Peter Graeber Writes:
Baitfish move in along the coast, but no joy for those hoping for tuna. Scattered bonito sightings continue to fuel rumors that something more has arrived, but we’ve yet to see proof. Striper fishing is very good for late July and for the moment bluefish are surprisingly scarce along Newport.
The arrival of small baitfish and the smaller bass and blues that chase them, are in some ways the first hint of the coming fall season. Easy fishing for schoolies has begun along Newport. They’re tiny, but there are lots of them and they’re on the feed most afternoons and mornings. They’re sometimes noticed by the birds and sometimes not. If you’re not looking right at your feet you might miss them too. These are great fish light tackle and fly rod fanatics.
Bass fishing continues in its normal early August way. Slow for shore anglers overall with a mixed bag for those from the boat. The bigger fish continue to punish boaters who either haven’t mastered fishing deep or aren’t willing to get up early enough. Fishing shallow under the sun just usually won’t get it done at this point. Surface temperatures in many areas are hanging around 68 to 70 degrees even at sunrise before the sun warms the surface. If you’re after bass at this point, you can’t launch early enough, if you don’t want to fish at night. Fog will extend your morning and day, if you’re able to navigate safely in it. As usual, despite the small bait in the water bigger offerings accounted for all our big fish this week. Big Danny plugs and Super Strike Needles were being pounced on by bass up to 30 pounds on several days. Even in fairly deep water the fish were willing to come up for these lures. If you can find some of the remaining bunker left in the Bay and bring them out to any of the reefs you’ll have a real shot at some very big fish.
Blues seem to be a little thin right now. Usually you can find some small ones jumping around in the waters off Ft. Adams. Any tough, inexpensive lure will get it done with these fish. There are some big choppers cruising in the Bay near the bunker schools as well.
The constant question at the shop is still “Are the tuna here yet?” Inshore we haven’t caught one, our charters haven’t caught any, and we haven’t even seen one. There are scattered bonito around and they are only fueling the bluefin rumors due to being mis-identified. Inshore tuna are definitely fish you have to pay your dues for. Those that put the time in will reap the benefits, if we’re lucky enough to have them visit close to shore again this year. Offshore is still a little slow, with occasional encounters in the usual well known spots such as the Mudhole and Acid Barge.
There were 2 50 pounders we know of this past week caught locally. 50 pound stripers aren’t common, but very, very few are released and that made one of these fish particularly uncommon. John Pope caught and released an estimated 51.84 pound fish this week off Newport. The poundage estimation was reached using the standard calculation (length X girth squared /800). Congratulations to John on the catch and the release. The 50 pound club is exclusive, but anglers who have caught and released 50 plus pounds are even more rare. It’s great to see some big fish going back into the water.
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