Hi guys, new to board, but have been surfing for a while.
Couple of questions, I have a new (old) boat, 19ft aquasport, currently docked on the Pawcatuck River.

My 9 yr old and I go out around Watch Hill every weekend. Earlier in the season we'd go out on the Mijoy out of Niantic to the Race. Decent Luck with that.

My problem is, I am tired of catching porgies and sea robins!!! I must of caught 30 robins on Sunday by the watch hill lighthouse. What do I need to do to catch some bass or blues?? I watch the surface, the birds, throw out some poppers, but no luck. Tried Mackeral, squid, etc...no luck. Nothing.

Did go out one night with a well schooled friend at night, w/ eels, off the south side of fishers island. He landed 2 bass. Me nothing, although I hooked up several times but no landing. I also got my first "cigar". I am wise not to try going out to Fishers by myself till I gain more experience. I do know the river and around Napatree point pretty well now.


Should I try different places, different bait during the day? Is it decent around napatree at night, and do I have to get as close to shore as I did off Fishers(like 30ft)?

Or should I string up a rod with eels and try a surf casting pole off east beach at night? Would I need to stun those eels to keep them twisting around the line? Are eels worth anything during the day? What about good spots for seabass?

I am dying to catch some bigger fish with my son, so any advice is welcome. I'm running a heavy pole w/ 30lb test right now, so should I go lighter?

BTW, did anyone notice more planes in the sky last night, that sure was good to see. You have to treasure each and every day now, each and every freedom we have.

Thanks.

Hey Kynan, welcome aboard... I moved the thread from Reports to the main forum so more people might take a crack at it..

I'm not a boat expert in that area but I do hit it from shore.... Couple 'o things, your certainly in the correct location to run your boat out. The waters around Fisher's/Naps/Watch Hill & the Race are a playground for bigger fish. This area can also be very dangerous between major submerged boulders and reefs.

To point you in the right direction, what you want to look for is one of those Captain Seagull Charts for that area. What you want to find are ledges that drop off quickly into deeper water (there are many around). Safely position your boat so that when anchored, your still above the shallower portion but allow your baits to drift over and down into the deeper portion. One bait to consider is butterfish. They are about 5 inches long and you can fish them whole. They're pretty sturdy too. There are numerous other things to try such as draggin' or 3waying eels. Tube-n-worm, Umbreela Rig...

Other options are to troll a tube and worm. Have you seen those before? You want to work them near the bottom as you troll at barely steerage speeds, about 1.5kts... There can be a lot of complicated aspects of even the simple troll and are often best aquired through time on the water. Spend the time and you'll get them. Besides, that are coughs up alot of fish from 20 pounds and up. My bro-in-law got a 53 from shore at Naps a few years ago...

Hope this helps...

Nice post John, I haven't even really thought about trying the Napatree Point area.

Kynan, I fished off of East Beach by boat early Sat morning and I was picking up many bluefish using a tube-n-worm with wire line down about 30'. Not a 50lb striper but probably more fun than a sea-robin, lol....If you can troll tight in to shore in 10-15' of water you might try a deep running Rapala with a mackeral paint scheme, I do well on the bluefish with that and it doesn't require wire.....

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

Questions lingering though, on the eels and tube n worm.

With the eels, are they worth anything during the day and are they ok dead ? They irritate the hell out of me when they get wrapped around my line or leader. If I'm casting them into some moving water, how much weight can I reasonably use to keep them deep?

On the tube n worm, I have to use wire line, right? I have a deep running rapala that's about 8" or so. How fast do I want my speed with that, 5mph or less? And how close to shore are we talking about at east beach?

Sorry for being a pest.

Kynan,

From what I understand, you don't need to use wireline with the tube and worm rig. It depends on how deep the water is. Some guys use wire when fishing deep waters but have a rig set up with leadcore or straight mono for the shallows.

You aren't being a pest. You are asking legitimate questions. That's what this board is here for!

Kynan, the trick with eels is not to let them have slack. After you hook them always keep them hanging and get them in the water quick. Once they are in the water stay in touch with them. If you are in a rip keep a little tension on them, if there isn't much current reel slowly to keep them from getting their tail around. We also store them on ice, that slows them down enough to hook up, but thye come back to life in a couple of casts.

