Finally, a trophy bass… and then snap…your line breaks

No one wants to lose a big fish. Not me, yet time and time again I lose fish because the gear is not right for the job, the tackle is faulty or because I wasn’t ready. Last year I lost a monster fluke (summer flounder) under the Jamestown Bridge. I was fishing for that doormat-sized fluke, yet the rig I was using just didn’t have enough muscle. I keep telling myself “You have to be ready, prepare before you drop your hook, before your fishing trip and before the season starts.” So this article focuses on getting your gear ready for the fishing season now so you don’t lose that big fish.

Here’s a guide on what to do to prepare for the season.

Line
Each year, replace most used line. This is a judgment call as to what is meant by “used”. For example I have reels spooled with 40 lb. test monofilament line for fishing live bait. I used them infrequently last year. So I checked the line, it looked good… no nicks, snags or apparent stress so I did not change it. However, I changed just about every other rig with new monofilament, braid, lead or wire. Spool tight enough and then stretch the line, the first 100 feet (of monofilament line) to relax its memory to avoid bird’s nest tangles.

Reels
Give your reels a good cleaning, particularly when the line is off. Grease where directed by manufacturer, often times, the reel is marked where to do this. If instructions are long gone do not hesitate to stop by your local bait or tackle shop to ask where to grease. Do not be afraid to ask questions, that is what they are there for, and they want your business. By the way, do not grease the drag, It is not meant to be greased, if you do, it will not work.

Rods
Examine the rods for cracks and stress marks. Closely examine the eyes for chips or cuts that could cause line to snag, rub or break. Do not place hooks on the eyes or they will eventually create cracks that will cut line as it passes through.

Tackle
I get tackle ready in chronological order when certain species are fished… starting with tautog, striped bass, blue fish, fluke, tuna, etc. I then go through tautog rigs first, then the striped bass, etc. Make sure you have enough rigs to fish the species. Hooks should be clean and sharp (no rust), and strong enough for the size fish you are going after. Often hooks that come with lures are not quality hooks so I replace them with stronger hooks.

Leaders/Circle Hooks
Use wire leaders for blue fish and monofilament or fluorocarbon for striped bass. Blues won’t bite though the wire and striped bass will find it harder to see the monofilament or fluorocarbon leaders. Make sure leaders have no nicks or stress marks from fish pulling. If they do, replace them. I switched most of my leader hooks to circle hooks, I did this so I can safely catch and release undersized or unwanted fish (particularly striped bass). Circle hooks are designed to hook the fish at the corner of the mouth and not down in the belly.


Where’s the Bite

Freshwater fishing: Opening day is Saturday, April 10. Get you gear ready. Kim Bissonnette of Portsmouth, RI reported a healthy largemouth bass bite this weekend. On Saturday Kim landed nine largemouths in about 3 ½ hours of fishing. Kim will be reporting regularly on the freshwater bite this season. throughout the season.

Saltwater fishing regulations and license. DEM director Michael Sullivan is expected to announce 2010 saltwater fishing regulations in the next week or two. Rhode Island will also likely institute its saltwater fishing license requirement this year. If they do not a federal license will be required. Stay tuned for 2010 regulations and details on the license law roll-out.

Tautog. Spring tautog season opens, April 15 (if tautog regulations stay the same). The tautog proposal presented by the RI Fisheries Council was status quo with 2009… a minimum size of 16” with a split season… April 15 to May 31 (three fish/person/day), July 1 to October 16 (three fish/person/day) and October 17 to December 15 (eight fish/person/day).

Striped Bass. We still have holdover striped bass in the upper reaches of rivers and bays. The only other news I heard was from Rich Back of On The Water magazine on line (http://www.onthewater.com/ ). Rich reports
Osprey sightings which traditionally follow the herring up North. And, if the herring are coming north, the striped bass are right behind them. So this is a good sign.

Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association successfully completed their
annual New England Saltwater Fishing show at the Convention Center in RI and is now preparing for their March 29, 7:00 p.m. monthly seminar. The seminar will feature two topics… Light Tackle Fishing in Narragansett Bay with Captain James White (owner of White Ghost Charters) and a discussion of the R.I. ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) which aims to define zones for RI’s ocean waters. David Beutel of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council will speak about RI’s ongoing SAMP initiative.

Ten Favorite Ways to Catch Striped Bass (4/28/09)

10. Trolling with umbrella rigs. Like to 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. Hook two or three fish at the same time and you are in for a very memorable ride.

9. Casting plastic shad swim baits. Many anglers love this technique and use it most often with success in the spring.

8. Buck tail jigs with pork rind squid strips. Have had success with this method to get under schools of blue fish to get at the striped bass on the bottom.

7. Live eels. Used by shore or boat anglers, some fishing guides use this as their primary method to catch killer stripers. Hook the eel through the mouth and out an eye. Going between the eyes usually kills the bait.

