Fishing Report: Time to get ready for the Block Island Inshore tournament

“The Block Island Inshore Fishing Tournament was a big success last year.  And this year, we have added a fly-fishing shore and boat division,” said Capt. Chris Willi of Block Island Fish Works, a bait and tackle shop and charter fishing business.

The tournament will start at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, July 23, and end at noon Sunday, July 24. An "After Party" will be held at Capt. Nick’s Rock & Roll Bar on Block Island from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday with a brief tournament awards ceremony.

“This is a length-only tournament," Willi said. "When registering online participants, download our tournament app on their smartphone. When they want to make a tournament entry, they take a photo of their catch up against the tournament-supplied ruler and send their entry into the tournament electronically. So it is not necessary to attend the ‘After Party’ to receive your tournament prize. Winners will be posted online. Limited dockage may be available after the tournament for four to five hours in Old Harbor at the Town Dock. Contact the Dockmaster on Channel 12. Those attending the ‘After Party’ will get a chance to win one of 20 $100 tackle shop gift cards.”

Tournament details and registration

Tournament entry fees are $100 per boat for up to four anglers, $25 per person for additional anglers; and $25 per shore angler.  “Thanks to the Block Island Wind Farm and Ørsted Tournament sponsorship," Willi said, "we are able to donate 100 percent of tournament entry fees to the Block Island Fire Department and Rescue.”

Tournament highlights include cash cards, swag and sponsor prizes totalling $10,000; fluke, black sea bass, striped bass and bluefish with boat, shore, fly fishing, youth, team and photo divisions; take a photo with the Block Island Wind Farm shown and you can enter three photo categories each with a $200 prize; most scenic, best fish photo and best team photo. Pick up participant bags at one of five locations, including Block Island Fish Works, Block Island; Ocean State Tackle, Providence; The Saltwater Edge, Middletown; Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown; and Watch Hill Outfitters, Westerly.

Register online at https://www.sandypointco.com/bi-inshore-tourney. For additional information, contact Block Island Fish Works at bifishworks@msn.com or (401) 742-3992.

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Favorite ways to catch striped bass

We have an influx of Atlantic menhaden (pogies) in Narragansett and Mt. Hope Bays this week. With all this bait and the perfect water temperature (60 degrees and above this week), now is the time to try to catch some striped bass, and here are our favorite ways to catch them:

Here are our favorite ways to catch striped bass:

Casting swimming lures, surface plugs or soft plastics lures. Many anglers love soft plastics and scent them. Ask your tackle shop associate to suggest a favorite lure and what has been working well for anglers.

Atlantic menhaden. Snag the live bait with a weighted treble hook or net them. Hook the bait through the bridge of the nose, find a school of Atlantic menhaden and put the live menhaden into the school and let it swim or troll them. Can cut them up in chunks,  too. Some anglers use a weight slide to get the chunks down to the striped bass.

Trolling with tube and worm. I have had great success in the Bay using lead line and a 5-foot monofilament leader. I find that bubblegum or red-colored tubes work best (the tube hook is tipped with clam worm tube and worm trolling has been a successful technique for the southwest side of Block Island using 300 feet of wire line; amber-colored tubes seem to work best there.

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Where’s the bite?

Striped bass and bluefish.  “The striped bass bite in upper Mt. Hope Bay has been outstanding," said Jeff Sullivan of Lucky Bait and Tackle in Warren. "Anglers are hooking up with keeper slot-size fish [28 inches to less than 35 inches] as well as releasing fish above the slot limit. We have a good amount of Atlantic menhaden in the water. So live linking them and/or trolling them is working well.”  "East End" Eddy Doherty said: “Canal Rat Bill Prodouz landed a 40-inch linesider that fell for a white buck tail bounced along the bottom on an early east tide and the weekend west tide gave up more than one 40-pounder at first light! A 48-pound striped monster riding the current toward Cape Cod Bay was caught off the bottom at dawn near the Bourne Bridge." Cole Freeman of Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said: “We had a sunrise and sunset bite at the Cape Cod Canal last week with top water lures; as the day progresses, anglers are fishing the bottom catching slot-size fish as well as 20- to 30-pounders.”  There is an abundance of bluefish in Narragansett and Mt. Hope Bay. You just have to find them. Bluefish, medium to large size, are being caught by anglers with swimming and surface lures and while trolling with tube and worm and other methods for striped bass. Greenwich Bay was producing bluefish particularly well for the past couple of weeks.

Summer flounder and black sea bass. Black sea bass season opened May 22 and will extend to Aug. 31 with a two fish/person/day limit. Anglers are reminded that the minute size is now 16 inches. There are some reports of fluke now being caught at Warwick Light and mid-Bay areas. “Anglers are catching fluke on the channel pad in the East Passage of Narragansett Bay," said Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle in Providence.

Freshwater fishing for trout has slowed. “Customers are catching small and largemouth bass in area ponds; bass are now starting to spawn,” Freeman reported.

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 . 

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Fishing Report: Time to get ready for the Block Island Inshore tournament