Reader E-Mail: Chasing Birds and Bass Off Watch Hill

by Joe Gugino

This past Sunday I embarked on an albie-hunting mission with my friends Alain Tremblay and Jeff Dunbar. Alain let me know that the last few times they had taken new people on the boat it equated into a successful trip. Although we weren’t successful in our original goal that day, it was still an extremely memorable day on the water and probably my best fishing day ever.

The original forecast for the day was rain in the morning, and overcast and windy for the rest of the day so we planned to meet at 10:00am instead of hitting the water at first light. When we got to the ramp in Stonington, CT, it seemed as if people were discouraged by the weather report because there were no boats at the ramp and no cars in the parking lot. The best part was that the weather was beautiful, with the sun high in the sky. We loaded up the boat with some lighter rods and fly rods for the false albacore as well as some heavier rods to live-line scup for some big bass and embarked on our trip.

When we first turned the corner and headed towards Watch Hill we were greeted by the welcome sight of birds working. In hopes that it was albies working we grabbed the light rods with various tins and casted into them. We immediately tripled up, but it was on smaller stripers and blues rather than albies. We caught a few more bass and blues on swimming lures and topwater plugs until the tide died down and the bite turned off.

Excited and encouraged by the immediate action, we decided to jig up some scup and try our luck by live-lining them for big bass. After we filled the livewell with baits we headed over towards Fisher’s Island and drifted over a reef that had been successful in the beginning of the summer, but hadn’t fished as well since the beginning of August. We were hoping the fish were out of the late summer pattern and moved back onto the reef. After a few discouraging drifts, and not one sign of any bass, we moved on.

We cruised around Fisher’s Island with zero signs of false albacore, or any fish for that matter. So we decided to try some blind casting at an area where Jeff and Alain had some consistent midday topwater action before. They told me that it was usually schoolies, but we thought it was worth a shot because they had caught some larger fish as well.

We started our drift along a shallow point and as we got towards the end of the first drift I hooked up into a small schoolie. We were encouraged by the action and set back up for our second drift. About half way through our second drift I casted into about two feet of water and after a few twitches of my pencil popper there was a swirl behind my lure, and then it was knocked completely out of the water! On the third strike the fish was hooked and immediately started tail slapping on the surface and trying to rub the lure out of its mouth. We could tell it was bigger fish than I had just caught.

After a solid fight in the shallow water, and with some serious runs of line off the spool, I managed to get the fish to the boat. I backed away from the rail and let Alain bring the fish on board. I assumed the fish was big, but when I saw it on deck I knew for sure it was my first 40 inch fish, measuring out to be 42.5 inches and 32 pounds. And to think I caught it on a topwater lure in the middle of the day! What a way to catch my personal best fish.

On the next drift Alain hooked into an impressive fish as well on his red head/yellow spook that ended up being 40 inches and 26 pounds. Those ended up being the only three fish we caught at that spot, so we moved back on towards Watch Hill in hopes that the tide moving would stir up the bait and get the birds and fish working again. On the way back we landed a few sporadic fish by drifting through some rips over reefs.

When we finally got back to Watch Hill the bite had indeed turned back on and we could see the birds working in the same spot they had when we first started. We fished the same drift for the next two hours and probably landed 50 fish between the three of us. Most were small blues and bass, but there were some bigger blues and keeper stripers worked in.

When the sun started to set we headed back in to the ramp because we figured we caught enough fish for one day. And although we weren’t able to see or catch any albies, we were excited that we had such consistent and fun action. What made it even cooler was that almost all the fish were caught on 247Lures that Jeff made himself. The hot lures of the day ended up being the red head/yellow Flippin Mullet, the Green Flippin Mullet and the yellow Fish Stick that caught me my personal best striper!

As we were loading the boat back on the trailer Alain and Jeff realized that not only had new people on the boat equaled a successful day on the water, but also I was the third new person to come on the boat that summer and the third person to catch their personal best on board. It looks like Jeff isn’t just great at making lures, but he and Alain are also great at putting people on the fish!