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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