Sophia Garzoli of Massachusetts weighed in this 5.7
pound tautog at Ocean State Tackle, Providence. She caught it using Asian crabs
as bait fishing off the West Wall of the Harbor of Refuge.
380 pound mako landing was team effort
There is something mystical about
coming in contact with sharks. They are
very powerful. Anglers do take them for food.
Very much the way they catch and eat cod fish, summer flounder, striped
bass or tuna. In fact, mako sharks taste very much like swordfish.
Shark fishing can be exciting. Like fishing for any other large game fish
such as giant bluefin tuna, shark fishing is very much a team effort with the
entire crew working to successfully land a fish. Teamwork was exhibited last week when Bob
Neilson and crew landed a 380 pound mako shark that was nearly eight feet long. One of the largest mako sharks landed in
Rhode Island this year. Here is their story.
Bob Nielson said, “We started the day cod fishing at Cox’s
Ledge and after landing 20-25 cod we decided to set up a slick and start shark
fish. Within ten minutes, we had a two
foot mako in the slick and we watched it devour a bait close to the boat. The
fish left in a hurry. We hooked into a
mako approximately six feet in length which shook the hook at boat side. I
figured we were done with mako fishing for the day. About 30 minutes later, an
eight foot mako hit a bluefish filet. The fish made five spectacular jumps and
it took about an hour to bring it along side and tail rope it.”
Bob Neilson of Exeter was fishing on the Kimberly Marie owned by John Kowaleski
of Narragansett, RI.
The fish was landed by Dan Fleury of Hope Valley and Bob
Neilson was the leader man and fought the fish on the harpoon line. Bob said, “I am very proud of the crew and
how they handled the battle. This was the first Mako for Ian Drumm of Burrillville
who fought the fish valiantly for the first thirty minutes while other crew
members jumped on the reel and drove the boat.
The dock hand at Sung Harbor Marina, where the fish was weighed in, said
at 380 pounds it was the largest mako weighted in so far this year.”
Location of RISAA meeting changed
The Monday, August 29, 7:00 p.m. Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers
Association (RISAA) meeting will be held at The Villa Restaurant, 272
Cowesett Avenue, West Warwick. Capt.
Mike Roy will speak about how to
catch striped bass, bonito and false albacore on light tackle (an appropriate
topic for the fall fishing season). Non-members welcome with a $10
donation to the Scholarship Fund, RISAA members attend free. Separate fee for dinner which is provided by
The Villa.
Fall hatches will be the topic at Trout Unlimited meeting
The August 31st meeting
of Trout Unlimited (TU) will focus on fly tying for fall hatches, primarily a
variety of terrestrials. This will be
the last streamside meeting of the summer held at the Deer Check Station on Rte
165 (Ten Rod Road) in Exeter, RI. In a
meeting announcement the Trout Unlimited Narragansett Chapter said “For those
interested in tying with our experts, bring your tools. For those who would like to learn the basics
of fly tying, we will host a beginners tying table with tools and materials.” Networking will start at 5:00 p.m., food
available at 5:30 p.m., with a short meeting at 6:00 p.m. before the fly tying
starts. The meeting will end in time for
anglers to fish at dusk. Contact chapter
president, Ron Marafioti, at (401) 463-6162, with questions.
Where’s the bite
“Striped bass fishing is good at the Southwest Ledge (Block Island)
with a stronger bite at night. However,
Saturday was a pretty good day on the Ledge with a good night bite at the North
Rip.” said Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown, RI. Kim Petti of Fin & Feathers Outfitters,
North Kingstown said, “Narrow River is holding bait which has really brought
back the shad and school size striped bass.”
“Customers Albert and Kevin Bettencourt made a Block Island trip Friday
night. They launched from the boat ramp
in Galilee at about 7:00 p.m. and arrived at the Southwest Ledge at about 8:00
p.m. They had a total of three people on
board and returned by 11:30 p.m. with a 38, 34 and 32 pound fish. They drifted eels… three drifts and each time
all three rods when down. They could not
turn two fish in time and experience a couple of brake offs that were likely
very large fish.” said John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle,
Riverside.
