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West Bay Anglers Striper Tournament set for June 11

Captain Dave Monti
Posted 5/12/16

The West Bay Anglers will hold their 2016 Striper Tournament from midnight, June 11, to 9 a.m., June 18. First-place prize for the largest fish is $500 with $200 for second and $100 for third …

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No Fluke

West Bay Anglers Striper Tournament set for June 11

Posted

The West Bay Anglers will hold their 2016 Striper Tournament from midnight, June 11, to 9 a.m., June 18. First-place prize for the largest fish is $500 with $200 for second and $100 for third place.

Prizes awarded at the Warwick Fire Fighters Association, 750 Warwick Ave., Warwick at 1 p.m. on June 18. Applications, tournament details and weigh-in scales are located at Ray’s Bait & Tackle and the Tackle Box Bait Shop, both in Warwick.

All tournament proceeds donated to the West Bay Anglers R.I. Take-A-Kid Fishing program.

Not too late for Striper Cup Tournament

The Striper Cup Tournament sponsored by On the Water magazine kicked off last week and will run until 6 p.m., on Sept. 11, 2016. Anglers may enter any time and can now participate with catch-and-release fish or those that are weighed-in.

The tournament has youth, boat, shore and kayak divisions and offers weekly, monthly and year-long prizes. The Striper Cup culminates with Striper Fest, an awards ceremony and striped bass fishermen celebration which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 24.

The Striper Cup extends from Maine to New Jersey with over 4,500 annual entrants and 100 weigh stations. Visit www.stripercup.com for details and tournament entry information.

Catch limits for tuna

Effective April 23 through Dec. 31, the recreational bluefin tuna (BFT) daily retention limit for highly migratory species (HMS), angling-permitted vessels is two school BFT 27 inches to less than 47 inches and one large school/small medium BFT 47 inches to less than 73 inches.

For charter/headboat permitted vessels, the limit is three school BFT and one large school/small medium BFT. The recreational yellowfin tuna retention limit is three per person per day or trip. The minimum size for yellowfin and bigeye tuna is 27 inches curved fork length.

There are no recreational limits for bigeye, skipjack or albacore tunas. For details and permits, visit https://hmspermits.noaa.gov.

Where’s the bite

Striped bass fishing continues to improve. On the Water magazine’s striper migration map shows that the Chesapeake Bay spawn is done and “those big post-spawn striped are moving out and heading up the coast with schoolie stripers as far north as New Hampshire.” Bass over 30 inches are being caught in Rhode Island (and as far north as the Cape Cod Canal).

“Our customers are ecstatic over the volume of school bass. They are everywhere and if you are on them you could catch a hundred of them. We did have some larger fish this week to 38 inches caught in the upper Bay on squid. The school bass are going for artificial lures with 4-inch and 5-inch shad being very popular,” said Manny Macedo of Lucky Bait & Tackle, Warren. Ken Landry of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick said, “We have heard of fish up to 40 inches being caught with a lot of school bass in the Bay.”

Mike Wade of Watch Hill Outfitters, Westerly said, “We are on our third wave of striped bass. The first batch were small and then we had fish in the 30-inch range being caught and this weekend we got 4-inch peanut bunker along with a wave of school bass in the 8- to 10-inch range. All the fish are in the Pawcatuck River as the water there is in the 50’s and out in front it is still 48 degrees. Once the water warms the striped bass will be moving out in to the ocean.” Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle, Providence said, “Customers have caught striped bass to 42 inches in the Providence and Seekonk Rivers with the large fish being caught on worms and live pogies. The worms are working for the bass as we have so much bait in the water (Atlantic menhaden) that a worm seems to be appetizing for the bass and they are going for them.”

Fly fishing expert Ed Lombardo said, “We have been fishing the Narrow River and have been getting a lot of small stripers, anywhere from 6 inches to 12 inches on average. This is a good sign for the future and they are still fun to catch and release. Some of the larger fish are coming in with sea lice on them another good sign. No shad are showing yet but still a little early; this should change soon as well. Standard small flies such as black over white and pupal over white, bucktails in sizes No. 1 and No. 2’s are working well.”

Tautog fishing is starting to explode. Macedo said, “Tautog fishing was crazy good this week. It opened up over the weekend with fish being caught at the Stone Bridge, at Fogland and we had some reports that there is a Newport bite, too.” Henault said, “We have a lot of customers starting to use tautog jigs now more than ever before.”

Angler Travis Barao of East Providence and his father Gil boated three nice keeper fish and released two. “Travis hooked into a brute that seriously peeled off line. It was a 9.1-pound female likely loaded with eggs so we took a quick photo and released the fish. The other fish we caught were 5 and 6 pounds.” said Gil Barao. The Barao’s were using Asian crabs as bait.

Ken Landry of Ray’s Bait & Tackle said, “Tautog fishing was hit or miss early last week. Some days customers were limiting out and then other days fishing was terrible.”

Squid fishing slowed a bit this week but anglers were still catching squid at Newport and Jamestown with Yo-Zuri squid jigs being the jig of choice that seems to be working the best.

Fresh water fishing was good this weekend as it was Free Fishing weekend. Additionally, DEM stocked area waterways with brown, rainbow and brook trout and put golden trout into the water. (Take your photo with a golden trout and DEM will send you a pin.) Mike Wade of Watch Hill Outfitters said, “Freshwater anglers were very happy with the golden trout and the restocking program. It really brought a lot of anglers out this weekend. Meadowbrook and Carolina ponds were popular ponds in the Westerly area this weekend.” Visit www.dem.ri.gov for a complete list of stocked ponds.

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. He is a RISAA board member, a member of the RI Party & Charter Boat Association and a member of the RI Marine Fisheries Council. Contact or forward fishing news and photos to Capt. Dave at dmontifish@verizon.net or visit his website at www.noflukefishing.com.

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  • Littleleague

    Looking forward to this!

    Monday, May 16, 2016 Report this