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Hagopian and Lombardo team-up to land 1,000 pound tuna

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Brandon Hagopian and his girlfriend Jenna Lombardo, both of Cranston, caught a 1,000-pound, 124-inch bluefin tuna Sunday, October 17 fishing off Cape Cod.

They caught the tuna not on a large sport fishing boar but on Brandon’s 24-foot Cobia center console boat. The fish took seven hours to land.

Jack Hagopian, Brandon’s father said, “The bluefin stayed deep and they chased it around most of the time (so the line did not break). They also had to navigate it out of a lobster pot at one point. They were able to harpoon it approximately fifteen feet from the boat.”

Congratulations Brandon and Jenna, this is a very nice fish. 

Fall fishing is hot

The month of October is a great fishing month. Anglers have a lot of specie choices to target. Striped bass mixed in with bluefish are still running strong, tautog fishing is cranking up, the cod fishing bite off Rhode Island is good, we have bluefin tuna still being caught in Massachusetts and Rhode Island waters.  And, the warming water (due to climate change) continues to bring us an abundance of black sea bass.

That’s six popular recreational species to target, so get your gear and go fishing while the weather is still mild.

East End Eddie Doherty of Mattapoisett (formerly from Attleboro) said, “The Cape Cod Canal continues to produce fat quality stripers of 30 pounds and more around the clock. Pencils at first light score best as large fish ride the east & west tides back & forth while feasting on huge schools of bunker. Kenny Nevens of Bourne caught a 43-inch striped bass this week on the Canal using a green FishLab lure.”

Neil Hayes of Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle, North Kingstown, said, “The striped bass bite along the southern coastal shore of Rhode Island has been very good. Anglers are hooking up with some large fish at Pt. Judith as well as from the estuary jetties and the beaches.”

Shore or boat, tautog fishing still a good bet

Tautog fishing continues to be very good. Here’s what one expert has to say.

Neil Hayes of Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle said, “If you are fishing from shore and not getting bites you have to keep moving and try different spots every couple of minutes.  You move much more so than fishing from a boat.” Boats move as they swing back and forth on anchor due to wind and current. But when you are on shore you are stationary, not moving, so you have to find the fish. Hayes said, “Put that crab in front of the fish, the big mistake many shore anglers make is staying in one spot too long.”

“Conventional high/low rigs work best because there is a lot of heavy structure when fishing from shore. Small jigs get tied up more frequently as there are a lot of cracks and crevices for them to fall into compared to convention rigs.”

Hayes said, “Some of my favorite places to fish for tautog from shore include Ocean Drive at Brenton Reef, Newport as well as  Ft. Wetherill, Ft. Getty and of course Beavertail Point, Jamestown. Black Point in Narragansett is a good spot too.”

“From a boat the Bay provides a multitude of places to fish. There’s structure all around compared to our sandy beach coastline. Favorite places include Plum Lighthouse next to the Jamestown Bridge, Whale Rock, and structure off Narragansett at the mouth of the Narrow River and ledges off Beavertail Point.” 

Other good tautog spots include the Coddington Cove jetty in Portsmouth, around Hope Island, General Rock in North Kingstown, Brenton Reef and Seal Ledge area off Newport, the bolder field off Scarborough, Ohio Ledge in the East Passage and any other place there is structure, debris, rock clusters, wrecks, etc. 

 

Where’s the bite?

Striped bass, bluefish, false albacore.

 The bite has been mixed along the southern coastal shore from Westerly to the Sakonnet River with anglers catching bass and blues with some false albacore mixed in as the fish feed on large schools of bait everywhere. Elisa Cahill of Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown, said, “The striped bass bite along the southern coastal beaches and jetties is very good. Customers are catching fish in the 40-inch range so the fall migration has started. The striper fishing off Block Island is not as good. We are also experiences a good false albacore bite. Customers Sue and Roger Lema caught eight nice false albacore this weekend.” “The bluefish and striped bass are on the surface in the Bay, just watch for the birds on the surface. Anglers are catching school bass but you never know there are some schools with 20-pound bass in them too,” said Ken Landry of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick.

Tautog and cod. 

Tautog fishing remains very strong and is getting better every day as the weather starts to cool things down as the water has been very warm. I fished off Newport this weekend and did well.  Ken Landry of Ray’s Bait & Tackle said, “In the Bay and out in front the story is pretty much the same. One day customers are catching shorts and the next day all nice keepers. This happened to a customer who fishing Rocky Point on a regular basis.” Angler Charlie Prisco of Warwick and his fishing partner caught four nice keepers with the largest in the low twenty inch range at General Rock in North Kingstown. “The charter boats have been fishing for tautog off Newport to stay out of some of the high wind and seas we have been getting and they are doing pretty good there. The fish are still in close so Pt. Judith is producing tautog too. With a few cold days this week they may go deeper now,” said Elisa Cahill of Snug Harbor.

Freshwater

fishing continued to be good this week in ponds and waterways stocked with trout by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. 

Dave Monti holds a captain’s master license and charter fishing license. He serves on a variety of boards and commissions and has a consulting business focusing on clean oceans, habitat preservation, conservation, renewable energy, and fisheries related issues and clients. Forward fishing news and photos to dmontifish@verison.net or visit www.noflukefishing.com.

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