Plug
08-06-2001, 11:01 AM
Greetings all, it’s nice to be back.
I got back late Friday night from 10 days in Rhode Island. The first 3 were spent in Newport, the last week on Block Island. The trip was primarily to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I did manage quite a bit of laid back daytime fishing while "beaching it" with my wife. I also got out four times for some serious nighttime stuff.
Let me begin by expressing tremendous gratitude to the fellows who helped me out with this trip. Info, advice, gear, etc. was generously shared by many fine folks. Some of you guys went very far out of your way to accommodate my needs, you’re great. You all know who you are and certainly most of you would prefer to remain anonymous, so I’ll just say thanks a lot!
Newport Island is beautiful! The views, the topography, the great looking bass water, I could spend a lot of time there. The only hang up was fighting that horrible Newport traffic. I fished the points at Brenton Point State Park one early morning. A hard SW wind really had me fighting the weed. I did find a school of small fish at dawn that would hit a popper floated above most of the weed and took quite a few before the bright sun shut things off.
How does the cliché go, "So little time, so many fish"? Does that ever fit Block Island. The whole place screams "TRY HERE". Beautiful structure and beautiful crystal clear water. What a blast it was in the daytime to watch the fish rocket up off the bottom and cream my needlefish.
In the daytime my wife and I hung out at the south end of Charleston Beach. It wasn’t as nice beach wise as the eastern shore beaches but it was uncrowded, with maybe 10 or 12 people scattered along its mile or so length. We were into uncrowded. I fished some mackerel chunks there, some broken backed live eels on a fish finder rig and threw some plugs. Crabs ate the mackerel, nothing ate the eels, flounder and rockfish ate 7" yellow shad megabaits and pink needles. I sure didn’t go hard at it. 3 or 4 casts followed by an hour or so of beach chair sittin’ followed by 3 or 4 more casts. That was about the general pattern. I still managed to catch some pretty nice fish right through the middle of the day.
Evening hours were spent celebrating which made it pretty hard to get out in the wee hours. I did get out 3 times.
My first trip found me on the west side. The weed was pretty bad. Even Gibbs needles would mung up on nearly every cast. I did catch 5 fish before the tide and the fishing quit. Caught the fish on a yellow Gibbs needle.
My last two mornings were much better. The front that passed offshore the beginning of last week did not effect the weather on Block. The skies stayed sunny and except for about a half-day the winds stayed out of the west. However by Tuesday morning big ground swells were generating some beautiful surf on the east side. Mansion Beach looked like Hawaii. The breakers were running in long tubes down the beach, six footers easy, and maybe a few eights and as I said before, clear and clean.
Further south this set up a great situation. I had a 10-15 mph west wind at my back yet a good surf to cast into. Bill, you should have seen the way that rod was rocketing 2 oz. needles and poppers. Fish came beyond what I cared to count. In the dark it was eels and pink Habs needlefish. For about an hour after dawn it was a 2 oz. Polaris type popper. But most of the time it was the green/yellow deceiver fished in front. It caught 2/3 of my fish.
My biggest fish for the week was 23# taken on a live eel. Most of the fish were good solid teens. On Block I don’t think I had more than 4 fish smaller than 28". One time I thought I had LARGE. It turned out to be a 13# fish on a popper and a 21# fish on the green/yellow teaser. That was fun.
I didn’t get a 40 or a 30 or even a 25. But I did have maybe 25 fish from 12 -23# in maybe 10 hours of nighttime fishing. For the end of July first of August, big moon, first time there, that was fantastic for this "just another Delmarva striperfisherman"! What a place. I’ll be back.
I got back late Friday night from 10 days in Rhode Island. The first 3 were spent in Newport, the last week on Block Island. The trip was primarily to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I did manage quite a bit of laid back daytime fishing while "beaching it" with my wife. I also got out four times for some serious nighttime stuff.
Let me begin by expressing tremendous gratitude to the fellows who helped me out with this trip. Info, advice, gear, etc. was generously shared by many fine folks. Some of you guys went very far out of your way to accommodate my needs, you’re great. You all know who you are and certainly most of you would prefer to remain anonymous, so I’ll just say thanks a lot!
Newport Island is beautiful! The views, the topography, the great looking bass water, I could spend a lot of time there. The only hang up was fighting that horrible Newport traffic. I fished the points at Brenton Point State Park one early morning. A hard SW wind really had me fighting the weed. I did find a school of small fish at dawn that would hit a popper floated above most of the weed and took quite a few before the bright sun shut things off.
How does the cliché go, "So little time, so many fish"? Does that ever fit Block Island. The whole place screams "TRY HERE". Beautiful structure and beautiful crystal clear water. What a blast it was in the daytime to watch the fish rocket up off the bottom and cream my needlefish.
In the daytime my wife and I hung out at the south end of Charleston Beach. It wasn’t as nice beach wise as the eastern shore beaches but it was uncrowded, with maybe 10 or 12 people scattered along its mile or so length. We were into uncrowded. I fished some mackerel chunks there, some broken backed live eels on a fish finder rig and threw some plugs. Crabs ate the mackerel, nothing ate the eels, flounder and rockfish ate 7" yellow shad megabaits and pink needles. I sure didn’t go hard at it. 3 or 4 casts followed by an hour or so of beach chair sittin’ followed by 3 or 4 more casts. That was about the general pattern. I still managed to catch some pretty nice fish right through the middle of the day.
Evening hours were spent celebrating which made it pretty hard to get out in the wee hours. I did get out 3 times.
My first trip found me on the west side. The weed was pretty bad. Even Gibbs needles would mung up on nearly every cast. I did catch 5 fish before the tide and the fishing quit. Caught the fish on a yellow Gibbs needle.
My last two mornings were much better. The front that passed offshore the beginning of last week did not effect the weather on Block. The skies stayed sunny and except for about a half-day the winds stayed out of the west. However by Tuesday morning big ground swells were generating some beautiful surf on the east side. Mansion Beach looked like Hawaii. The breakers were running in long tubes down the beach, six footers easy, and maybe a few eights and as I said before, clear and clean.
Further south this set up a great situation. I had a 10-15 mph west wind at my back yet a good surf to cast into. Bill, you should have seen the way that rod was rocketing 2 oz. needles and poppers. Fish came beyond what I cared to count. In the dark it was eels and pink Habs needlefish. For about an hour after dawn it was a 2 oz. Polaris type popper. But most of the time it was the green/yellow deceiver fished in front. It caught 2/3 of my fish.
My biggest fish for the week was 23# taken on a live eel. Most of the fish were good solid teens. On Block I don’t think I had more than 4 fish smaller than 28". One time I thought I had LARGE. It turned out to be a 13# fish on a popper and a 21# fish on the green/yellow teaser. That was fun.
I didn’t get a 40 or a 30 or even a 25. But I did have maybe 25 fish from 12 -23# in maybe 10 hours of nighttime fishing. For the end of July first of August, big moon, first time there, that was fantastic for this "just another Delmarva striperfisherman"! What a place. I’ll be back.