Monday, May 6, 2019

Wet start... wild end to Opening Day


Getting ready: Manny Macedo (center) of Lucky Bait, Warren with customers Brenda Ferreira of East Providence and her son Dan Decrescenzo as they stopped by the store to get ready for opening day.
Golden Trout is King: Jaymin Deandrade (center) with a golden trout he caught at Only Pond, Lincoln.  Shown with his brother Henry and uncle Joe Botelhs.

Food and funds donated:  Board and Annual Banquet committee members of the Rhode Island Party & Charter Boat Association with food donated to the Johnny Cake Food Pantry in South County. 


Family fun:  Matthew and Linda Terry of Richmond with their daughter Olivia at Frenchtown Pond in East Greenwich on Opening Day.

Wet start and wild end to Opening Day for Jose Lopez


Opening day of the Rhode Island trout and freshwater season had a wet start and a wild end last Saturday, April 13 for Jose Lopez Jr. of Central Falls.  At the start of opening day (6:08 a.m.) only a few anglers braved the pounding rain and wind at Rhode Island waterways to fish. Jose Lopez started his day at Carbuncle Pond in Coventry.  He and those anglers that fished in the morning were rewarded with some of the 75,000 brook, brown and rainbow trout that had been stocked by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM).

As the day progressed Jose moved to Only Pond, Lincoln during the midafternoon.  The sky had cleared and that is when things got wild for Jose Lopez as he hooked a 27.5 inch golden trout.  Jose said, “This fish kept teasing everyone swimming along the beach but no one could get the fish to bite.  Then I laid out some PowerBait just with a hook and no weight.  I saw the big yellow trout grab the bait and take off. I fought the fish for about 20 minutes and landed landing it at around 5:00 p.m.” The trout, which officially weighed in at 11.36 pounds at Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle, North Kingstown, may be a state of Rhode Island record for a golden trout.  At press time Jose was still waiting for the official word from RI DEM.

Henry Deandrade who also fished opening day at Only Pond, Lincoln (with his uncle and older brother), said, “The fishing is great. We caught ten fish so far, I caught the biggest and my brother Jaymin caught a golden trout.” 

Joe Botelhs of East Providence (Henry and Jaymin’s uncle) said, “We caught all our fish using PowerBait because the fish coming out of the hatchery are used to eating artificial food.”  Once hatchery-raised fish acclimate to the natural surroundings (in a week or so) they are likely to enjoy eating natural baits like meal worms or lures that look like natural baits. Hatchery-raised golden rainbow trout were stocked at 16 of Rhode Island’s most popular fishing locations for Opening Day including the largest fish so far caught by Jose Lopez Jr.

So if you plan to fish for trout this week I would suggest taking artificial baits (like PowerBait) as well as natural baits and natural looking lures.  Be ready to fish a number of different ways and then switch to the rig and bait arrangement that seems to be working best.

At Willet Avenue Pond brothers Nick and Ted Crevier of Riverside had landed two and three tout respectively in two hours.  I met Matthew Terry of Richmond, his wife Linda and daughter Olivia at Frenchtown Pond in East Greenwich at about 10 a.m. in a constant rain.  Linda said, “We just got here.  We fish together as a family all the time and thought we would come out and try our luck on opening day.”

Opening day had a wet start but great ending for anglers like Jose Lopez Jr. who landed a monster golden and just about everyone else who fished the weekend.  Once again our Department of Environmental Management did a great job stocking ponds and planning opening day.

Trout season in Massachusetts started April 1.  Visit www.mass.gov/orgs/division-of-fisheries-and-wildlife for a list of stocked ponds and regulations in Massachusetts.  And, for stocked ponds and regulations in Rhode Island visit www.dem.ri.gov . In Rhode Island anglers who catch a golden trout from Opening Day through April 29 can receive a free golden trout pin. Take a picture of your catch and send it to dem.fishri@dem.ri.gov .



Charter Boat annual meeting

Members of the Rhode Island Party & Charter Boat Association (RIPCBA) gathered Sunday at Spain Restaurant, Narragansett for their Annual Banquet.  About one hundred captains and guests celebrated last year’s catch.  Capt. Rich Bellavance, president, said “We are thankful for a safe year of fishing last year and look forward to a good and safe year of fishing in 2019.”

Captains and guests donated food and cash raised at the annual banquet to the Johnny Cake Food Pantry in South County as they have done for the past several years.



New Association promotes business through conservation

The American Saltwater Guides Association (ASGA) officially launched this month with a mission to promote sustainable business through marine conservation.

Capt. John McMurray, president of the Association, said, “We represent fishing guides and charter captains, small business owners and like-minded anglers to protect marine resources.  Our board of directors is comprised of highly respected small business owners and guides from Maine to North Carolina.  In Rhode Island Peter Jenkins, owner of the Saltwater Edge, Middletown, is our board chairmen and charter Capt. Dave Monti, fishing writer and fisheries advocate, is a board member and chairs our audit committee.”

The ASGA strives to provide a stronger voice and sound representation to the recreational fishing community, and intends to work with lawmakers and various fisheries management bodies by advocating for conservation through science-based management.  It will focus on the positive economic impacts that accrue from management that promotes abundant fish populations and the economic harm that will inevitably result from policies that promote excessive harvest.

The organization has identified striped bass, bluefish, menhaden and the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act as initial management issues that it will focus its efforts on in the near-term. 

Visit www.saltwaterguidesassociation.org for information and as a resource on marine and fisheries management issues. 

Where’s the bite

Freshwater.  Trout fishing at Massachusetts and Rhode Island ponds that have been stocked has been outstanding and is expected to continue to be good this coming week.  Only Pond in Lincoln; Willet Avenue Pond, Riverside; Silver Spring, in North Kingstown; and Frenchtown Pond, East Greenwich were all yielding large brown,  brook and rainbow trout this week.  The largemouth bass bite was good too with angles using shiners as the bait of choice.  Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle, Providence said, “Customers are catching trout with artificial baits (like PowerBait) as the food of choice of these hatchery raised stocked trout is still manufactured food until they acclimate to their natural surroundings.”



Saltwater fishing. Anglers continue to fish for small holdover striped bass in Narrow River, Narragansett, and the Pawcatuck River, Westerly.  A few angles have started to fish for tautog. Ken Ferrara of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick, said, “Customers are buying crabs but no reports of high volumes of keeper tautog being caught.”  Some anglers are catching tautog but they are small fish. Tautog season started April 1, the minimum size is 16” and the limit is three fish/person/day.


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