Mix it up to catch striped bass

 Mix it up:  Mike Imbornone of North Kingstown landed a 38” striped bass while fishing the Poppasquash Point, Bristol area using tube and worm, earlier in the day chucked Atlantic Menhaden was not working. 

 Fluke fishing hot:  Cody Bellavance of Priority Too Charters, Pt. Judith with monster fluke they caught off Block Island.  Capt. Rick Bellavance said, “Sand eels and squid are the bait in the water.”

 The Jacques brothers (Dave, Richard and Ed) with summer flounder they caught off Warwick Light yesterday (Wednesday).

Bass fishing hot: John Martin of Bristol caught his first striped bass at Mt. Hope Bay when fishing with friend Kevin Pellegrino. The  40”, 23.88 striped bass was caught as he was retrieving a snagged pogy. 

Mix it up to catch striped bass

This week I mixed it up and started trolling with tube and worm for striped bass.  The results were good Sunday as the bass did not seem interested in the chucked menhaden where I was fishing, but they jumped at the chance to nail a red rubber tube with a fresh clam worm on the end of it. 

Anglers often use lead line when trolling with tube and worm in the in less than twenty five feet of water.  Wire line is used when water is over 25 or 30 feet, places such as Brenton Reef, Newport or off Block Island.  I often weight the lead line or tube to get it down to the bottom where the big bass are. 

Lead and wire line is designed to sink in the water column (about a foot ever 10 feet of line depending on boat speed, tide, current and wind conditions).

Atlantic Menhaden (commonly called pogies) are also a popular bait used to catch striped bass.  Anglers use them as bait live often hooking them through the bridge above the nose or on the back allowing them to swim (called live lining).  However, just as common, depending on how the striped bass want to dine, they are cut up in chucks and put on a hook (called chunking).  

I am also prepared to fish with jigs too… Diamond Jigs, Deadly Dick colored jigs as well as a variety of squid jigs tipped with real squid.  So the idea is to be ready with a couple of different methods as you never know what the fish will be interested in on any given day.  And, when the bass are not biting switch off to a different species like I did yesterday targeting summer flounder (or fluke). 

Where’s the bite

Striped bass fishing is starting to pick up along Southern RI coastal shores.  Phil Matteson of Breachway Bait & Tackle, Charlestown, said “They are starting to land keeper bass out in front and in Ninigret Pond they are catching school sized bass and an occasional fish in the 28 to 35” range.  Anglers are using a variety of artificial lures.”  “Striped bass fishing is still not strong at Block Island” said Capt. Rich Bellavance of Priority Too Charters, Pt. Judith.  “Tuesday of last week striped bass were crashing a school of pogies right in from of Fields Point, Providence.  You could see the bass chasing them like tuna just under the surface.  Before we could pull in our snagged pogies a bass would hit it so we snapped off the barbs on our treble hooks so we could safely release most of the fish.” said Greg Bruning of the Tackle Box, Warwick.  John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle, East Providence said, “Striped bass fishing had slowed a bit later in the week in the Providence River, but Sunday things broke wide open again south of Conimicut Light in the Barrington Beach, Nayatt Point and Rocky Point areas.  I think the bass are starting to move down the Bay a bit with the bait.  Three customers limited out in two hours fishing the Barrington Beach area with chucks, live lining and yo-yoing Atlantic Menhaden.”  Saturday angler Mike Imbornone of North Kingstown landed a 38” striped bass while fishing the Poppasquash Point, Bristol area using tube and worm, earlier in the day chucked Atlantic Menhaden was not working. 

Shore fishing.  Charlestown Breachway fishing is improving with one or two anglers catching twenty pound fish nightly.  Anglers targeting scup are staring to land fish too.” said Phil Matteson of Breachway Bait & Tackle.  Steve McKenna noted striped bass shore fishing expert and an associate at Quaker Lane Outfitters, North Kingstown said “Shore anglers seem to be having a mixed bag of experiences.   Those that know how to fish the shore are experiencing a good bite, and those that do not are not landing fish.  I heard of two 40 pound fish being caught from the shore last week.”  John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait said “Colt State Park anglers are catching school bass and just a few scup. The scup just haven’t arrived in large numbers yet.” Dave Pickering, expert shore angler and author said “I’ve been out quite a few times in the last week in the Bay both with the boat and from shore.  And the results are the same.  There are far more blues around than stripers.  The blues seem to be everywhere.”

Bluefish are being caught particularly where you find the pogy schools.  Some are huge.  Greg Bruning of the Tackle Box, Warwick said, one of my customers landed a 18.5 pound blue fish while trolling along the wall at Salter Grove, Warwick last week.”  This weekend, when fishing in the middle of the East Passage the party I was fishing with picked up smaller blue fish in the 20 inch range when trolling tube & worm for bass. However, schools of blue fish on the surface have not been the case yet.

Summer flounder (fluke) fishing has been improving in shore and is hot off-shore.  Capt. Rick Bellavance of Priority Too Charters said “Fishing on the south side of Block Island has been great”. Mike Cardinal of Cardinal Bait & Tackle Westerly said “Fluke fishing along the coastal shore has been improving and Block Island is doing very well.”  Phil Matteson of Breachway Bait & Tackle said, “There is a ton of bait in the water… squid and sand eels. From Matunuck to Charlestown customers are catching fluke in 35 to 55 feet of water landing 3 to 4 pound fish with 6 to 7 pound fish common too.” John Wunner of John’s Bait, North Kingstown, said, “They are catching summer flounder in the mid Bay area in the West Passage near Warwick Neck. And Austin Hollow Jamestown which usually holds fish this time of year has not been good.” Greg Bruning of the Tackle Box, Warwick said, “This weekend fluke fishing really picked up in the middle of the Bay with some nice fish being landed in the flats of Rocky Point in about 15 to 20 feet of water.  I weighed in a nice 7.5 pound fish for a customer.”