The season got off to a slow start with a cold winter and water that took a while to warm up.  But once it did, two to four weeks behind schedule, the bait arrived along the Rhode Island coast and in Narragansett Bay… herring, Atlantic menhaden, silversides, squid and more and the spring striped bass arrived following the bait.  

We had prolonged and intense summer flounder (fluke), black sea bass and tautog seasons. The bluefin and yellowfin tuna bite was good too this year. And we closed with a remarkable cod season the best 'close to shore' season in years.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year as it was arguably the best fishing season in a long time.  Here are some season highlights.

Strong summer flounder (fluke) bite.  Block Island seemed to get the fish first, the south and east sides were hot, the area at the mouth of the Sakonnet River was good too with a moderate bite off the southern coastal shore at first and a strong Newport coastal bite yielding a quantity and quality fish in the 20 to 26" range consistently.  Anglers averaged three to five fish each per trip.  

A memorable fluke fishing trip for me included one with my brothers-in-law that netted over forty fish including sixteen nice keeper fluke to 27" and five nice black sea bass as the limit was one per angler at the time. 

Fishing regulations for summer flounder will become more conservative… the season length, length of fish and the bag limits (number of fish allowed to be taken) will all be on the table as Rhode Island's quota has been reduced by 30% for 2016.

Black sea bass (BSB) were plentiful all season with anglers having to toss them back prior to July 2 when a 14" minimum size and one fish/angler/day regulation took effect.  On September 1st the limit changed to 7 fish/angler/day.  

Black sea bass were caught when anglers were fishing for summer flounder and then as they targeted cod fish on the drift later in the season.  When summer flounder left our coastal waters anglers did target black sea bass specifically with great results. BSB were everywhere, some of our remarkable BSB trips occurred on the southwest ledge at Block Island where angler Steve Brustein of West Warwick limited out on BSB in about 2 hours drifting on and off the ledge catching scup to 15" along with the BSB.  

The BSB quota was liberalized just a little bit for Rhode Island in 2016 so recreational regulations for 2016 are expected to be status quota or just a little bit better than 2015.

Bluefin and yellowfin tuna. A treat for me this year was fishing for school bluefin tuna 50 miles off Pt. Judith at the Dump Fishing Grounds the first week of July.  I fished with Eric and Capt. David Appolonia and we took home two nice fish in the 40 to 60 pound range that day enough for me to treat my family to fresh bluefin tuna steaks on the Fourth of July.  

It was a thrill for me to fish with the Appolonias who have caught three giant bluefin to 875 pounds in the five years.  Matt Conti of Snug Harbor said in July that, "Tuna fishing has been good with yellowfin at the Canyon.  The bluefin bite is still very good too.  It has moved east to the Fingers but it is still good.".  Angler Steve McGonagle and his son Brenden of the Patriot Six landed a 160 pound bluefin at the Fingers in July. 

Tautog fishing was mostly on in the late summer and fall season.  Days when fishing was off were usually preceded by storming weather.  Fishing was good right up until the season closed on December 15.  Fish in the 8 to 9 pound range were common with 10 plus pound fish caught often this year.  Joe Bleczinski of Narragansett, RI caught the fish of a lifetime in September, an 18.9 pound tautog.  "We were fishing at Whale Rock (at the mouth of the West Passage of the Bay off Narragansett).  It was about 10 a.m.  I felt a tug and thought I was stuck at the bottom.  Then the boat started to move sideways and I said 'Get the net this is a big fish here'."

On November 1st Mike Wade of Watch Hill Outfitters, Westerly said, "Tautog are still in low water as the temperature in the Westerly area is still in the 60's.  Once the water cools the fish will be moving to deeper water.  We weighed in a couple of eight and nine pound fish caught inside of Fishers Island that were in fairly low water.  The tautog bite is going to do nothing but improve so I am looking forward to fishing." 

Tautog fishing regulations will likely be more conservative in 2017.  A new assessment will be ready to use for 2017 regulations and it shows the species is being overfished.  However, fish regulators did not reduce Rhode Island's quota so we may be at status quo for 2016, we will know in a couple of months as it will be up to Rhode Island to be more conservation or not.

Cod fishing around Block Island was extremely good this year.  It was the best 'close to shore' fishery for cod in many years.  The fish were not the giant size but consistently they were in the 8 to 10 pound range with an occasional 20 pound fish.  It was common for anglers to catch five or six fish on November and December trips to the south and east sides of Block Island.  The black sea bass bite was excellent as well during those cod fishing drifts.  

Capt. Charlie Donilon of Snappa Charters said in November, "Last week we did very well with cod and sea bass south of Pt. Judith and southeast of Block Island. We caught 31 keeper cod, the best in years.  We limited out on black sea bass too with 42 fish.  The largest cod were 10 and 11 pounds cod and the largest sea bass was about six pounds."  

I fished the East Fishing Grounds four miles off Block Island in December and did well there.  Jim Sevens of Warwick and Kevin Fetzer of East Greenwich caught ten keeper cod and thirteen nice black seabass in about two and half hours there on December 5.

Cod fishing remains strong this month. Capt. Frank Blount of the Frances Flee said Monday, "We had outstanding cod fishing when we fished last week. There were many limit catches recorded. Last Wednesday we had some really huge scores as hi hooks well into the 20s. Pool fish were generally in the mid to upper teens."

Striped bass fishing was OK, not great, just OK.  We had fish early in Narragansett Bay, along the coastal shore and off Block Island but they were not in the numbers as we have had in the past.  The good news is that the with the one fish regulation in place for 2015 (and fish mangers say it will be the same for 2016), the spawning stock will grow.  We also had an above average recruitment in the number of juvenile striped bass this year according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Young of the Year index which is a measure of striped bass spawning success in the Chesapeake.  So this is good news for the future of striped bass.

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.