RI Echo Newspaper July 2019 Published Article                                                  

The waters around the Island are teaming sand eels and squid which are creating a frenzy for gamefish such as Striped Bass and Bluefish.

Our charter clients are loving this as well because even rookie anglers can become proficient quickly due to the ability to hook up with multitudes of Bass and Blues which are mostly being released. Our go to lure is the Deadly Dick lure which is a metal jig that imitates sand eels and can be casted or vertically jigged. This lure catches every species of fish we have. In fact, other than fluke fishing, we have not utilized any bait this season yet. Throwing plastic imitations can be futile now with the bluefish destroying your offerings due to their piranha like teeth.For light tackle anglers this is a great opportunity to catch gamefish at or near the surface which can be found by locating the seagulls diving on bait pushed up from the those actively feeding fish. These are mostly school size Stripers with keepers over 28 inches mixed at this time and Bluefish.

The pic below represents such typical activity aboard Captain Sheriff’s Fishing Charters with an angler posing with is Striped Bass and the other hooked up with a striped bass as well. In addition, there were other anglers hooked up simultaneously at the back of the boat as well.

Keep in mind, even though there is great Striped Bass fishing right now at Block Island, the Striped Bass population is on the decline as the limit is 1 per angler over 28 inches currently.

The Striped Bass night action at Block Island is starting to turn as well. The pic below is Jay Barber of Coventry, RI with his 47 lb Striped caught on live eels. These bigger class of Bass are not as aggressive and the live bait presentations can be the ticket especially during these summer months. 

Seabass fishing has been great except you can’t keep any until June 28  recreationally in Rhode Island.  We have caught some of the biggest Scup ever which we were surprised at as this is more typical later in the Fall. We vertical jig for the Scup as well but they are typically a bycatch when targeting Sea Bass.

The good news is that there are some doormat size Fluke being caught on the correct tides and wind conditions if you can get away from the pesky dogfish that become problematic as they are aggressive and schooled up in big numbers taking over certain fishing grounds around Block Island this time of the year, especially during the slower or slack tides.

Here are a couple Fluke caught in the 8 lb. range on our recent charter excursion. These Fluke are 26 and 27 inches in length. Fluke are a delicacy in terms of table fare. As the saying goes,  big fish like big bait. This was the case for these doormat Fluke as they were caught on squid rigs with fresh long bluefish strips.

There is pretty good action near the coastal shorelines as well as there seems to be bait everywhere right now. The Striped bass action in the bay is slowing as the fish are beginning to move out to deeper waters as the waters have warmed up.

This is a great time to get out and fish! Get your boat ready and going or hook up with a charter of your choice !

Tight lines and Fish ON!