6. Live menhaden. Snag the live bait with a weighted treble hook. Hook the bait through the bridge of the nose, find the pod of fish again and put the live menhaden back into the pod of bait and let it swim. Used when menhaden are running strong, particularly up the Providence River in early spring.

5. Chucking fresh or frozen menhaden. Can anchor or fish moving bait pods with chunks. Can chum with chucks and pieces too. Some anglers use a weight slider to get the bait down to the striped bass.

4. Surface plugs. Have caught hundreds of school bass in the spring using surface plugs of all types.

3. Swimming lures. Great way to catch fish in coves, on rivers, etc. My friend Jim swears by Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows.

2. Parachute squid jigs. Often used in ocean water (where there are squid). Anglers successfully use this method off Newport and Block Island.

1. Trolling with tube and worm. I have had great success using lead line on the Bay with red tubes. Hugely successful on the Southwest ledge off Block Island with 300 ft. of wire line out in 40 to 50 feet of water and using amber tubes.
There are other ways to catch striped bass. So e-mail me your favorite method(s) and we will share it with others.

New Proposed Fishing Regulations
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has proposed amendments to Marine Fisheries Regulations (both recreational and commercial) for several salt water species at a public hearing on Wednesday, April 22 at the URI Bay Campus. For a complete list of proposed regulation changes visit DEM’s Fish & Wildlife Web site at www.dem.ri.gov./progrmas/bnatres/fishwild/ .

At the meeting, DEM related a change in recreational summer flounder regulations necessary to properly manage the fishery. With input from fishermen and the industry, DEM’s Fish and Wildlife Division developed six different summer flounder recreational fishing regulation change options. Option four was the most popular option at the meeting. The proposed regulation increased the size to 21” (from 20”), reduced the per person per day bag limit from seven to six, and reduced the recreational fishing season for summer flounder from year round to June 13 through December 31.

Richard Hittinger, board member of the Rhode Island Salt Water Anglers Association and a recreational representative to the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council said regulations are a balance between the season, size and bag limits. “Each of the options presented had pluses and minuses, but option four seemed to make the most sense”.

Acting Marine & Wildlife director Mark Gibson related that DEM director, W. Michael Sullivan, will review the proposed change options, public comments and will develop recommendations. The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council will then vote on recommended changes.
My guess is that the approved changes will not be in effect before the summer flounder start to bite. But keep your eyes and ears open because regulations will likely change as the season progresses.

Where’s the bite
Striped bass. A lot of bait fish around the mouth of the Barrington River and at Rumstick Point, however no stripers. Ken Ferrara from Ray’s Bait & Tackle related customers caught fish using frozen herring chucks at Mill Cove near Conimicut Point. Angler Mike Shepard from Newport reports no striped bass around this weekend. Craig Mancini from Continental Bait & Tackle in Cranston said school stripers are being reported in and around the mouth of Narrow River. Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle (Coventry/Providence/Bristol) reported Bob Oberg continues to catch stripers (31 this week) trolling in this kayak with tube and worm on the Thames River in CT. I fished Green River, Greenwich Bay and Greenwich Cove with no luck this past weekend. The water is warming up, bait is more visible so conditions are right for striped bass to start appearing soon.

Tautog action slow this past week in the Bay and off Newport. Gary Leatherberry of Erickson’s Bait & Tackle in Warwick related that when the apple blossoms appear the tautog appear too, so tautog should be here soon.
Fluke. No fluke bite reported. See proposed DEM regulation changes above.
Fresh water bite still good. Anglers still catching fish at a variety of ponds, again not their limit but some nice fish. A lot of largemouth bass were taken this weekend at Meshanicut Lake reports Craig Mancini of Continental Bait & Tackle.

Captain Dave Monti has been fishing and shell fishing on Narragansett Bay for over 40 years. He holds a captain’s master license. Your fishing photos with captions, stories, comments and questions are welcome… there’s more than one way to catch a fish so e-mail Captain Dave at ­­­dmontifish@verizon.net .

Photo Caption A
Eric Appolonia of North Kingstown and I caught monster striped bass this fall using wire line and amber colored tube and worm on Block Island’s Southwest ledge. The largest fish that day was 46” and 40 lbs.

Photo Caption B
Angler Jim Malachowski of Cranston displays a 36” striped bass caught last spring using live menhaden on the Providence River.

