DEM stocks waterways with trout

Posted

The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is stocking ponds and rivers across Rhode Island with some 1,400 brown and brook trout.

Stocked waterways include Meadowbrook Pond, Richmond; Carbuncle Pond, Coventry; Olney Pond, Lincoln; Silver Spring Lake, North Kingstown; Round Top Ponds, Burrillville; Barber Pond, South Kingstown; and Upper Melville Pond, Portsmouth.

A current fishing license and a Trout Conservation Stamp are required to keep or possess a trout. The daily creel and possession limit for trout through Feb. 29 is two. Anglers are advised to refer to individual communities regarding safe ice conditions on local ponds before ice fishing.

Lean how to fish from the pros

The holidays are over and anglers are starting to focus their thoughts on the 2016 fishing season. What better way to enhance your skills… the fishing strategies, tactics and baits you will keep in your arsenal to catch fish next year.  I am constantly trying to learn from others and here is a great opportunity.

The Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series is the perfect opportunity, this will be the seventh George Poveromo seminar I have attended and it is being held in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Saturday, Jan. 16, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Klein Memorial Auditorium, 910 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport.

George Poveromo, host of George Poveromo’ s World of Saltwater Fishing on the NBC Sports Network, and contributing editor for Salt Water Sportsman, will headline the program, along with Ric Burnley, noted light tackle inshore and offshore angling authority and regional editor for Salt Water Sportsman.

This year Rhode Island’s very own Capt. Jack Sprengel of East Coast Charters will join Poveromo on stage as a regional expert captain. Capt. Sprengel is a New England offshore professional that often targets species such as wahoo, mahi mahi, tuna and sharks of all types. He is also a light tackle fishing expert bringing his customers to inshore striped bass in Narragansett Bay in the spring and off Block Island in the summer.

An after the seminar party will be held at the new Bass Pro Shops in Bridgeport from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. A section of the store will be reserved for seminar attendees, where they can enjoy complementary food and beverages, meet George Poveromo and socialize with other seminar speakers, faculty and attendees.

Courses for the January 16  presentation will focus on live-baiting for trophy striped bass; spinner-and-worm fishing for striped bass; stripers on top water lures; diamond and flutter jigging for striped bass and bluefish; chunking for big striped bass; inshore wire-line techniques; how to locate bluefish when they’re not plentiful; targeting jumbo bluefish; gigging for blackfish; no-nonsense blackfish tactics; how to choose, rig and fish the most productive New England artificials; trophy fluke tactics; summer flounder or fluke by the numbers; secrets of fishing Long Island Sound; bucktailing for trophy black sea bass; deep jigging tactics; top tactics for bonito and false albacore; no-nonsense bluefin tactics; dialing in on big eye tuna; cutting edge tuna trolling patterns; how to create and troll a deadly offshore trolling spread (teasers and dredges included); live-chumming and live-baiting for tunas; tricks for chunking tunas; kite fishing for sharks and tunas; hot methods for catching mako, blue, thresher and porbeagle sharks; taking sharks on light-tackle; how to find and fish near shore and offshore surface temperature breaks.

Seminar Series tickets are $55 each. The ticket price covers a gift bag that includes a course textbook, a one-year subscription or extension to Salt Water Sportsman and a host of other items. Participants receive chances to win thousands of dollars’ worth of door prizes.

At the conclusion of the Bridgeport, Connecticut, seminar, there will be a drawing for a chance to win a fishing trip to the Florida Keys. The drawing will consist of the names of the attendees on hand that day, and one lucky person will win the trip for two.

Register by calling 800/448-7360, or visit www.nationalseminarseries.com.

National registry increased to $29

It was wise for Rhode Island (and other states) to institute their own license/registry laws and comply with NOAA’s request for angler information. Last week the National Saltwater Angler Registry announced that it will increase from $25 to $29 effective January 1. The cost of a saltwater license in Rhode Island is $7.

Rhode Islanders do not have to register with NOAA if they have a State fishing license. Persons who fish on a licensed charter boat, are 16 years-old or younger, or hold a valid saltwater fishing license or registration-issued by any "Exempted State" are not required to register with NOAA Fisheries.

To date, Rhode Island and all coastal states and territories, except Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands, are designated as Exempted States. The Exempted States have entered into formal agreements with NOAA Fisheries to provide lists of their licensed anglers and for-hire vessel operators. This information helps NOAA meet the recreational catch and effort data collection needs of the fishery management and stock assessment programs. In particular, the timely submission of angler registry data by the states supports the Marine Recreational Information Program's new mail-based Effort Survey.

Visit www.countmyfish.noaa.gov/register to register and for information.

NOAA regulations announced in national register

NOAA announced the 2016-2018 regulations for summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass in the national register earlier this week.

The summer flounder catch limit has been reduced by 30 percent (from 23 million pounds to 16 million pounds) due to four years of below average recruitment (young fish entering the fishery). The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has requested a stock assessment update for next year.

The scup catch limit is slightly reduced compared to 2015 levels, but is still well above recent catch.

The black sea bass catch limit will increase from 5.5 million pounds to 6.67 million pounds for 2016 and 2017. This is based on the revised recommendation of the Mid-Atlantic Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The 2018 regulations will be determined after the next scheduled stock assessment.

NOAA plans to issue a recreational fishing bulletin in early spring on these species, however, for details on proposed regulations, read the rule as published in the Federal Register earlier this week and the commercial   permit holder bulletin posted on NOAA’s website. Contact Moira Kelly at 978/281-9218 or moira.kelly@noaa.gov for questions on the NOAA rule.

Where’s the bite

Fresh water fishing is good. Small and large mouth bass are biting and the trout bite is good in waterways stocked by the Department of Environmental Management, visit www.dem.ri.gov for a list of ponds.  John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle, Riverside said, “Customers are buying shiners and fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass. A few customers are fishing Rhode Island waterways that were stocked with brown trout by DEM last month. I have not heard from many yet as to how they are doing but we have plenty of shiners to accommodate them.”

Cod fishing continues to be good. Angler Larry Norin said, “I went fishing on the Frances fleet last week and there were light crowds on Monday with 5-8' seas. Boat went home early after a full boat limit.  All of my cod were 4-7 lbs. Ten cod, one black sea bass, two scup, six ocean perch and three dogfish plus lots of short cod.” Capt. Frank Blount of the Francis Fleet said, “We had an excellent run of early winter cod fishing last week. Both jigs and bait are producing. Sizes vary from day to day with some trips producing smaller keepers while other trips produce a very good number of big fish. This past Saturday was a prime example of such a trip with a pool fish of 20 pounds that had to be balanced against several other fish and at least three dozen other cod fish in the low to mid-teens.”

Captain Dave Monti has been fishing and shellfishing for over 40 years.  He holds a captain’s master license and a charter fishing license. Visit Captain Dave’s No Fluke website at www.noflukefishing.com or e-mail him with your fishing news and photos at dmontifish@verizon.net.

Dave Monti

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.