Bluefish reports are spotty in the bay, however, they are at Block
Island with anglers catching them when fishing for striped bass. Skipjack bluefish (small bluefish) are in
coves and rivers in force. “I had a
barrel full of those small skipjack poppers and they are half gone in just a
couple of days.” said John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle.
Bonito. Reports of anglers seeing or landing bonito are common
almost every day now. Matt Conti of Snug
Harbor said, “Two customers had a school of bonito come close enough to them
while fishing the West Wall of the Harbor of Refuge but could not hook up. There were boats chasing them too, but no
reports of landings.” Kim Petti of Fin
& Feathers said, “Customers who fish the southern coastal shore have been
landing bonito that have been feeding on bay anchovies.”
The scup bite remains strong just about everywhere. “Customers are catching scup (and Tommy cod)
at Sabin Point and just about everywhere else, they are doing well from the
Barrington Bridge (at the old police station).” said John Littlefield of
Archie’s Bait.
Summer flounder fishing remains strong with the East Grounds (about
three miles east of Block Island) and the area around the wind farm towers
producing best for anglers. Fluke
fishing expert Bob Murray of Skipjack
said, “We could not get a good drift going Tuesday at the East Grounds but we
managed to hook up with a few fish and then we moved to the windmill area and
did better.” Matt Conti said the south
shore experienced a wave of good fluke fishing this week, but most of the
action is still at the wind farm and the East Fishing Grounds.” Mike Swain of Coventry said, “We have been
able to catch summer flounder off Newport but it has been slow going. Saturday I fished alone and managed to land
two nice fluke in the 21” to 23” range and my limit of sea bass (three
fish/angler/day). But fluke fishing in
the lower Bay, off Newport and Jamestown has not been good this season.” Capt.
Frank Blount of the Frances Fleet said, “Fluke and black sea bass fishing was
good this week with angler Tom Lombardi of Connecticut landing a 29 inch, 11.6 pound fluke that was caught on his first
drift of the day using a bucktail rig he made himself."
Fresh water fishing has been just OK. “The Wood River water flow is up.” said Kim
Petti of Fin & Feathers. “We are
optimistic the high water level will be good for fishing over the next week… Customers
have also been doing well with trout fishing the Farmington River in
Connecticut using small flies. Ant flies
are working well and soon green inch worms will be in season which will change fly
presentations.”
“Offshore fishing at the
Canyons (Atlantis and the Fishtails) was not great last week. With the full
moon this week customers did not do well fishing offshore. Some small yellow fin and big eye tuna were
caught there. At the outer Butterfish
Hole anglers have been catching some small yellow fin tuna and some very small
bluefin tuna (18” to about 34”).” said Matt Conti of Snug Harbor. Capt. Rick Bellavance of Priority Too Charters said, “Offshore tuna fishing slowed to a
crawl this past week. I fished Butterfish
Hole last week and the Dump on Monday for not much.” Last Wednesday angler Richard Pastore said he
fished the northwest corner of the dump and trolled halfway down the southwest
corner and then turned towards the Suffolk with nothing showing, “Lots of whales, birds, dolphins
and bait but no tuna. bait was at 50’ and 125’. Water temps are 75+ anywhere
south of the Block Island. My summary conclusion is the tuna have left the
building so don’t bother chasing them. Mahi and cod are the fun fish right now.”
Cod fishing remained strong this week at Cox’s Ledge. Angler Richard Pastore said, “Wednesday we fished the east
to south west corner of Cox’s Ledge where we spotted eight boats fishing cod.
Took a few small to medium sized cod on jigs and squid. Also a nice biomass of black sea bass mixed
in with the cod and better yet no dog fish.
The cod bite is pretty reasonable.”
Saturday angler Pastore fished Cox’s Ledge again, “The Ledge is covered
with a sparse biomass of small to medium cod and plenty of black sea bass… pick
a spot and start drifting. Watch the sounder for violent changes in the bottom
structure. Every time we drifted across one of those we hooked up.” Capt. Rick Bellavance of Priority Too charters said, “Cod fishing is better than it’s been
in years.”
