I love a good fish tale

 Anthony Renzi caught this 52 pound, 11 once striped bass fishing Block Island at night with eels with Ken Landry of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick.

 Brenden and Steve McGonagle landed this 160 pound bluefin tuna this week at the Fingers.

 Capt. Monti’s brothers-in-law Terry Baron, Lewis Nastasia, Mike Weaver and Pete Magnan boated forty fluke and sea bass this weekend.

John Bartlett, Adam Mancini (Senior and Junior), and Chad Bartlett vacationed in Bristol and fished Jamestown and Newport this week on No Fluke Charters.

I love a good fish tale

Fish stories can make you laugh. Or they can make you cry.  And, we can learn from them, lessons we put to use to land future fish. Fish tales are created every week, here are three that were spun this week.

Family bluefin fight

Steve McGonagle and his son Brenden went bluefin tuna fishing this weekend.  Here’s a summary of Steve’s account of the trip.

“We expected the fish to turn, however, she accelerated and I am on the rod watching it dump.  She slows a bit and then accelerates again and I watch the dacron splice go out (towards the end of the line) and soon I see the gold of the spool.  Maybe 50 yards of line left.  Not good. 

Finally we get the fish to stop but still it is very heavy.  Battle is on.  Gain some line, lose some line.  I am wondering is this a tail hooked thresher? 

40 minutes goes by and boats are circling us.  Everyone wants to know.

Fish is straight down now. Rod is an upside down U and line coming off the real, slowly now.  My son Brenden is running to the throttles and back, clearing eight lines, up the tower to take in the bowling pins, securing line to a harpoon…”Bump it ahead. Bump it! Get me a gaff ready! Is the harpoon rigged?”

I see it is a big tuna.  Huge black back, huge black eyeball and bright silver side gleaming through the blue.  One more circle.  I can’t see how deep she is over the transom but my son moves to push the dart through the fish.  His first ever harpoon shot and it is perfect.  Right through the fish.  Our fish, 64” fork length and 42” girth is estimated at 150 to 160 pounds.  This is as good as life gets.” 

Michael meets flukezilla

Mike Weaver of Lincoln, New Hampshire (my brother-in-law) was in RI Sunday for a day of summer flounder fishing.

“This is a heavy fish, this is a big fish, I think it’s a big fluke.” said Mike. He had been fishing all morning and had landed several fluke including a 27” fish.  Now he was hooked into a very large summer flounder.

We asked the anglers to his left to real up so Mike had room to fight the fish.  I say fight the fish because that is what this fluke was doing fighting.  At first we thought he was hooked up on the bottom as the fluke peeled off line  much the way a bottom hook-up sounds like.  For the next four to five minutes it was gain some line, loose some line and then the fish made an all-out run half way through the fight.  Mike reeled slow and steady.

The fluke began to give up and just as he was about three feet from the surface and saw the boat he made a run for it and popped the hook.  Mike held up his hook and said, “Look at this, he bent the hook.” 

And that is just what happened, this beast bent the hook just enough to slip it out of his month and then run for cover. The fish looked like he was 30” as I was on the net, waiting for him to surface.

Kayaker meets striped bass

Kevin Harrington is a kayak striped bass fisherman.  He launched out of Sakonnet Harbor Sunday morning and hooked up with striped bass. 

Kevin said, “Trolling the tube and worm with a favorable wind I had a slam, then it was off to the races. I kicked the rudder hard over, got the fish broadside, when she ran, towing me sideways and peeling off line to beat the band I finally got the rod around forward and did my best to keep her off the starboard bow. I was reeling and pumping, but wasn't gaining anything, just getting towed at about four knots .

Lucky for me this fish headed for deeper water, for a moment I thought I had a tuna.  After about five or ten eternities more of give and take, I finally saw the leader (30 pound fluorocarbon) and got her massive head to the boat. Over 40 at least.

Just as I hauled her head up to get a hand under the gill plate, the wire holding the hook let go and she slipped from my hands. She lay there on the surface for a moment, then swam slowly down with my hook.”

34^th Annual Snug Harbor Shark Tournament

Todd Stevenson, captain of the sport fishing vessel Skinny T, had a great day Sunday as this boat was declared the overall winner of the 34^th Annual Snug Harbor Marina Shark Tournament that took place July 11 and 12. “Stevenson of Greenhill, RI has been a tournament participant for many years but this was the first year his boat took the top prize.  Angler Jim DeVecchis was on the rod when the fish hit.  We had a great tournament with over 200 individuals and 51 boats participating.” said Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marina.

The tournament winners were Jim DeVecchis of “Skinny T” for their 351 pound thresher shark; 2^nd place thresher was 191 pounds, caught by Henry Zewinski of the Season Ticket.  In the Mako category: 1^st place, 261 pounds, Chris Guyette of Release Me; and 2^nd place, 199 pounds to Mitch Wnek of Dusky. 

