13 July 2010
Monday, a 1/2 day inshore trip focused its sights on the bass and blues that were found in good numbers in Block Island's North Rip. Trolling was the preferred technique for this group and some decent keeper bass were snaggled up along with as many bluefish as anyone would ever want.
Wednesday, the inshore bite was centered around Block Island's North Rip where bluefish baits were targetted.. If you go there early enough you'd get a nice mixture of both keeper bass and blues that jumped on jigs or trolled offerings. The boat then headed out to South of the Gulley where bluefish fillets and live bluefish were almost instantaneously inhaled by some decent sized blue sharks. A total of over a dozen blue sharks up to 200 lb were taken in roughly five hours of fishing.
Tuesday, it was off to Pocasset, Massachusetts on the Cape for an instructional charter with the Tom Carpenter group. After grabbing some small harbor blues it was off to the Inside Fingers and the Claw where a "Sharking 101" course was put on.
Over the weekend, the Damian Battersby crew once again fished aboard the BILLFISH in the Snug Harbor Shark Tournament. Day One featured non-stop blue shark action south of the Gulley with a strong cold front and coastal low approaching. After over-nighting at New Harbor Block Island, the boat headed to the east where a very slow pick of bluedogs provided the only action to be found on the day. However, if laughs counted, then this was one fishing trip where the bag limit was easily surpassed. One great group of guys... Damian, Adam, and Jimmy. Hats off to mates Pat (son), and Brian who keep us all entertained along with some great work in the cockpit.
7 July 2010
Back in Westerly, left Avondale Boat Yard for another instructional shark fishing charter aboard a private boat. Picked up some bluefish and then headed to the SSE of the Gulley off of Block Island. A big blue dog ate a bait almost as soon as it went into the water. From that point on, it was off to te races in regards to non-stop shark action. One of the multitude of hits was probably a large thresher as the leader was severely chaffed and there was little doubt that it was a different kind of animal before it pulled the hook. Lots of speed and amazing power. Shortly after 1330, the crew decided to head for the barn as they'd all landed at least 4 sharks apiece and wanted nothing more to do with getting dragged around the cockpit by some of these heavyweights that approached the 300 lb mark. The inshore, offshore (sharking), and canyon action are all red hot at the moment. The BILLFISH has open dates for those that would like not only a great day of fishing, but a good day upon the water, as well.
6 July 2010
Sailed from Pocasset MA on Cape Cod for an instructional shark fishing charter. Picked up some pint-sized bluefish in the harbor and then headed to a location to the SSE of Marthas Vineyard before setting in. Conditions initially looked good in regards to water clarity, color, and temperature. However, not only did the SE drift bring us into some less than ideal water, we discovered that the chum was rancid. Ground bunker that smells like puke does little to entice the sharks to come into your baits. Picked up and ran 9 miles to the west where the water was much cleaner featuring a clean green clarity. Three hours of waiting produced a couple of hits, but no real joy in regards to the toothy critters. However, the crew expressed their appreciation in that many of the little 'tricks' that have proven their merit were pulled out of the seabag. Common sense lies behind success in shark fishing and many of the tips simply add up to an increase in odds of tying into a good T-tail or mako.
4 July 2010
After an initial stop on SW Ledge, the BILLFISH fished ending up at the North End of Block Island for a decent catch of stripers and bluefish. Snapping wire and jigging was the ticket to success on this half day charter.
21 June 2010
Headed out to fish the Star Island Tournament via a last minute offer to fish on the 'Daz Tingler' homeported out of Quonochontaug, RI- a 36' Luhrs Express powered by twin 550 HP Yanmars that's a true 'screamer' when it comes to top end speed. Took the 1900 New London-Shelter Island- Sag Harbor Ferry route and arrived in Montauk at 2300. Late to bed.. early to rise. The owner, Steve, his son John, friend Craig, and mate Bruce all showed up bright and chipper at 0515 at the Snug Harbor Marina & Motel(owned by Steve's girlfriend- Lorraine). Joined the 0600 Bimini Start with about 125 other boats and were making roughy 40+ knots at the front of the pack as we headed towards MP. We watched one 'Guido' with a mixture of amazement and horror (still drunk from partying the night before- crawling forward along the port gunnel of a big Viking) puking his guts out as the boat was being tossed about by the confused seas stirred up by wakes of all the boats going flat out. One of his buds crawled out, grabbed a handful of whatever and literally tossed him up on the foredeck. Both of them were lucky not to have been dumped into the maelstrom where they, no doubt, would have been made into a couple of speedbumps for all of the boats running full steam, coming up from behind. Although I had a specific area in mind on Day 1 to look for a thresher, we headed to a spot to a spot 18 miles to the SSE of the Point where one of Steve's friends had grabbed a mako last Wednesday. Roughly a half mile from the numbers, we saw a 100 lb class mako free jump. After checking the drift, we dropped our baits in little further to the SE and almost immediately had the first of roughly 45+ blue sharks that ate out offerings mug us. It was non-stop bluedogs for over seven hours of fishing with multiple hookups being a common denominator. Both of the 21 year olds got a workout, as did both Bruce and I in regards to keeping a supply of wire rigs ready to rock and roll. Finally, we headed back to the slip.. arriving at roughly 6:30 PM. Went back to Lorraine's house to clean up and had a great meal.
