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Circle hooks are designed to hook fish on lip and not the
gut. Photo by Mike Swain.
Favorite ways to catch and release striped bass
We have a good amount of bait in
the water… Atlantic Menhaden (pogies), squid, silversides and worms from worm hatches.
This translates into great striped bass fishing. The action is hot but sometimes
catching bass can be difficult, you need to mix it up with different baits and
fish where the fish are feeding.
Here are ten ways to catch striped
bass, and to help sustain and enhance this great fishery of ours, they are
followed by catch and release tips.
Ten ways to catch striped bass
10.
Trolling with umbrella rigs. Many
use this technique trolling in deeper parts of Narragansett Bay, off Newport or
Block Island with a variety of squid, shad, worm or eel umbrella rigs.
9. Casting soft plastics, various bait types
and weights to fish different depths.
Make sure the plastic baits are scented if they are not, add some scent.
Who wants to eat plastic?
8. Buck tail jigs with pork rind squid strips. Many have had success with this method to get
under schools of blue fish to the striped bass below.
7. Live eels. Used by shore and boat anglers, particularly
for larger trophy sized bass. Hook the
eel through the mouth and out one eye.
Going between the eyes usually kills the bait.
6. Live menhaden. Snag the live bait with a weighted treble
hook or net them. Hook the bait through
the bridge of the nose, put the fish back in the school of menhaden and let it
swim.
5. Chunking fresh or frozen menhaden. Anchor (and chum); drift fish or fish the
moving bait schools with chunks. Some
anglers use weight slides to get the bait down to where the fish are.
4. Surface plugs. Many school bass in the spring are caught using
surface plugs of all types.
3. Swimming lures. My favorite is a grey and silver Yo-zuri Crystal
Minnow.
2. Parachute
squid jigs. Often used in ocean
water (or where there are squid).
Anglers successfully use this method off Newport, Narragansett and Block
Island.
1. Trolling
with tube and worm. Anglers use lead
and wire line or weight there tube to get it down to the bottom where the big
bass are. Lead and wire line is designed
to sink in water column. Bubblegum or red colored tubes seem to work best in
the Bay and amber colored ones off coastal shores, all tipped with clam worm.
How to enhance your catch and release efforts
Many anglers are releasing all striped
bass they catch to help sustain and enhance the fishery. According from a NOAA report, 92% of recreational
striped bass are being released. Anglers who keep their catch often catch several
undersized fish until they catch their limit of two legal sized fish over 28”. So it is important to plan your catch and
release efforts to insure the fish you are not taking have the best chance of
surviving.
One way to enhance survival is to
use circle hooks. Circle hooks have been
used by commercial fisherman for years.
When long-line fishermen using circle hooks would return to check their
hooks… the fish would still be alive (hooked in the jaw or mouth and not in the
stomach).
Here’s how circle hooks work…after
the bait and hook are swallowed by the fish and it starts to run, the hook is
pulled out of the stomach and slides toward the point of resistance on the
fish’s jaw or lip and embeds itself in the lip, usually the corner of the
fish’s mouth.
Circle hooks successfully hook bass
in the mouth 95% of the time. The trick
is not to jerk the rod to set the hook because you could pull the bait and hook
right out of the fish’s mouth. Let the
fish run, as it does, it will pull the hook out of its stomach and hook itself
on the lip. Once this happens the fish
is hooked so all you have to do is start fighting the fish and reeling it
in. To release striped bass, consider
these techniques (many from RI DEM).
1.
Use circle hooks, they successfully hook bass in
the mouth (not the gut) 95% of the time.
2.
Land fish quickly to minimize stress.
3.
Avoid putting fish on deck and letting it flop
around, keep it in the water as much as possible.
4.
Wet your hand before handling the fish, dry
hands remove the fish’s protective slime layer and leave it open to infection
5.
Handle fish carefully. Do not put fingers into gill cavities or eye
sockets.
6.
Gently remove the hook to minimize damage.
7.
Use lures with single hook, barbless hooks (I
snap them off), or circle hooks (as noted above).
8.
Return fish to water quickly. Place fish gently
in water in upright horizontal position.
Move it back and forth in the water to force water across its
gills. Once revived allow fish to swim
away.
