New England - New England Offshore Fishing Reports
New England Video Fishing Forecast February 9, 2023
It’s been a bit of a lean week as far as reports go, but the arctic front that blasted New England with ‘once in a decade’ cold, built up some safe ice from the innumerable lakes of Maine through interior Massachusetts and parts of the northwest corner of Connecticut. In keeping with this winter’s trends, we saw a rapid ascension back to temps topping in the mid-40’s with Friday promising to eclipse 50 degrees! Angling opportunities are plentiful across the region from jigging the ice for lakers in Maine, to soaking bait for trout on the Cape, to hunting Sebago salmon in Rhody and drifting jigs in Housatonic for stripers in Connecticut. We don’t see too many mild Februaries, so take advantage!
I talked to my buddy Christian who works at The Saltwater Edge and he told me that the shore tautog bite continues to produce nice fish, many of them in the 7- to 9-pound range. Striper action has bee...
I talked to my buddy Christian who works at The Saltwater Edge and he told me that the shore tautog bite continues to produce nice fish, many of them in the 7- to 9-pound range. Striper action has been a little slower on the island, with schoolies popping up on the sand beaches and some up inside the Sakonnet River as well. But guys fishing up around Bristol or from Wickford up to Warwick are finding more consistent action with schoolie bass and some larger fish up to 34 inches as well. Abbi over at Quonnie Bait and Tackle in Charlestown told me that big blues have been the main draw for anyone fishing the local surf. The Breachways have been holding good numbers of the big choppers with lots of them being in the 10- to 12-pound class and some much larger. These fish will take a variety of lures, but leave the soft plastics at home unless you want to shovel money into the tide. Stick with single hook lures like Roberts Rangers or Hopkins. The shore tog bite has been really good locally as well. A lot of guys are trying to keep in hush-hush, but the bite has been good and its not slowing down. Schoolie action is ongoing, no keeper bass were reported this week. But the worm hatches have been going off in the ponds and the guys flicking flies or throwing small soft plastics on spin gear have been crushing fish. One shore angler also reported taking a 16-inch fluke in Ninigret Pond with a bluefish and a sea robin to sweeten the deal. Mike Wade from Watch Hill Outfitters in Westerly had a shop-full when I called but he was able hold them off long enough to relay some good information for the surf guys. He said there are bunker and squid running all along the local shorelines and this has fired up a heavy wave of large and angry bluefish. The action has been between Weekapaug and the West Wall mostly and the blues have been all over the bait schools and crushing whatever people throw their way. He said hes seen photos of blues as large as 15 pounds from the beaches, but even the average fish are large, he thought the average size might be 9 or 10 pounds. The slot bass that were showing up sporadically over the past few weeks seem to be gone, but there are still lots of schoolies up to 24 inches around if you can them through the bluefish melees. The shore blackfish bite has started to really come alive as more and more togs move in to spawn. The shop has crabs and everything else youll need to cash in, stop on buy and stock up.
