Striped bass fishing still strong
Brandon Hagopian caught this 43-pound, 47-inch striped bass this week as fishing intensified in the upper Bay.
Live lining or fishing with chunks of Atlantic menhaden, day or night, has been the bait of choice for striped bass.
”We caught four nice stripers with Capt. Jack Sprengel of Warwick on East Coast Characters in the 20-pound range and one nearly 30-pounds fishing with my brothers and nephew last Friday, ” said Ken Blanchard Jr. “We left Greenwich Marina at 5:30 a.m. and went up the Providence River. We located the bait, snagged Atlantic menhaden and then live lined them. We had our limit by 8:30 a.m.”
Angler Mike Swain of Coventry added, “We caught striped bass to 27 pounds in the upper Providence River this weekend and did well on Monday as well.”
Patti Ferrara of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick, said, “Striper fishing is very good. This weekend customers were catching stripers with chucks of Atlantic menhaden off Prudence Island at Providence Point.” The East Passage of the Bay has been where all the action has been. Additionally, fishing in the Mt. Hope Bay has been good. Angler Travis Barao of East Providence said this weekend, “We left the Mt. Hope Bay area and saw over twenty boats fishing for striped bass at the Bridge.”
One of the largest fish this week was caught by Brandon Hagopian — a 43-pound, 47-inch striped bass.
Capt. Rick Bellavance of Priority Too Charters, Pt. Judith said, “We are starting to catch some nice fish at Block Island both at the North Rip and Southwest Ledge area. There seem to be a lot of small scup in the water so we have been using silver spoons with success.”
Noted local fly fisherman, Ed Lombardo said, “We have been fishing the Barrington River for the last week and a half and there are plenty of striped bass but they are small fish but are a lot of fun on a 6 wt. or 7wtl fly rod. Dark olive and black flies work very well because the number of mummichogs in the River. One bass was a nice 19” fish, big for what we have been getting at the Narrow River, Barrington and other rivers. My records show that this month, June things should change the larger fish should be entering these River systems.”
Where’s the bite?
Striped bass fishing remains strong in the Bay with fish getting larger. Bass bite is starting on Block Island and fish continue to be landed along the southern coastal shore.
Fluke fishing was mixed last week with rough seas and turbid water. As the water clears and warms the bite is expected to improve and move closer to shore. The Frances Fleet reported a fair fluke bite last week.
Capt. Frank Blount said, “Fishing’s OK for this time of year considering that water temperatures are still not ideal due to the cool spring weather.” Fish being caught are close to shore along the coastal shore where the water is lower and warmer.
Patti Ferrara of Ray’s Bait said, “Fluke are being caught in the Jamestown Bridge area this weekend.”
I made a test run for fluke off Newport, Jamestown and the Newport Bridge area and did not hook up early this week but did manage to catch and release some nice black sea bass in the process.
Eric Duda reported on the RISAA blogg that he fished the Sakonnet River this weekend for fluke. “We caught four fluke… a 17.5-inch, 18-inch and two 19-inch fish along with six keeper seabass were released because they are out of season and scup to nearly two pounds,” he said. “Most fish were caught in 20 to 30 feet of water.”
Squid fishing last week was slow with dirty water but reports over the weekend were expected to improve and they did as the water cleared and warmed up a bit. I fished the Frances Fleet for squid with the RI Saltwater Anglers group Saturday night and caught about 12 squid which was about the average on the boat with some angler catching a lot more and some less.
Freshwater fishing improved over the weekend at waterways restocked with trout by the Department of Environmental Management. Visit www.dem.ri.gov for a list of ponds that have been restocked.
“I fished the Curran Reservoir off Seven Mile Road in Cranston on Saturday. I caught seven largemouth bass — all on top water lures. I saw several people fishing from shore doing well catching some fairly large trout,” said Harold Hemberger.
Courtesy of The Providence Journal by Dave Monti on June 2,2016