Freshwater
fly-fishing workshop
The DEM’s Division of Fish and Wildlife
will hold an introduction to freshwater fly-fishing program this month. Hosted
by the Division's Aquatic Resource Education (ARE) program, the workshop will
be held in Mapleville on Saturday, May 31 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The workshop
this year has been reduced to $25.00/person. Held annually at the scenic
Addieville East Game Farm, this six-hour workshop teaches the basics of fly
fishing. All equipment and materials are provided. Space is limited, to
register contact Kimberly Sullivan at 539-0019 or kimberly.sullivan@dem.ri.gov.
Where’s
the bite
Striped bass fishing is good. Small school size striped bass and keepers
(over 28”) are being caught from the rivers in Providence to Newport and along
the coastal shores. Carlos De Hoyas of
Pawtucket landed several keeper bass to 33” at Gano Street in Providence.
Carlos said, “I was using sea worms with an outgoing
tide around 7:30 p.m. last week. A lot of pogies in the River… some guys are
catching fish at night by live lining under the new Pawtucket bridge at (I-95)
Exit 28. Some of them are big.” Mike Swain of Coventry and I fished with circle
hooks and fresh Atlantic Menhaden chucks Saturday and landed striped bass to
35” and 16 pounds in the East Passage.
Anglers are also having luck trolling tube & worm and using small
umbrella rigs. However, bass along the
southern coastal shore and at Block Island is just starting to pick up. Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marina, South
Kingstown said, “The big fish are still up the rivers, there are plenty of
small school bass around but few big fish at Block Island.”
Summer flounder (fluke) are in so whenever
you get tired of fishing for bass, don’t hesitate to give fluke fishing a try. Minimum size is 18” with a limit of eight
fish/angler/day. Roger Simpson of the
Frances Fleet said Sunday’s, “Full day fluke trip was the best day of the week. Capt. Richie
crushed the fish, lots of limits, over 150 keepers. 50 fish over 4 lbs, pool
fish just under or at ten pounds.”
Angler Ed Bison reports, “Fished the southern Bay yesterday (Saturday).
Fluke are in caught three nice keepers to 24" landed a total of 8 in
a little over an hour on the incoming.”
John Stavrakas of North Kingstown said, “With wind against tide we
worked hard for a couple of shorts at Nebraska Shoal and Green Hill. We ran to
Block Island and fished south of New Harbor for some consistent action. We put
three keepers in the box and caught a couple dozen shorts (mostly 17 inches). Noted local angler Don Smith said Sunday he
and
Peter Vican “Fished just
outside the East Wall (Harbor of Refuge) and my first fluke was 19½” with two more at 19" each. We had only
one short hooked for the trip. Monday we decided to try the same area and we
did really well. Kept nine fluke for that day. The smallest keeper was
191/2" and Peter caught a 27" fluke that weighed in at 8.88 lbs. We
were fishing in 45' of water, using squid strips and Peruvian Silversides. The
water temp was 52.” Four reports from
Montauk confirm they are killing the fluke there with many anglers reaching
their limit. “Fluke fishing on the south and southwest sides of Block Island
is starting to pick up. It is better
there than along the coast right now.” said Matt Conti.
Bluefish. “Anglers targeting bass at the southwest side
of Block Island are catching good sized bluefish.” said Matt Conti of Snug
Harbor Marina. Angler Joseph Daniels of
Warwick said, “… hitting
the stripers on pogies, but there are some really BIG blues mixed in, 3 blues to 1 striper…
caught a one 35 inches, 13 lbs - he growled at me.” Chris Catucci of Warwick said, “Saturday fishing near Rocky Point I landed one gator blue around
10 pounds, followed by over a dozen schoolies. All of these fish came on a Zara
Spook top water bait. The stripers seem to only be feeding when there was an
absence of wind and overcast conditions.”
Tautog fishing remains strong but spotty. Anglers are on them or not (as is always the
case with tautog). The fish being caught
are good size, many in the eight pound range. Minimum size is 16”, 3
fish/angler/day with 10 fish boat limit, spring tautog season ends May 31.
Squid fishing remains strong
around Newport with anglers seeing clouds of bait when fishing for bass.
Fresh water fishing remains strong
for both trout and largemouth bass. Many anglers are still catching trout stocked
in ponds by DEM including the Golden Trout that played a larger role in DEM’s
hatchery program this year. Visit www.dem.ri.gov for stocked ponds and Golden Trout program
information.
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