The fish have arrived and they have been on top for the better part of a week now. They are feeding on small young of the year sea herring. It began late, but late is better than not at all. The fish are hitting surface poppers, Zara Spooks, Red-Fin (5-inch) swimmers, Fin-S Fish, and Slug-Go's as well as YUM Money shads. As of right now there isn't a lot of menhaden on the West side of the bay. Most are still to the East and haven't rounded the corner yet but they will soon. Most of the fish being taken are between 28 and 34-inches long. Only a few smaller size fish right now. We hope that anyone who wants fish this season will be willing to take just one and release the rest. But that will be up to you. You are entitled to two fish per day at 28-inches in lenght. Our fluke season will begin on June 17th. You will be allowed six fish (6) at 21-inches. Yes, that is a big fluke, but we'll likely change some tactics to target the bigger fish when at all possilbe. Using live bait, bigger squids, bigger lures, etc. to cut down on the smaller size fish. Last season we had the best fluke, scup, and sea bass fishing I've ever seen and no one really took advantage of it at all. I suppose the economy was to blame to a great degree but the fishing was certainly out of this world last summer, especially inside the bay. We had four fish over 12-pounds, three dozen between 8 and 10-pounds and lots of fish over five pounds just 10 minutes from the dock. If any of you say the RI Party & Charter Boat Magazine this winter at the shows, that was my grandson on the cover with a fluke that was almost nine pounds. He got to fish with me a lot more since we had fewer charters last summer. That's one nice fish for a 7-year old. On one day I took him scup fishing and all by himself he landed over 72 scup in just a few hours. He was catching them two at a time. I didn't have time to fish myself from unhooking his fish and re-baiting his hooks. He kept me pretty busy. You can take 10-scup at 11-inches this summer as well as 25 sea bass of 12-inches. The sea bass fishing was also good last summer with a lot of good sized fish which equated to some good eating for those who caught them. Like last season we will repeat the combo trips that we did. Bass early for a couple of hours and then go fluking and sea bass fishing. A lot of guys liked that break-up especially during the summer when the bass bite stops early as it gets too sunny or too warm. We currently have plenty of days available after June for this type of fishing and a few left for May and June for the bass run. If the bass run is anything like the last two seasons you don't want to miss it. You can no longer count on a fall run that really dosen't exist any longer and hasn't for some time now. Anyone interested in a charter please contact me as soon as possible. 401-828-9465 or 401-578-9043 or e-mail me at whiteghos1@aol.com. Hope to see some of you this summer. Capt Jim White F/V White Ghost-2 One more note: We will be doing research with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute this summer doing a hook mortality study on fluke, scup and sea bass. It will likely be towards the end of the summer like mid to late August. Make sure you plan your trip prior to that time as we'll have to block out 2-weeks to do the research project. We'll also be working with URI Sea Grant sometime this summer or next on another research project inside Narragansett Bay, so a lot of things are happening. It will be one of the first such research projects to take place in the bay and they choose our boat to do it. The reasons are many but one of the biggest is you have to comply or exceed current US Coast Guard requirements and Dept. of Commerce requirments to get certified to take scientists our for research. Your vessel has to meet or exceed a Coast Guard requirement of a 5-Starr rating-WHICH WE DO.
