Friday, November 27, 2015

The fishing is hot… on the water and on your plate

Eric Appolonia, North Kingstown, with a 24” tautog caught off Newport southeast of Seal Ledge.
 Angler Greg Vespe of Tiverton landed three squid at once.  Greg reports an outstanding squid run.
 Alex Appolonia of North Kingstown (a senior at Bishop Hendricken High School) with tautog caught while fishing with his father Eric on No Fluke Charters off Newport.
Tim Gilchrist with a 36” striper he caught near shore at east beach Quonnie.  Tim said, “A lot of school bass were mixed in. Most successful lure was a white 4” Storm Shad fished slowly.”

Giant bluefish (14.17 pounds and 33”) caught by Gil Bell of Charlestown, RI at a Washington County Beach last week.

The fishing is hot… on the water and on your plate
Tautog fishing this past week was hot.  Arguably the best it has been in years. And so was fresh Rhode Island seafood on plates in Newport and around the state.
This week, Newport Restaurant Week partnered with Rhode Island Seafood, a collaborative formed by the RI Department of Environmental Management (DEM) to support local fishermen. 
The aim of the collaborative is to increase awareness and consumption of locally fished species. The RI Seafood seal, which is appearing on Newport Restaurant Week participant’s menus, guarantees that a menu item’s seafood was landed right here in Rhode Island waters.
The RI Seafood Seal Initiative is actually a state- wide effort available on fish throughout the state as long as the processor landing the fish has applied to participate in the program and has been approved to use the seal because they guarantee that the fish has been landed in Rhode Island. 
Once approved, customers of processors landing the fish all along the supply change can use the RI Seafood seal such as distributers, fish markets, supermarkets and restaurants.
Recreational fishermen who eat their catch, know that locally caught seafood is fresher, in that the time from ocean to dinner plate is less.  Of course, locally caught seafood doesn’t guarantee freshness.  We still have to be advocates at the market and in restaurants and ask if the seafood was landed in RI, does it have the RI Seafood Seal and how old is the fish.

And remember, in a fish market it is OK to ask to smell the fish.  Fish the smells fishy won’t necessary harm you, however, it does mean that bacteria has set in and implies that the fish is older.

The RI Seafood Seal is a good step to help insure consumers that the seafood they buy and eat is landed here in Rhode Island and supports local fishermen.

Reel Recovery to be featured charity at Rhody Fly Rodders

The Rhody Fly Rodders will feature their charity of choice ‘Reel Recovery’ at their annual fly tying for charity meeting Tuesday, November 17th, 6:30 p.m. at the Riverside Sportsmen Association, East Providence, RI.

‘Reel Recovery’, the beneficiary of this year’s annual fly tying event is a national organization that offers a retreat for men recovering from cancer.  Experienced tyers will take the lead and instruct meeting participants on how to tie their favorite patterns.

The flies will be collected and then sold at fishing shows and meetings, with all proceeds donated to ‘Reel Recovery’. 

For information contact Peter Nilsen, president, Rhody Fly Rodders at pdfish@fullchannel.net or 401.633.5329.

Capt. Al Anderson to release new book… Tag is in the Fish
Simply put, my book ‘Tag is in the Fish’ is about both traditional and electronic fish tagging along with some information about my personal tagging of both bluefin and stripers.” said Capt. Al Anderson about his new book now at the publishers.  Capt. Anderson who had been a charter captain out of Pt. Judith operated the charter fishing vessel the Prowler for many years.
The book talks about the tagging efforts of various agencies including The Billfish Foundation, The Cooperative Game Fish Tagging Program of NMFS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Cooperative Tagging Program, and the American Littoral Society.
Information on how to purchase the book will be released shortly.
Where’s the bite
Squid fishing has been very good with reports of anglers catching squid in Newport, Jamestown and in Narragansett.  Angler Greg Vespe of Tiverton said, “Squid fishing has been outstanding in the lower bay.    I even got a triple header the other day, my first ever.  Most nights between 10 and 40 pounds.   I hope it will hold until the temperature start to get down towards 50 degrees.”  Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle, Providence said, “Squid fishing has been insane.  Some anglers are catching them on striped bass lures like pencil poppers.  Squid are everywhere.”
Tautog fishing remains off the charts.  It has been the best tautog fishing in a few years with many anglers catching their limit on the southern coastal shore, off Jamestown and Newport.  Some nice fish have been taken in Narraganset Bay at favorite spots such as Hope Island, General Rock, the Providence River and in the Warren River.  Angler Eric Appolonia and I fished off Newport last week and hooked up with nine nice keepers to 24” in a matter of two hours. Fish were caught on an egg sinker rig designed with a single hook below the sinker on a swivel.  The bite off Newport was strong Sunday as well, fishermen on board my boat  reached their limit, with two to three shorts to every keeper. Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle said, “Fishing at Coddington Cover Sunday was difficult. Anglers caught most short fish there.” Chris Jalbert of Westerly and fishing partner Dan Simas of Bristol easily caught eight keepers last week said, “Fish were caught on a simple rig of surgeon's loop with sinker (2-3oz) and a dropper loop 3-4" above the loop with a green crab on a 5/0 octopus hook. Whole and cut crabs worked equally as well. We were fishing south shore of RI in 25-30' water. It's been a very good couple weeks of fishing once water got below 60 degrees.”  Phil Mattson of Breachway Bait & Tackle said, “Tautog fishing off the Charlestown reefs has been great as well as off Pt. Judith.  Anglers are catching fish in 20 to 40 feet of water.”  John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle, Riverside, said customer Albert Bettencourt and fishing partners caught about eighty fish to get to their limit of ten keepers. They fished the Rose Island Newport area. Other areas where anglers are doing well from shore include the old Jamestown Bridge, the Wharf Tavern and Colt State Park areas.” Capt. Frank Blount of the Frances Fleet said, “Black fish action has been remarkably consistent with most days seeing a third to one half of fishers limiting out. Several fish in the 10-11 pound range this past week and a fair amount of others 7-8 pound fish. Tremendous amounts of short tog as well. Only a couple days saw any real quantity of sea bass mixed in, they do seem to be thinning from the inshore grounds as water temps slowly cool. A handful of keeper cod and some short cod along with a few red hake and even a couple conger eels were recorded this past week.”
Striped bass and bluefish fishing from shore all along the southern coastal shore have been very good.  Phil Mattson from Breachway Bait said, “Striped bass fishing from the beach in Charlestown as been very good with school size bass as well as 15 to 25 pound fish.  And, at night 30 to 40 pound fish are being caught on ells at night.  During the day anglers are using Storm Shard, Bucktails and shallow water diving lures with success.”  Mattson said, “The blue fish bite has been good too with some large fish in the 12 to 15 pound range being weighed in this week.”  Tim Gilchrist said, “Lots of early morning stoolies almost on the shore at east beach Quonnie with a few large fish in the 36” range mixed in.  Most successful bias was a white 4” Storm Shad fished slowly.”   Angler Gil Bell of Charlestown said he landed a giant bluefish (14.17 pounds and 33”) a Washington County Beach last

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