Saturday, the crew fully understood why I wanted to head to a spot with cooler water rather than put up with the bluedogs seeking quality over quantity. Once again, the 'GO' signal at 0600 produced the frenzied start that is either a whole lot of fun or terrifying if you have a boat that is somewhat 'tender' when it comes to a confused sea state. Seeing a 50+ foot battlewagon coming up from behind at 40+ knots is guaranteed to make your eyes open really wide and the pucker factor to ratchet up to 100%. After an hour of flat out running hard we reached the spot that I'd wanted to fish the day before.. started the chum routine.. and had just gotten the second bait out when the outside float took a quick dip. I stated.. 'Guys, I think a thresher just tail slapped the bluefish!' just before a decent sized whiptail came blasting out of the water, easily clearing 6 feet on its bid to win its freedom. Slid into the helm seat.. got the engines revved up.. and started running down the T-tail that was rapidly dumping a 50 VSX that was mounted on a VS5010RX60 rod. After a few minutes of chasing after it,we had the fish off of the starboard stern quarter and Craig put some heat to the fish. After two hours of tussling with this Apex Predator.. in a battle that featured a crazy-azzed run at the boat in which it slapped its tail over the stern with a vengeance, just missing Steve's son, John, as it turned on a dime and raced to the other side of the boat, it was end game time. Craig had done a masterful job with the rod although he'd gone from a nice pink veneer to dead white before turning cherry red from the sheer exertion of being on the wrong end of the physics equation. While Steve was bumping the boat in and out of gear, the fish was gingerly leadered up to a point where Bruce was able to make a perfect gill shot with the AFTCO flying gaff. A second gaff was quickly employed and the thresher was then tail wrapped. It took about five minutes for four of us to get the fish aboard. It measured 84 inches fork to snout and 13 feet over-all. A little more than an hour and a half after we dragged the fish through the tuna door, we were back to the dock with the 286 lb thresher weighed in by 1045. Lisa Natanson and her neice, Olivia, made short work of the scientific end of the tournament. The 'waiting game' on the rest of that LONG day began. 1st place, 2nd, 2nd bumped to third, etc. Believe it or not.. the second to the last fish of the day that was weighed in at 5 PM, a 313 lb thresher, bumped us to 6th on the day.
It was not only their first time sharking, it was also the first tournament that the father, his son, and friend had fished in so being up on the leader board out of approximately 180 boats was totally acceptable outing. All in all, a good experience for their first sharking venture, and in my opinion, not a bad finish when looking at the big picture of competing in a nearly 180 boat field.
17 June 2010
The BILLFISH has found that while the numbers of striped bass have decreased, the quality in regards to size has gone up both on the Watch Hill Reefs and out on the Block Island ledges.. Both surface and subsurface lures have been producing fish to the 30 lb range. Very few bluefish are to be found at this time, but that specie can be found in good numbers at the Race and in Eastern Long Island Sound for those that are looking for premium shark baits.
Fluke are around on Miquaumicut Beach over to Charlestown with a low keeper to throw back ratio. The dogfish are almost overwhelming at Block Island. These junior members of the shark family have be raising havoc with those seeking the doormats, especially when you fish te area from the Southwest Corner over to Southeast Light.
The first sharks of the year have shown up and the blue water arena is beaconing those who are looking for a excitement in seeking out the toothy critters. While the first catches were smaller blue sharks, they're have been reports of a few makos and threshers being taken. This weekend's Star Island Shark Tournament will no doubt prove that a few of the 'Purple People Eaters' and the 'Whiptails' will be found swimming in the multitude of slicks that the 200+ plus boat field wherever they set up. Water temperatures have finally reached the benchmarks that both species tend to be found in.
The first canyon reports indicate that a long trip is necessary to find the yellowfins, but once you find the correct temperature parameters and bait, the fish have been co-operative. This fishery will only improve from this time onward.
7 June 2010
The BILLFISH ventured out in search of striped bass and fluke on Friday with mixed results. Surface lures and eels resulted in a limit catch of stripers to over 35 lb. The largest fish of the day was returned to the water after a few photos were taken. All of the stripers were healthy and were taken on ultra-light tackle consisting of PENN 550 reels mounted on Ugly Stick rods.
The fluke fishery reflected a "catch a 19" inch cookie cutter' that had to be tossed back by being a 1/2" under the size limit.
Sunday, an early arrival upon the Watch Hill Reef Complex allowed for some action on both surface and subsurface lures did the damage. Threatening weather did not allow for a trip out to Block Island but there was plenty of excitement as the linesiders were chasing the surface offerings with amazing strikes.
25 May 2010
The BILLFISH journeyed out to the Watch Hill Reef complex on Friday evening and early on Saturday morning. There were immediate hookups on some 26- 37 inch linesiders. Both groups limited out in very short order. All of the fish were taken either on light tackle- suface lures or on deep diving plugs. All clean, bright fish that were taken on both sides of the tide. Moving water was the key to success on both trips. The bigger bass are on the way and the fishing should get even better than it has been. Some prime dates left for both inshore and offshore ventures during June. This time of the season is absolutely primetime for bass and the sharks that should arrive in numbers by the 2nd/3rd week of June. The Star Island Shark Tournament dates (June 17- 19th) is still available. Call for details if you're interested in a tournament that pays some big bucks for a winning critter.
18 May 2010
Spring fshing is heating up as decent numbers of striped bass are showing up every day with the best yet to come. A few bluefish and even some fluke were also taken over the past week. FYI, the fluke (Summer Flounder) bag/size limit is six fish per angler at 19 1/2 inches per day.
Both shoreline anglers and boat anglers are grabbing some nice fish from both the reefs and areas closer to the beach.
By-the-way, NO LICENSE IS NEEDED TO FISH FROM A RI BASED CHARTER BOAT.
Here are the 2010 Marine Fisheries Regulations for 2010:
http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/fishwild/mfsizes.htm |
