No Fluke: August fishing strong

Posted 8/20/15

August has been an excellent fishing month. With a late start to the season, which many attribute to the water being colder than usual, anglers are hoping for a strong fall to finish the season.

Striped bass, fluke and bonito fishing good

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No Fluke: August fishing strong

Posted

August has been an excellent fishing month. With a late start to the season, which many attribute to the water being colder than usual, anglers are hoping for a strong fall to finish the season.

Striped bass, fluke and bonito fishing good

Neil Hayes of Quaker Lane Outfitters, North Kingstown said, “The striped bass bite at Block Island has been very strong.” Saturday I fished Block Island with Kevin Fetzer of East Greenwich and Steve Brustein of West Warwick for striped bass and summer flounder (fluke) and the fishing was good. We stopped off just inside the three mile limit off Point Judith and hooked up with multiple summer flounder and back sea bass.

Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown said, “Fluke on the southeast corner of Block Island has been good as well as at the hooter can off Point Judith. The striped bass bite on Block Island is good with eels being the bait of choice this week. Green bonito fishing has been great too from Point Judith to Westerly.”

Angler Ken Blanchard, Jr. said on the RISAA blog, “Lots of schools of bonito from the beach at Quonnie very close to shore. I was in the schools twice for three casts with a small Deadly Dick but never got a hook-up…had my chances for sure.”

“Offshore fishing for big eye tuna and yellowfin has been fair with anglers being successful landing fish but not like the fall run we had last year.  Fish are being caught at the Fish Tales and Atlantis with anglers hooking up with mako sharks at the Fingers. Cod fishing on Cox’s Ledge has been good too,” said Conti.

Ken Landry of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick said, “People are catching striped bass at Block Island both day and night but the bite is good some days and not so good other days. The same with offshore fishing. Guys are trying to hook up with shark and tuna but things offshore are not consistently good.”

“One theme which has been becoming increasingly apparent this season is that those who are really dialed in with the buck tails are scoring the best (fluke fishing on the Frances Fleet)… although this past Saturday saw whole squid reign supreme,” said Roger Simpson of the Frances Fleet.

Hayes said, “There has been a good squid run this past week in both Jamestown and Newport.”

Scup, bluefish bite good in bay

In Narragansett Bay fishing has slowed due to warming water. But anglers are catching scup, black sea bass and bluefish with the tautog bite just starting as anglers turn their attention to this species. Hayes said, “The tautog bite is still not strong as the water is still warm, but some people are catching fish.”

Landry said, “Fluke fishing in Narragansett Bay has slowed down quite a bit but fish are being caught under the bridges, at the Sakonnet and at Elbow Ledge. The tautog fishing is slow but a customer has caught several keepers with shorts mixed in off the town dock in Jamestown. He is also catching scup and squid from the dock in Jamestown.”

Brandon Hagopian of Cranston landed a 9.4 pound fluke this week in the Newport Bridge area. Brandon said, “This weekend the fluke were following the big balls of squid from the bridge to Bull Point, Jamestown. We were getting them from 100 feet to 35 feet. Used as light a jig as you can to hold bottom with, cast up current, and finesse it past the drift until you can't hold ground anymore. Bring it up and redo. It takes a lot of work but when they are finicky it does the trick.” “The water is very warm in the Bay. Everyone is catching scup… at Barrington Beach and just about anywhere you can put a line in the water… Riverside and Providence. The bass bite is nonexistent but the bluefish are around in numbers. Thursday night at a summer concert at Crescent Park Carousel the blue fish were in a feeding frenzy pushing bait fish to the shore and onto the beach and the band stopped playing as everyone at the concert watched the bluefish action by the shore.”

ASMFC 2015 summer meeting presentations

Presentations and audio links of Board and Section proceedings from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) 2015 Summer Meeting are available at  www.asmfc.org. Visit this website to get an idea of what transpired on striped bass, tautog, and black sea bass and other important species to recreational fishermen in Rhode Island.

Captain Dave Monti has been fishing and shell fishing 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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