Tube and Worm Can Yield Big Bass

Trolling with tube and worm for striped bass has been very productive for me over the years. It is a more passive than active tactic compared to site fishing and casting. However, the method allows you to cover a lot of ground when fish are on the move, below the surface and can put your bait exactly where the fish are in the water column. The reward for your patience? You catch bigger striped bass.
Here are a few tube and worm trolling tips that will enhance your catch.
What is a tube and worm rig? A tube and worm rig consists of a colored rubber tube with wire running through it. At one end it has a weight and a swivel that attaches to your line and a hook (or two) on the other end. A live or artificial worm is placed on the hook.
What type of line is used? Fishing with tube and worm generally involves trolling with lead core line (wrapped with braided nylon) or wire line so the tube sinks to a desired level depending on how deep the water is and where the fish are. Generally you want the tube close to the bottom where the big bass are. Lead line is generally used in the Bay for depths of eight to twenty-five feet and wire generally in the ocean for depths greater than twenty-five feet.
The line is marked or coded so the angler knows how much to put out for the depth of the water. For example each thirty feet of lead line is a different color and gets you down five feet. However, I have found this to vary widely depending on the current, weight of the tube and boat speed (when trolling for bass in the Bay I like to troll at 1.5 to 2 knots).
Different types of rigs. Tubes come in all sizes and colors. I have had great luck with red tubes in Narragansett Bay, but amber tubes seem to work best in the ocean in deeper water. I keep a few colors on board… black, orange, purple, red, amber, etc. and rig two different colors and see which color the fish seem to bite. Then switch the rigs to the color that is working.
Knot your tubes. This is important… tubes are supposed to curl and twist like a cork screw as they go through the water. The twisting helps call attention to the bait and they say the bass see it as an eel or large worm going through the water. So buy tubes that are rigid enough to hold a twist. Many anglers knot tubes in storage so they are not flat when they are pulled through the water.
Where to troll. Troll close to shore where bait can get trapped by bass and any place that has good structure on the bottom… rocks, ledge, debris, near bridge pilings, holes and at the edge of current flows. Large bass hold up behind rocks and pilings, in holes and outside of current flow waiting for bait to swim by and then move to take the bait. The ideal place to troll is along a rocky coastline close to shore. Lobster pots are often placed on the edge of a drop off. So although they can create accidental hook ups, tolling near lobster pots is usually a good bet… you’re on a ledge and there is bait in the pot which acts like chum.
Single hook good for catch and release, but keep the pressure on. Striped bass taken on tube and worm are generally hooked on the lip (no gut hooks) with a single hook. The hook is easy to remove and causes minimal trauma to the fish. However, the single hook in the lip can easily be shaken loose by the bass, so it is important to keep pressure on the fish.
Fighting and boating your catch. When fighting fish it is important that the master of the vessel keep the boat moving forward at slow speed and the angler keep pressure on the fish keeping the pole high. Vessel movement is often achieved by putting the boat in and out of gear so it creates slow forward movement. Once the fish is close to the boat try to bring it to the side of the boat so it can now be removed from the water by hand or gaff without shaking loose the hook. These tactics are difficult to do if the angler is alone. Safety should be your top priority, so you may only be able to use some of these tactics when alone.

Where’s the Bite
Fresh Water. Harold Hemberger reported catching three nice pike (the largest six pounds) and one bass on Waterman Lake last Sunday at sunrise with shiners. Melonie Carr and her partner Joe caught five trout, two at Carbuncle Pond in Coventry and three on Wood River. I met Julies Mitchell of Warwick on his way out for a day of bass fishing on Indian Lake. He related he has caught a lot of great bass in Warwick, close to his home, at places like Arnold Pond. Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle in Providence/Coventry/Bristol reported that Dave Pickering caught a 22 lb. carp and Devon White (seven years old) caught a 17 and an 18lb carp at Lake Tiogue in Coventry. Fresh water fishing has been consistent but few have caught their daily limit.
Striped Bass. The striped bass bite seemed to slow as the water cooled last week (dropped two degrees by Friday) and fish in the lower part of the Bay were finicky. Mike Shepard from Newport reported that the bite on and around Aquidneck Island slowed. However, striped bass were being caught in the upper Bay as the water warmed up again Saturday. Anglers caught striped bass using a variety of baits. Ken Ferrara of Ray’s Bait & Tackle in Warwick reported anglers taking fish all over Greenwich Bay… Sally Rock, Warwick Light, Sandy Point, etc. A lot of fish, school bass as well as keepers up to 36”, taken on medium sized storm shad. Early in the week I caught six fish using surface and swimming plugs and at the end of the week landed five fish using tube and worm including a 30” keeper on Greenwich Bay.
Tautog bite was strong in Bristol Harbor this week with Captain Billy Silvia reporting several seven to eight pound fish taken. No fish reported taken at Ohio Ledge Saturday with an incoming tide. However, Ken Ferrara from Ray’s Bait & Tackle reported anglers landing good sized tautog (8 lbs.) at Spindle Rock and Ohio Ledge on Monday with the outgoing tide.
Fluke. This week the RI Department of Environmental Management establish a 21” summer flounder minimum size, with a season that runs from June 17 to December 31 and a possession limit of six fish per person per day. So far other 2009 Recreational Marine Fisheries regulations have stayed the same.
Captain Dave Monti has been fishing and shell fishing on Narragansett Bay for over 40 years. He holds a captain’s master license. Your fishing photos with captions, stories, comments and questions are welcome… there’s more than one way to catch a fish so e-mail Captain Dave at ­­­dmontifish@verizon.net .