Rhode Island Hat Trick

 

This months On the Water magazine had a great article about catching the Big Three saltwater species in Rhode Island (striped bass, bluefish and false albacore) written by Dave Pickering. 

It’s very difficult to catch all three of these fish in the same day from shore. False Albacore are without question the hardest of the three species to catch. Even in places that are known albie “hotspots” they still don’t always do what is expected. A person can wait all day for them to show up and they might not. A good deal of luck is required to catch albies consistently.



My one striper

I have been trying to catch them for a few years now, usually spending a couple days during September hoping for a school to pass by. The only time I actually saw any evidence of one was last year at the West Wall one guy had one on but lost it. I spent 2 consecutive days fishing for albies with no hint they were even around.

Having Friday and Saturday off this week I went to southern Rhode Island to do some saltwater fishing. I hadn’t been to the surf for a while. I didn’t care what I caught; I just wanted to catch something.

I started my morning off at the East Wall. I got there before sunrise. I stayed about an hour without seeing any signs of life. From there I started searching other public access areas. At my third spot I looked down the rocks and saw a bunch of fish feeding. I walked out over the bowling ball rocks and stated fishing. I caught a blue on my first cat. The second cast I caught a decent schoolie. I was using a 4 inch Zoom Fluke on a jighead. I was hoping to catch bass along with the blues. It didn’t take long to figure out that the school was almost entirely bluefish. So I switched to a homemade bucktail jig so I wouldn’t waste money on the soft plastic. The blues kept coming.

One of many bluefish

While all this was going on I saw a weird swirl out in the deeper water. I was sure it was a fish “porpoising”. I had read false albacore do this. After having my share of blues, I put on a wooden casting egg and a fly. I casted it as far as I could and when it got within range of the feeding blues, I’d reel it in as fast as I could so they wouldn’t chomp it off.



After a few casts I got a hit and thought I hooked a bluefish. After 30 seconds I was pretty sure it was an albie because it ran in at me and my line went slack (something else I read).  If it wasn’t an albie, I figured it was a 15 pound bluefish I could not believe the strength. I landed it and I was pumped. I waited a long time for that moment.  I also realized that by 9 am I had a Rhode Island Hat Trick. Needless to say the adrenaline was flowing.

It turns out the albie was the last fish I caught at that spot. The fish either stopped feeding or moved on. So I left had some lunch and looked for fish again.



First False Albacore ever. What an amazing fish

I found a bunch of guys fishing an area of open ledges. I went down to the water and right in front of me was a giant baitball.  Within a minute of being at this spot one of the older guys with a fly rod hooked and landed an albie. I asked if it was okay if I fished near them they responded this way “Go ahead and have some fun, we already did” Apparently they were catching albies and blues since dawn. I fished near them and although I tried to avoid blues because I was running out of soft plastic, I landed a bunch more.

As for albies, I caught another 4 more. They proved difficult to catch. The water was calm and the sun was bright. I could look down into the water and watch them swim by. Many times they would swim right toward my fluke. Look at it and circle away from it within a second. It was frustrating but also a good learning experience. I have braided line and attach a leader to it with a swivel. I couldn’t get a fish to hit using it so I made a blood knot to attach the leader to the main line. I also had much better luck with 3 inch albino flukes than I did with the four inch.  My friend Dave was fishing 40 yards to my left. He was catching them on an egg float and fluke. Since I had all my fish within 10 feet of shore, the egg was useless to me so I used a small ¼ ounce jighead.

I fished until 3 pm then had to drive home. All total I caught 5 albies, 1 striper and many, many bluefish. It was one of those “right place at the right time” days. Wish they could all be like that. Going back again today, I talked to a couple other guys that had a hat trick yesterday. At least four hat tricks and a hundred false albacore were caught. Memories for many of us that will last forever. 

Sunrise at Point Judith