Monsters From the Depths

This is the biggest fluke we have ever taken
from the boat.  The fish was close to 30 in. and
was caught on a bucktail jig fished
in 70-80 ft. of water.

My brother Steve and I got out in the boat today.  We were looking for bonito and big blues, the fish we have had so much success with this week.  But, we found none. We looked all over the oceanfront and found tons of bait but not a darn thing after it. So, we went to our back-up plan which was to fish the bottom for bottom feeders such as black sea bass and fluke.

Big black sea bass were in
abundance today as we
landed many between 5-7 lbs.

That's when we hit the jackpot.  With surface water temperatures running 76 to 77 degrees today (way too warm), we tried working the bottom in 20-30 feet of water. But no luck doing that so we decided to head out further and try our luck in deep water reasoning that the deeper water would be cooler and possibly more productive.  We were fishing in 75 to 80 feet of water.  We were vertically jigging Kastmaster XLs and bucktail jigs spiced with fresh squid that we jigged up.
Our luck changed dramatically. My brother Steve landed the biggest fluke that we've ever caught from the boat, a doormat that measured close to 30 inches and that we estimated went about 8-9 lbs.  We also landed some of the biggest black sea bass that we ever caught in RI waters.  We had many in the 5-7 lb. range along with countless other keepers.  The bottom seemed to be paved with large black sea bass. We also had another big fluke that went over 20 inches.
So, a day that started off poorly turned into one of our best days of the year.  As I've said many times before.....the fish are there, you just have to find them!