Block Island, to the Rhode Island mainland. The proposed offshore transmission connection would also transmit power from the existing onshore transmission grid to Block Island. Deepwater Wind estimates the proposed wind farm will generate over 100,000 megawatt hours annually, supplying the majority of Block Island’s electricity needs.  Visit BOEM’s web site at www.boem.gov for more information.

Brown University scup survey

Tim Rovinelli, a Brown University student, is conducting a study on the characteristics of the Rhode recreational scup fishery. If you are interested in taking the survey is in three parts as noted below and takes about ten minutes to complete.  Tim relates, “The scup fishery makes up an important part of Rhode Island’s saltwater fishing opportunities.  Yet there is little work that has been done to understand what fishermen value about the fishery and what the resource offers to the public.  I am interviewing fishermen at three sites around the bay but would also like to increase the project’s reach by offering online surveys as well.  If you are scup fisherman or woman, I would love to hear from you.  There is an electronic survey linked below, a creel survey to estimate catch and a supplement of attitudinal questions, which is split into two portions.  It is completely anonymous, and you can free to skip any questions.  All responses are highly appreciated.  Please let me know if you have any feedback, questions, or comments at timothy_rovinelli@brown.edu (put scup in the subject line).  Thanks for your time.”

Each part of the survey must be completed separately.  Here are the links:

 Creel Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QHCWYCS .

Attitudes pt 1: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q6KQ7W5

Attitudes pt 2: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QZBDTFT 

Where’s the bite

Fishing in Narragansett Bay is slow with many anglers claiming that warm water is the cause of the slow bite.  Hope to explore this with a few scientists as the possible cause of a slow bite in the next couple of weeks.

Striped bass fishing on Block Island is still very good most days. “Some days the blue fish are pretty thick.” said Captain Andy Dangelo of Maridee Charters, Point Judith, RI.  Ken Landry of Erickson’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick said he fished Block Island this week with eels and did very well at the southwest ledge.  Al Conti of Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown, RI said, “The larger fish have thinned out on the Southwest Ledge, however, the fishing is still good there with plenty of fish being taken at the North Rip on tube and worm.”  John Wunner of John’s Bait & Tackle, North Kingstown said, “A customer fishing for fluke off Narragansett hooked and landed a 38 pound striped bass last week.  It took a couple of trips to the boat on light tackle before the fish tired enough to land.”

 Eel shortage.  Make sure you reserve your eels at your local bait shop as there is a supply shortage as reported by several bait and tackle shorts.  Gary Leatherberry of Erickson’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick said “The shortage is in part caused by the Japanese market buying juvenile eels and shipping them to Japan where they grow them and then sell them in fish markets for human consumption.”  Al Conti of Snug Harbor Marina said, “The warm weather is not good for eels.  Even Canadian suppliers are having trouble.  When the water is this warm eels tend to stay in the mud and not move around much, if they are not moving around you can’t catch them.”

Fluke (summer flounder) fishing has slowed with wind and tide in line being a must to catch fish.  “The fluke fishing has been finicky… they may turn on for a while and then shut right down. Maybe it is the warm water, fluke are just not behaving as they usually do.”, said Al Conti of Snug Harbor Marina.  I fished for fluke under the Newport Bridge Sunday.  The fish turned on for a few minutes, we landed three fish and then it was slim pickings for the rest of the day.

Sea bass/Scup.  Sea bass fishing is good with nice sized fish being taken off Newport and Pt. Judith and other rocky bottom areas. Scup fishing is still good all around the Bay.  Riley Eike of Rochester, New York landed a 14 inch scup Sunday under the Newport Bridge.  Reports of scup in the 18” range have been common this summer.

Offshore.  The vessel Nighthawk run by Mike Harrington caught 29 yellow fin tuna in the 50 to 80 pound range at the Oceanographer Canyon (located on the southern flank of George’s Bank) last week, said Al Conti of Snug Harbor Marina.  There are plenty off mahi-mahi at the Mud hole as well as cod fish at Cox’s Ledge with dog fish mixed in.