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