ARCTEKJim

The Fishing Report
By Capt. Matt King

This holiday weekend brings the kickoff to the island's summer season. The mild weather has helped ocean temperatures climb to a reasonable 51 degrees, and there seems to be plenty of baitfish around, including mackerel, sand eels and squid.
Most reports indicate that the fishing has been fairly decent. Most of the stripers have been in the schoolie class, measuring 18 to 26 inches. There have been a few keepers caught here and there, but I haven't heard of anything real big yet. It is still early and the water a little cold, but the temps and the bite will continue to heat up. It always does.
If you are looking for some striper action, try the Coast Guard channel. The lighter the line and the smaller the lure, the bigger the chance for a heavier fish. Sand eels have been congregating on the sand bar at the end of the flood tide. This offers a tasty meal for the schoolie and the occasional keeper bass and offers you a good shot at hooking up.
Try a rainbow sluggo during the day and a black one during low light conditions. Don't be surprised if you cannot see the small baits when you are walking the shoreline. Sand eels use their pointy snouts to bury as deep as six inches into the sand. When the stripers are feeding on them, in fact, you will sometimes see only their boom tail sticking out of the water as they try to root them out.
The Oar's docks returning home this week. The sand eels will come out and off the bottom during the evening and sometimes in deeper water during the day. To properly imitate the eel you must be down deep, so remember to let your artificial bait hit the bottom before you begin to work it. A slow erratic retrieval is recommended.
Jamie Johnson checked in and reported some larger fish on the east side. Larger, soft plastics have landed him several keepers in the last couple of weeks. More info from the east came from the phantom fisherman Ricky Hall.
Back from vacation up north, Rick has been strapping on the corkers and throwing some needlefish on the big lake. He landed his first keeper on an amber super-strike. Hall added he caught it at one of his favorite spots… IN THE WATER. I am sure we will be hearing more from the phantom as we head into June.
Captain Fred Bowman says the fluke bite was decent earlier in the week on the West Side beaches. He recommends fishing in 25 to 30 feet of water on the end of the outgoing tide. A pink or chartreuse buck-tail tipped with a piece of squid will do the trick. Fred went on to say that although the fluking is still spotty, the weekend should see better and bigger fishing.
According to local freshwater ace Tim Cotter, the pond fishing has been good. Tim has landed bass up to three pounds and says the bite has been steady. Rubber worms and other soft plastics will land you lots of smaller fish, with some nice size bucket-mouths in the mix.
A safe bet for some good action is always live bait. Go in your back yard and turn over a few stones, gather some earthworms, hook them up and you will catch every kind of fish that swims in the pond you are fishing. Please remember that a Rhode Island freshwater fishing license is required to fish if you are over 11 years old. They are available at Town Hall.
With the weather as nice as it has been and the fishing starting to heat up, it seems like the winter doldrums were a figment of our imagination. Frowns have been turned upside down into smiles of enthusiasm. There is a sparkle in every fisherman's eye.
In the coming weeks, Block Island's charter fishing fleet will be here in full force, taking returning fisherman as well as charter newbies out and about the island in hopes of landing a trophy. Memories will be created, friendships born as well as fortified, just as fishing has brought people together for hundreds, even thousands of years.
It is the fourth week of May and IT'S ON!!
See you out there - Aloha, Captain Matt

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