Don't know much about boat fishing the south coast but down in the Chesapeake thye fish bucktails just fast enough to be able to steer the boat. You want to troll that Rapala about the same speed you would reel it in.

kynan,

In regards to tubes, I fish mine with wire if I need to go down 20' or more, under 20' I use a leadcore line setup. I would imagine that in 10'-15' of water you could probably use mono. Troll slow at 1.5-2.0mph

With the 8" Rapala, that should work fine also especially for the bluefish. I would try and get into 10'-15' of water and troll that plug at 2.0-3.0mph. Make sure you are using the deep diving plug.

I've also had some nice luck using the Yozuri Crysal Minnows 7" plugs for spinning gear tossing into surface breaking fish. They love the red and white sparkled plug....

The 4 big methods used off Block and that area are (in no particular order): Tube -n- Worm, 3 way Eels, Jiggin Bucktails deep, and Yo-Yoing whole Pogies. Wire is often used on the tube-n-worm and the jigs. Not necessary but often, espsecially but the charter guys. Your regular rods would come apart after a day of wire line.

Part of the battle with eels (which do work better in the dark but are good deep during the day) is to keep them iced down. With a lbucket system that drains properly and a good bed of ice, the metabolism of the eel slows down considerably and by grabbing it's head and whacking it's tail a few times on a sturdy object, takes most of the initial wiggle out...

do a search (button is on your upper right) on "bucket" and see if you see one about short term eel storage...

Typical trolling speed for bass varies from a half knot to maybe 2 kts (and that's usually too fast). People trolling 5 mph are doing better for blues

My advice...just keep trying, sooner or later you will connect. All of the suggestions here are solid. To really connect with big bass you will have to fish nights or very early mornings, that is just the way is is...IYou will not connect every night...but if you keep at it you'll get them. If you want blues daybreak and sunset are ideal times but you should see schools feeding like mad this time of year during the day. Attempt to notice what they are chomping on and toss something in the water that looks similar...you should connect, keep trying.
Your fishing the right region at the best time of year IMO .

good luck

Kynan, don't think anybody mentioned this but you should ice down the eels, they will keep alive much longer and will be stunned most avoiding the all so fun mono wrap around. Good Luck - you probably already caught one by now...

Iceman

No I haven't, but that's largely due to not being out. Plan to try first thing, crack of dawn before the kids' soccer routine starts.

here's the next question, if I buy eels tonight, how do I keep them alive? on ice, buy a cheap fish pump? no water?

I read something before about them suffocating, so I threw about ten in a mesh bag with in my son't 29 gallon aquarium. I learned through the stink the next day that they don't do well in that fresh water environment.

Also, any suggestions for a wire line set up, nothing fancy, just something that works?

Can't help you with the wire question as I am a surfcaster and rarely go out on boats (sorry) + I only use fluro or mono. If you buy the eels tonight buy 1 bag of ice (do not take the ice out of the bag) and line your bucket/pail/whatever you use them to store with newspaper so the eels will not slime. I've kept eels alive up to 3 days using this method. Good Luck Again!

Iceman

Kynan I put mine in a bucket that has holes in it and put them on ice. I put the holey bucket into another one with a rock between them. The holes let the slime drain and the rock keeps the holey bucket from getting water in it and drowning the eels.

The eel is a tough critter. Just keep them cool (avoid heat or direct sunlight) and they will last for a awhile...one day is no problem. I have plastic-ware type of container about 14" x 6" X 9" deep and it has a hinged lid that has a handle, it is not air tight but almost. I bring this into the store and just put them in there and shut the lit. No ice no nothing and keep them in a shaded area in the truck. They will last a couple days easy. Ice helps though, it slows them down. When you get down by the water I rinse them off and let some water in the container for a few minutes then drain then continer. It is good to de-slime them once or 2x per day but they can tough it out for a weekend without much care. 90 deg day in the sun is a death wish for them.

I have kept eels alive for years in traps even over the winter. After a while they will eat the ones that die. They are amazingly hearty.

Read this link... I've kept eels alive for nearly a week (well most of tthem anyway)

http://128.241.205.103/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1490&highlight=bucket