Location: South County, Rhode Island
It’s beautiful weather to be out in a boat or at the beach this week. The heat wave continues with temperatures in the low nineties inland in RI but off shore the temperature difference can be as much as ten degrees. It’s very comfortable to fish and work on your tan at the same time.
Road traffic is heavy mid-day during the week with the many traffic lights and intersections on Routes #108 and Route #1. Humidity levels are low and there is little or no wind to throw a fly. Perfect casting conditions. Sea temperatures with readings of 73 degrees out at the Block are seasonally too high.
Sand eels? What sand eels, haven’t marked any in weeks. What bait close to shore seems to be some half-beaks surfacing from time to time and pods of long fin squid. Plenty of commercial trawlers working close to the island.
Most of the larger stripers are being taken with live eels out at the reefs in forty feet of water. Inshore along the coast are pods of three pound bluefish willing to hit almost anything thrown their way. Once in a great while you find a stray bass on structure looking and searching for its next meal. If you catch a few, you’re lucky even if you start out at sunrise.
A few days this week made it difficult to fish the shallows with 3-4 foot swells cresting and breaking several hundred feet from shore coming in from a southerly direction.
Captain’s Log:
Some URI Frat boyz were on the boat Thursday for some bonding, fun, and some fishing. Mike Testa, his brother Dick and friend Carl were all frat brothers in the early sixties when hazing was the popular theme for incoming freshmen. As you know today, hazing is frowned upon often labeled as bullying under political correct terminology. That wasn’t any determent for these three guys. They all claim they are “Grandfathered in” and the laws simply do not pertain. I ended up taking the heat.
Plenty of small bluefish action to keep them busy all day. They had several triples, multiple hooks throughout the day, lots of banter, catch up and a few bluefish for the grill.
Here they are all lined up for a photo session, unaware that I’m summoning the police at the same time on the cell phone they think is a camera. From left to right – Doctor Carl, Mike and Dick Testa.
Elliott Detchon and friend Larry from western Connecticut waited weeks for this day to arrive hoping for some great fishing out at Block Island. Usually it is prime time along the southern coast for stripers, but with this year’s early hot spell that has accelerated the timetable.
Striped bass are few and far between in the shallow waters. There are plenty of three pound bluefish if you are willing to keep moving. Red mung weed has been a problem all along the southern shores. High breaking surf from the south made it difficult to fly fish structure with the lack of sand eels around.
Give these guys lots of credit, lots of random casting all day for the most part isn’t much fun if you don’t see any signs of life. That’s not much of a carrot to keep on trucking. The bluefish were cooperative today to fill the void for the most part.
Norm takes a camera shot to record the experience for longtime friend Elliott seen holding the striper.
