No Fluke

‘Get the net, this is a big fish’

Captain Dave Monti
Posted 10/1/15

Joe Bleczinski of Narragansett, RI caught the fish of a lifetime last week, an 18.9 pound tautog. Joe is vice principal of Warwick Veterans Memorial High School. The Rhode Island state record for …

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No Fluke

‘Get the net, this is a big fish’

Posted

Joe Bleczinski of Narragansett, RI caught the fish of a lifetime last week, an 18.9 pound tautog. Joe is vice principal of Warwick Veterans Memorial High School. The Rhode Island state record for tautog is 21 pounds, 4 ounces set in 1954. Here's Joe's story.

"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'. The fish did not fight a lot it just deliberately stared to swim away and take the boat with it.

I tumbled the spool a couple of times, pumped and reeled to bring the fish up. Once on the surface we could not believe the size. We got the net under the fish. The fish was so heavy the net handle broke and we had to grab the rim of it to bring the fish into the boat."

Joe said he and his fishing partners continued to fish and all on board limited out. Not a bad day on the water. Congratulations Joe that is quite the tautog.

Tautog regulations

The tautog minimum size is 16", three fish/person/

day with a boat limit of ten fish. Limit increases to six/person/day on October 18 to December 15 but the ten fish boat limit is still in effect. Charter and party boats not subject to ten fish boat limit.

Chumming will lead tautog to your boat. Here is a chumming tip easy to do yourself which I have successfully used for the past few years. Accumulate a pile of crab legs then mix them with small pieces of cut up clam and clam bellies and place them in a paper bag with a rock. Tie a line to the bag and send it down to the bottom under the boat. After it soaks for a minute, yank on the rope, the bag bottom will break, and the chum is deposited under the boat.

Tautog can be fished from shore or boat. From shore it is a matter of trial and error to find a sweet spot or hole that holds fish. You want to be near, next to or over structure.

When fishing from a boat, locate the structure you want to fish (on sonar if you have it). Estimate wind and current and then anchor up current so that as the anchor line pays out the vessel is over structure or slightly before it. Tie off the anchor line and fish. Tautog are territorial so it is important to fish all sides of the boat. If still no bites pay out a little more anchor line to reposition the boat, repeat the process until you are totally off the structure. If still no bites it is time to move to another spot.

Rigs and Bait. Tautog rigs should be kept simple. My favorite rig is homemade. I use one tautog hook connected to a swivel with a two or three once egg sinker on top sliding on a small three to four inch piece of monofilament line. Another swivel above the egg sinker connects the monofilament and the braid line (30 lbs.) coming from the rod/reel. Since I have started using this rig bottom tie-ups have been cut in half.

I use green crabs and Asian crabs (when available). When using green crabs, break off claws and legs and cut the crab in half. Hook the crab though one leg socket and out another. This exposes most of the crab and makes it easy for the tautog to put its mouth on the bait.

Standard premade tautog rigs usually have two hooks and a loop below to tie on a bank sinker. I usually cut the upper hook off. Captain John Rainone of L'il Toot Charters said, "One hook saves rigs and fish… waiting for another fish to jump on makes no sense… I tie rigs with a lighter sinker line so it breaks and hook/fish is retrieved."

Where/when to fish for tautog. From shore, look for rocky coastline like Beavertail Point on Jamestown, locations off Newport, the rocky shore line off Point Judith and off jetties along the southern coastal shore. Docks, piers, bridges are good structure too. From a boat, I have had good luck at Conimicut Light, Plum Point light house next to the Jamestown Bridge, the jetty at Codington Cove in Portsmouth, off Hope Island, around Brenton Reef and Seal Ledge in Newport, Whale Rock and off Scarborough in Narragansett, Ohio Ledge in the East Passage, General Rock in North Kingstown and any other places there is structure, debris, rock clusters, wrecks, etc. Another key factor is water movement, so a couple of hours before or after high or low tide is good.

Where's the bite

Striped bass fishing is improving with some bass now being caught in Bays, rivers and coves with an enhance bite along the southern coastal shore and off Newport to Little Crompton. Ken Landry of Ray's Bait & Tackle, Warwick said, "Customers are catching bass at the Newport Bridge next to the bridge stanchions and then trying their luck outside at Brenton Reef." Noted local fly fishing expert Ed Lombardo said, "I got a bass (looked to be 40 plus inches) at Narrow River on a large fly. Lots of bait in the river right now and the good news is that the bass are starting to move in now. There are many hickory shad too which are lots of fun on a 6 or 7 weight rod. Pink flies are working very well." Mike Wade of Watch Hill Outfitters, Westerly said, "We (I) had a great night fishing (Monday) for striped bass in the 20 to 30 pound range with eels in the Sugar Reef Passage area (about six miles off Watch Hill on the Block Island-New London Ferry line route). When the clouds covered the big moon the bite was on and things slowed as the moon lite things up. The shoreline guys are doing well too at Weekapaug Breachway and at Fireman's Beach." Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle, Providence said, "This weekend striped bass were from Brenton Reef to Little Compton close to shore and the bass are taking clams off the beaches on Block Island. They are now starting to come back in our rivers too." Many Macedo of Lucky Bait & Tackle, Warren said, "Bluefish and keeper strped bass in the 30" range are being caught in the East Passage off Colt State Park, Popasquash Point, Bristol and the T Wharf at Prudence Island. We had a couple of Prudence Island residents come in to buy bait last week."

"False albacore and bonito are being caught inside New Harbor, Block Island this weekend and were close to shore between Brenton Reef and shore off Newport Sunday.," said Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle. Mike Wade of Watch Hill Outfitters said, "The false albacore bite has moved off shore to Fishers Island Sound and Montauk."

"Skip jack blues are everywhere" said Dave Henault of Ocean State tackle. "There are lots of skip jacks and peanut bunker around. I mean a lot. Some angles have caught yellow jack fish under the skip jacks thourhgt they were bonito or false albacore. Actually the yellow jacks are very good to eat."

Black sea bass fishing remains strong off coastal shore in and around Newport. I fished off Newport and at the mouth of Newport Harbor Sunday and we boated twelve nice keeper sea bass.

Offshore fishing. Captain Charlie Donilon of Snappa Charters said, "I have been fishing the Mud hole for the past two to three weeks. Last week was the final week taking customers out with the shark cage and we came in contact with mako and blue sharks. The water was 66 degrees. We caught a false albacore but no bonito or bluefin tuna. We saw a couple of schools of common dolphins and the draggers are still working the area so you know the area is holding fish and should still be good as long as the bait is there.”

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.

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