The 2012 second annual Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) striped bass and fluke tournament concluded this past Sunday, September 22 with an awards ceremony at the Ocean Mist in South Kingstown, RI. The tournament is one of the largest bass and fluke tournaments in the Northeast.

This year the $10,000 first place striped bass boat division prize went to Jeff Thibodeau of Wallingford, CT with a 60 lbs. 11 oz. fish. Robert Ferraro of Narragansett, RI took second place ($5,000) with a 58 lbs. 8 oz. striper; and third place ($3,000) went to Joseph Bartnicki of Hackettstown, NJ for a 54 lbs 9 oz. fish.

Shore division striped bass fist place winner was Michael Coppola of New York, NY; John Hanecak of Rock Hill, CT second place; and Thomas McGuire of Narragansett, RI was third place shore division winner with a 34 lbs. 7 oz. striper.

The first place summer flounder (fluke) prize ($5,000) went to Samuel Dibner of Woodbury, CT for an 11 lbs. fluke; second place ($3,000) went to Joseph Giuliano, Niantic, CT; and third place fluke price ($2,000) went to Matt McDermott of Plainview, NY.

Junior winners include Andrew McGarry, Block Island (bass winner) and Fin Howat, Southport, Conn. (fluke winner).

The PBR tournament ran from June 1st to September 15th and took place in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Visit www.pbrfishing.com for photos.

StriperFest 2013

this Saturday

On The Water magazine's StriperFest celebration will be held this Saturday, September 29, 12:00 p.m. at Falmouth Marina Park in Falmouth, MA. The grand prize of a Pursuit fishing boat with Yamaha engines and Simrad electronics will be awarded and all you had to do to win the boat is participate in the Striper Cup tournament, you did not even have to catch a fish. $150,000 in weekly and monthly prizes have been awarded. Entertainment includes live music by the Deepwater Blues Band, games and attractions for the entire family, adult admission is $10, under 17 years old admitted free. Yamaha demo rides starting at 9:00 a.m., for information visit www.OnTheWater.

com.

Rhody Fly Rodders

fishing meeting

Thursday, September 26

The Rhody Fly Rodders will hold their fishing meeting Thursday, September 26th at Sprague Bridge parking lot on Narrow River. Pete Neilson, club member, said, "We plan to fish the outgoing tide starting at 3:00 p.m. and will likely fish until dark with a break at 4:30 p.m. for a cookout. Anglers should bring their own items to cook on the grille that we will provide along with water and chips. There will be prices for the largest fish." For information ontact Pete Nilsen at 401-245-7172 or pdfish@fullchannel.net.

Where's the bite

Tautog. John Wunner of John's Bait and Tackle, North Kingstown said, "Tautog fishing is just starting to pick up with anglers catching keeper fish but with a lot of shorts mixed in." Angler Dave Fewster said, "I tried for an hour last Sunday and got a bunch of shorts, one keeper tog, one keeper sea bass. Water was still 71 in the bay. Very few scup though, it will get better every day with lower temps and shorter days." I fished with Joshua McElwee Saturday and he caught his first keeper tautog at General Rock, North Kingstown. The bite was fast there but a lot of shorts mixed in (small scup and black sea bass too) with fish just starting to get big. Fished there last week with no luck, so the tautog are getting larger.

Striped bass fishing has improved. Russ Weymouth fished the southwest side of Block Island Thursday and said, "Drifting slightly north from the Peanut, (we) caught the biggest fish on my boat One Iota… a 49" striped bass at 48 pounds (using eels). We continued to repeat the drift and caught as many keeper stripers as we had eels....and jigging with Sproes limited out on BSB!!!" John Wunner of John's Bait said, "The best fishing story this week is that I had three customers leave Allen's Harbor, North Kingstown at 6:00 p.m. Friday night and returned at 1:00 a.m. Saturday. They left with 40 eels and could have caught as many bass, all were in 30 to 40 pound range." Eels and parachute jigs seemed to be working well at Block Island this week, not much luck with tube & worm. The good news is that the fall run has started. However, no reports of a strong bass or blue fish bite starting yet in Narragansett Bay.

Shore fishing picked up but is still slow as anglers are having difficulty hooking up with fish on a regular basis. Dave Pickering, noted local shore angler authority and author said, "Today (Saturday) I went down and checked out places that had been producing earlier in the week. I found no bait, no birds diving, no fish and no fishermen. I fished a lot of white water and rocky drop-offs today but could not even find a schoolie or a bluefish… Note also that there are no albies around. If they are not here by now, don't expect a big run of them." Vist Dave's striper blog at www.ristripedbass.

blogspot.com.

Fresh water fishing. Dave Pickering fished for carp at night this weekend in the Blackstone River. Dave said, "I wasn't getting anything fishing way out in deeper water. But, I noticed a fish grubbing at night right in front of me in about a foot of water. From experience I know that carp will come in very close to feed under cover of darkness. So, I put out a flip cast of about 10-15 feet with both outfits. That did it as the alarm went off about 10 minutes later. A good fight ensued in total darkness and soon I flipped on my headlight to see a big mirror carp at my feet. Yes, they do hit at night." Visit Dave's carp blog at www.ricarpfishing.blogspot.com .

Offshore. John Starakas of Wakefield, RI, skipper of Full House II said, "(I) took two friends, Jeff Montigny of Fall River, Ma and Ken Montigny of Fairhaven, Ma on their first shark fishing trip last Friday. Fished the Mudhole all day, no luck trolling for tuna, after chumming for sharks for almost four hours… (we) landed a large mako, 8' 10" fork length which makes it approximately 500 lbs." Jeff was on the rod and fought the fish, Ken wired the fish and John ran the boat and harpooned the shark.

Captain Dave Monti has been fishing and shell fishing on Narragansett Bay 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. Visit Captain Dave's No Fluke website at www.noflukefishing.com; his blog at www.noflukefishing.blogspot.com or e-mail him at dmontifish@verizon.net.