The winners of the shark tagging category were Steve West as the individual winner who tagged five fish and the team tagging winner was the sport fishing vessel Carl J with a total of fifteen sharks tagged.

RISAA Team Fluke Challenge tournament winners

The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association (RISAA) announced the winners (pending verification) of their Team Fluke Challenge held this weekend. What a perfect weekend for a fluke tournament.  The weather was good and anglers were at the ready although many complained of poor fish quality in traditionally fertile fluke fishing grounds due to an infiltration of dog fish around Block Island.

The Team Fluke Challenge is comprised of two angler teams and takes into consideration their top four fish weights.  Winners of this year’s challenge include:  1^st place, 26.10 pounds… Bruce and Michael Lawing; 2^nd place, 25 pounds… Rich Hittinger and Robert Murray; 3^rd place, 24.5 pounds… Gisele and Richard Golembeski.

Narragansett Chapter of Trout Unlimited

The Narragansett Chapter of Trout Unlimited (TU225) will host its regular monthly membership meeting on Wednesday, July 29, 5:00 PM.  This meeting will be the third of the streamside meetings for 2015, and will be held at the RIDEM Deer Check Station in the Arcadia Management Area in Exeter, RI.  At this meeting, TU 225 members and guests will enjoy friendly fishing stories among fellow members.  We also will have equipment available to calibrate water thermometers for anyone wishing to assure the accuracy of their thermal monitoring equipment.  One fly fishing rod and a variety of related items will be available for bidding.  Participants can fish before and/or after the meeting.  Please contact Chapter President, Ron Marafioti, at (401) 463-6162 with questions.

Volunteer training program on invasive species

The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) in collaboration with Save the Lakes, will host a training session for volunteers for the GREAT (Greeting Recreationalists to Empower and Train) Boater Program.

DEM and its partners will offer instruction to volunteers who wish to educate boaters at local boat ramps about invasive species and encourage boaters to be vigilant about checking their vessels and removing any plant materials.  DEM and Save the Lakes are looking for new volunteers, and any member of the public who wishes to be a volunteer for the GREAT Boater Program must attend to learn more information and sign up.

The objective of the GREAT Boater Program is to engage volunteers to raise awareness and educate boaters at public boat access ramps on actions they can take to prevent the spread of invasives.  Information at: http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/water/quality/surfwq/aisresp.htm#GREATWhere’s the bite

Striped bass fishing at Block Island improved over the weekend.  Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown said, “Fishing for bass with eels improved a lot this weekend at the Southwest Ledge.”  Manny Macedo of Lucky Bait & Tackle, Warren said, “We weighed in a 48 pound fish that was taken with eels at Block Island and had a 34” fish from shore at Popasquash Point, Bristol using Atlantic menhaden chucks.”  Ken Ferrara of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick said, “Tony Renzi of Reel Deal caught a 52 pound, 11 once striped bass this week at Block Island while fishing with Ken Landry.  Mary Corcoran landed a 54” (50 plus pound) striped bass using eels which was released.”  Mike Bucko of Bucko’s Tackle Service, Fall River said, “Anglers from shore and boat are landing bass in the 30” to 36” range at the mouth of the Sakonnet River.  They are tolling tube & worm and from shore cut up pogies are working well.”

“Fluke fishing at and around Sakonnet Point has been good for the past two weeks.  Fishing has been robust there were it had been spotty at the end of June and the first week of July.” said Mike Bucko of Bucko Tackle Service.  “Fluke fishing at the East Fishing Grounds off Block Island has been very good.”, said Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marina.  Angler Don Smith said he was forced to fish the East Grounds in the RISAA fluke tournament as his usual fluke spots were overrun by dog fish. “We talked to several commercial rod and reel fishermen who told us that the East Grounds was a good spot but the fluke there weren't much over five pounds. We fished there on Saturday and had 40 boats for company. The biggest fluke we caught was just over four.”  Manny Macedo of Lucky Bait said, “Fluke fishing at the Sakonnet and off Newport is very good.”  I fished off Newport and Jamestown (east and west sides) and did well for three days in a row with fluke and black sea bass this weekend.  Roger Simpson of the Frances Fleet said, “At times this past week 70 to 80 percent of the keepers on board were over four pounds!  Biggest fish of the week estimated to be around ten pounds.”  At press time fishing is improving on the south side of Block Island. Ken Ferrara of Ray’s Bait & Tackle said, “Customers did well fluke fishing off Warwick Light this week.  Fishing was very good.”         

“Scup fishing is excellent in the Taunton River, in Tiverton with scup and seabass being caught at the Stone Bridge.” said Mike Bucko of Bucko Tackle Service.”  “Colt State Park, Independence Park and the bridges in Barrington are all yielding big scup.  Anglers are landing scup in the 12” to 19” range.” said Manny Macedo of Lucky Bait.

Offshore. “Tuna fishing has been good with yellowfin at the Canyon.  The bluefin bite is still very too.  It has moved east to the Fingers but it is still good.” said Matt Conti of Snug Harbor.