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 17^th, 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

Second giant in 10 days for Rhode Island angler

 Giant bluefin caught after five hour fight: This 763 pound tuna was caught by David Appolonia, South Kingstown, RI (bottom right), his second giant bluefin in ten days.  Lenny Upham (bottom left) of Cranston and Appolonia’s brothers Felix (top left) of West Warwick and Eric of North Kingstown (top right) were part of the team that caught this giant. Photo by Capt. Louis DeFusco.

State champs: Pat Crabtree and Chris Catucci of Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick are getting ready for the freshwater fishing High School Eastern Conference Championship in Virginia on September 15.  Pat and Chris shown here as they finished first in the State of Rhode Island with a largemouth bass five fish limit weight of 14.5 pounds.

Second giant in 10 days for Rhode Island angler

Fishing for giant bluefin tuna off Rhode Island coastal shores hasn’t exactly been productive for sport fishermen for the past several years.  In fact, many have taken to fishing off Cape Cod as bluefin tuna have been more plentiful and larger in that area. But this season, with very few fish around in waters off Rhode Island, David Appolonia of South Kingstown, RI and his crew managed to boat two giant bluefin fishing the waters south of Block Island.  His second fish, 763 pounds and 108 inches long, arrived at Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown, RI after sunset.  Just ten days earlier, Appolonia brought a 730 pound bluefin to the same dock.

Snug Harbor Marina serves as the weigh-in station for most big game fish landed in RI.  Owner Al Conti said, “It is like getting struck by lightning twice… but David Appolonia managed to catch his second giant bluefin tuna… when there is nothing else around.” 

David Appolonia is no novice. He is a giant hunter, catching an 878 pound giant bluefin tuna three years ago. “Catching giants is truly a team effort.  This time we had Lenny Upham of Cranston, RI on the boat. He is experienced and comes from a long line of tuna fishermen.  And very special for me, my two brothers Felix (Appolonia of West Warwick, RI) and Eric (Appolonia of North Kingstown, RI) were crew members too.  All took turns on the reel as this fish was very strong.”

“We were anchored and chumming when we picked up the fish at 12:10 p.m. We thought we would luck out as it surfaced in 45 minutes but then sounded and it took five hours to land.  Lenny harpooned it and my brother Felix gaffed the fish.  We got the tail tied at about 5:15 p.m.  It took us about two and a half hours to get back to Point Judith.” said Appolonia.  It is important to note that all three of David’s giant bluefin tuna were caught on his 26’ Regulator.

Well done and congratulations David, Lenny, Felix and Eric on a very nice fish!  David Appolonia and his crew members are writing new chapters in the history of Rhode Island giant bluefin tuna fishing.

NOAA here to listen to fishermen

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) was in Rhode Island Monday to hear directly from Rhode Island fishermen about issues facing the industry.  John K. Bullard, who was recently appointed to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Northeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, and Bill Karp, who was recently named Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center met with fishermen in Narragansett at what was billed as a “listening session”.  Senators Jack Read and Sheldon Whitehouse along with DEM Director Janet Coit organized the meeting.

Warm water hurting striped bass when brought to surface

For the past three weeks, anglers catching and releasing striped bass off Block Island have noticed that the fish are having much more trouble reviving than ever before.  Many wonder if it is a lack of oxygen.  Last week when fishing on the southwest side of Block Island angler Chris Jalbert said, “… Some of the fish were difficult or impossible to revive even after short fights with circle hooks and being released without even lifting them from the water.  Somewhat exasperating, and (it) is the reason we stopped fishing…”

Chris Deacutis, PhD and chief scientist for the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program (NBEP) at the URI Bay Campus has been working on the issue of low oxygen in saltwater and its impact on fish for over ten years.  Dr. Deacutis does not think it is low oxygen affecting striped bass but rather CO2 and warm water temperatures when the fish are brought to the surface.  Dr. Deacutis said, “Open waters outside the upper half of the Bay have never shown any evidence of low DO (dissolved oxygen).  The most likely culprit (for bass having trouble reviving) is the CO2 - blood pH issue after a fight.  The surface waters are so warm now (75 degrees) the bulls (striped bass) just can't acclimate to these surface temps...that's why they stay on the bottom, and there is significant stress just from the temp jump alone when brought to the surface, never mind the fight.”

Anglers are urged to catch only what they plan to keep, then lay of the striped bass as the mortality rate of released fish under these conditions is likely very high.

Where’s the bite

Striped bass fishing when the weather permitted last week was good at night and slow during the day at the North Rip and the Southwest Ledge area off Block Island.  Captain Robb Roach of Kettlebottom Outfitters, Jamestown, RI said, “I was out fishing Thursday and Friday at Block and yesterday locally. Block Island has been a bust lately unless you seek bluefish and sea bass. Locally we have found a lot of the same. We fished yesterday with eels and managed only bluefish and sea bass. Switched to tube and worm and nailed a nice 47" striper.”  Mary Dangelo of Maridee Canvas-Bait & Tackle of Narragansett said, “Prior to rough conditions, customers were catching school striped bass with some keepers mixed in at dawn until 7 a.m. fishing off the wall at Narragansett Pier.”

Tautog fishing is still slow.  Anglers catching some small tautog off Black Point in Narragansett. “Divers are reporting a good number of tautog but not many anglers are targeting them yet.” said Mary Dangelo of Maridee Bait & Tackle.  John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle said, “Small tautog is being cauth at Conimicut Point, Colt State Park and at Ohio Ledge with few keepers in the mix at this time.” A good tautog bite reported off the Castle Hill area of Newport.

Scup fishing remains strong at Colt State Park, Ohio Ledge and off Conimicut Light said John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & tackle.

Offshore.  Eric Weybrant said bluefin fishing was slow last Monday at the Mud hole (14 miles off Point Judith), “We got one small bluefin just under 30" right on top of the deepest part of the Mud hole about 20 minutes after going lines in. This was at 6 am. Should have called it a day right there but we slugged it out for another five hours. One more hookup at 10 a.m. at the southern tip of the Gully but the hook pulled before we could fight the rod out of the holder.”