Greg Vespe with his giant 31.5- inch summer flounder (fluke).
Fishing in Narragansett Bay this season has been a tale of two venues.
Boat fishermen have been killing it! Every day, my angling network of boaters have been landing giant striped bass (most outside of the slot range of keepers, which is 28 to 35 inches, one fish per day), averaging 40 to 50-inches, in addition to chopper bluefish, large black sea bass and even some award-winning catches of other species.
Greg Vespe of Tiverton, former president of the Aquidneck Island Striper Club, caught a 15-pound, eight-ounce, 31.5-inch fluke while fishing off Newport with his friend Capt. B.J. Silvia of Flippin’ Out Charters on July 3.
The Rhode Island record is 17 pounds, eight ounces, so Vespe’s doormat, while a stunning trophy, fell just two pounds short.
On shore, however, fishing has flatter than Vespe’s fluke. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury (mostly fishermen swearing) signifying nothing. In other words, even Shakespeare has no words for how sparse angling from shore has been.
Mike Varacalli of Newport holds a 34-inch striped bass he caught on July 5. He was fishing aboard Newporter Tom Lemaire’s 24-foot MV/Miss Aimee off Brenton Point.
Personally, I have gone out more than two dozen times and thrown the same lures that caught me more than 70 stripers and 34 large blues last year – bone-colored zoom flukes on bright and silver jigheads, SP minnow mackerel lures, eel lures on jigheads, bucktail jigs with white worm extensions, white poppers, pencil poppers, other colored poppers and spoons – and have only caught 15 striped bass (one keeper) and one medium-sized blue.
I am not alone. Most of my boatless friends are in, well, the same boat. A prominent angler from Middletown, who fishes for hours nearly every day, April through November, just caught his first bluefish, 29 inches, on a white popper.
First blue in mid-July?
Kayak and canoe fishing from shore, even 500 to 600 yards out, makes a huge difference. The fish of substance have gone much deeper into the bay very early this year. Usually, it takes the warm waters of late June and July to drive them out.
But it has happened throughout June.
According to scientists, the bay fish population is robust, especially in the channels. July and August will call for real patience from shore until the stripers and blues aggressively return in large, fat numbers in September.
If you know a friend with a boat, call in all your favors now, or book a charter. If you love saltwater sport fishing, it will be money well spent.