Folks
Here we go...
Hear comes the tuna tale?
I was invited by my friend Dr. Steve Locke to join a party of 17 other avid
anglers last Monday. The game plan was to sleep on the boat, then go out
for a day of tuna fishing on Block Island Sound. Except for one small
detail ? the fishing regulations ? we had a spectacular day.
We arrived on the boat at 10:00 PM Sunday night, caught some live bait, and
then went to sleep in the boat?s bunking area. The accommodations were what
you might expect ? subspartan.
I awoke when the engines started at 4:00 AM, and had two hours to reflect
on my life while dawn crept over Block Island Sound. We were almost
immediately into small bluefin tuna.
What started as a slow trickle of 24? to 26.75? (limit is 27?) bluefins
built to a crescendo by 2:00 PM. When we stopped fishing, we had well over
150 tuna (caught and released) and two keepers. We also kept a few of the
false albacore and bonito, just for good measure.
Everyone used light tackle. I caught my false albacore and 3 bluefins (I
was exhausted at 3:00 PM and stopped fishing while the others fought fish
until 5:00 PM) on spinning tackle. Some fishermen used light spinning gear
with 6-pound test line, one fisherman used a fly rod. There were tuna
caught on butterfish, squid, live bait, poppers, jigs, and tuna ?flies?.
There was a time when the tuna could be seen racing under the boat and
through the chum slick, hitting anything in sight. Did I mention the other
sights? We hooked into a blue shark (cut it loose) and saw a number of
super-behemoth tuna casually rolling on the surface. Did I mentioned that
we all enjoyed outrageous sushi on the way home? This was, indeed, a day to
remember!
On the local front, Rene at Bridge Bait and Tackle in Salisbury said that
there were plenty of school stripers still around. Rene said that last
Saturday was as busy as a day in June, with fishermen continually coming
back for more bait. Rene said that last Sunday one of his customers caught
over 50 small bass fishing from the shore at Cashman Park.
Kay Moulton at Surfland told me that bluefish were all over ? from the
mouth of the river to Halibut Point. Kay also mentioned that night fishing
off the beach was producing some keeper bass ? try using worms.
Paul Hogg, of Crossroads Bait and Tackle in Salisbury , had had some
success locally with small bluefins. He added that large bass were moving
into the area and could be caught off Plum Island Beach with live eels at
night.
Chris Charos, from Captain?s Parties on Plum Island told me that the
bluefishing was great with his half-day boats running Wednesday, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, The offshore trips, keeping the same schedule, were
into plenty of haddock with the pool winners being codfish to 41 pounds
last week. Please give Chris or George Charos a call at 1-800-427-1333 to
make your reservations.
Captain Rick of the Yellow Bird wrote about last week?s fishing: ?On
Saturday we had a nice steady pick of haddock and cod the whole day
through. We only made two stops, getting a good amount of fish on both
stops.? You may call 1-888-234-3531 for Yellow Bird reservations.
As always, I thank Kay and Martha Moulton, Rene Vigneault, Paul
DeFrancisco, Paul Hogg and the local sport-fishing captains for their
forecasts and news. If you have your own stories, please call me, John
Altson, at 978-499-9972 with your news, recipes, and stories Better yet;
send them by e-mail to
[email protected].
Hear comes the tuna tale
