Teasers to Imitate Sandeels

When sandeels are around as we have right now along the RI oceanfront, one of the best artificials to use for stripers would be a fly teaser. I especially like to use sparsely tied Deceivers as fly teasers. I make my own and tie them on Mustad 34007 hooks in size 1/0 or 3/0. To tie this fly in an all black begin with black thread. Wind the thread to the bend of the hook and tie on two black saddle hackles on each side of the hook. Now, wrap the thread forward and build up the body of the fly with the black thread. To finish off the head part, tie a sparse amount of black bucktail as a throat and more black bucktail as the wing. Finish off the head and tie off with a whip finish. See finished Deceiver at right. I like to tie this in all black to use at night and in a light color to use in daylight. I usually pretie two teasers on a double teaser rig and store my rigs in a leader wallet.

Last night I fished one of my favorite beaches where sandeels were present. I landed 6 schoolies on Deceiver teasers(see photo at left). Not one fish took my plug which was snapped onto the end of my rig. That is because the Deceiver looked in size and silhouette like a sandeel, and it also moved like a sandeel.

Sandeels Arrive by the Millions, Fishing Perks Up

Just when I thought we were in for a very slow summer of fishing, tons of sandeels appear along the south coast, and they have lured stripers, bluefish and fluke close to shore. I have never seen the numbers of large sandeels that I witnessed yesterday. These were all sandeels in the 3-5 inch range, very large for these parts. While fishing off the West Wall yesterday, I saw one huge black patch after another move down the beach and along the wall. The water was so clear, you could seen striper after striper under them and occasionally breaking for them. The stripers, however, were fussy and scattered and would not hit in the daytime.

What was hitting in the daytime was fluke. They were everywhere there was bait. Using a bucktail jig spiced with a plastic grub tail, I landed 21 of them, but only one was a 21-inch keeper. I found some striper action after dark with some fish breaking close to shore and some hitting. Fishermen in boats were faring far better as they could chase breaking fish in the daylight along the Walls and in front of Pt. Judith where from shore I could see birds diving and fish breaking. The hot lures for me and friends who fished from shore were teasers (either Red Gills or Deceiver flies) fished ahead of Hogys or Slug- Gos.

Hopefully, the sandeels will jump start the fishing.

The REAL Fishing Report

Contrary to what you find in fishing reports in the papers these days, the fishing for stripers along the inshore waters and the Bay is POOR. In fact, it is probably the poorest for this time of year that I have experienced in the last 10 years.
The Bay has been cleaned out of menhaden by the pogie boats. Yes, it is legal to do this in RI. However, the ecomonic impact of allowing this is just ridiculous since wiping out menhaden allows a few to profit at the expense of sport fishing which generates far more money for the state. With the pogies gone, the big bass fishing in the upper Bay is done except for occasional bluefish. Compared to other years, there are few schoolies and little bait in the Bay and that has caused slow fishing also. The only place I am able to find a few sandeels and some schoolies is Conimicut. Past hotspots like the Bike Path and Save-the-Bay have little or nothing. Bluefish fishing is sporadic as it often is at this time of year, and the few that are around are small.
The south shore is no better. I've had poor outings with a fish or two recently along Narragansett. There is little bait down there also. Not surprisingly, there are few fishermen. You will have to put in long hours after dark for a fish or two.
This is the real story of what is happening right now in RI. I will continue fishing after dark since I don't mind working for a fish or two. Unfortunatlely, I don't see the action picking up until early fall.

Nighttime is the Right Time

You know summer is here when you can no longer catch a striper in the daytime, especially a sunny daytime. In the last week, I have been fishing evenings into the night in the Bay. The action seems to begin right after sunset and progress into the night. It is a mix of small keeper bass and schoolies.

The hot lures continue to be plastic stick baits. I am using Hogys and my friends who have not discovered these hot lures are using Slug-Gos (see photo at left of fish caught last night). The stripers are also occasionally hitting a teaser rigged ahead of the plastic bait. There continues to be a mix of stripers and bluefish. The blues have been particularly pesty by cutting the plastic. Go to a hard lure and they won't touch it!

Chop can Lead to Big Striper!

The biggest striper we caught from the boat in the Bay last year and this year (see picture) have been caught in the exact same, but strange way. We are drifting a live menhaden. Along comes a big blue and chop, chop, chop. We pull and miss the blue. As the head chunk sinks back, a large striper immediately engulfs the chunk.

The lesson to be learned here is that if a blue comes along and cuts your bait, something that will happen often at this time of year, let the chunk settle back. You can even fish it with a few lifts of the rod. Frequently, large stripers lurk right under the blues just waiting for a free meal.

Blues on the Increase; Stripers on the Decrease

It happens every year in Narragansett Bay around this time. The water begins to warm and larger stripers head to deeper water in the lower Bay. The menhaden are still around, a good bait supply for increasing numbers of bluefish that favor the warmer water.

I have been out the last 4 evenings from shore, boat and kayak. I've also fished various spots....the Providence Shipping Channel, Conimicut, East Greenwich Bay and other upper Bay locations. In every spot, I have found decent numbers of bluefish. East Greenwich Bay had small, cocktail blues in the 12-16 inch range chasing small bait. The Seekonk River in Providence had large bluefish slamming scattered schools of menhaden. In between all this action, there are still some large striped bass to be had (we landed fish up to 35 lbs. this week), but you will go through lots of menhaden that are falling victim to bluefish.

The big blues are hitting menhaden (chunks, whole and dead, and live) while smaller blues will hit poppers, swimmers and plastics.

Vary Your Tactics in the Bay

This is not last year's fishing in 'Gansett Bay.There are less pogies, less large bass and a ton more fishermen, many of whom are clueless. However, the sharpies are still catching good numbers of large bass and blues. Moving around and varying tactics are the key to scoring.

Fishing with live menhaden is still a great technique if you can get a supply of pogies. We've found that it is best to move away from the mob scene of boats when doing this. We've gotten most of our 40-45 inch stripers (see pic of yesterday's fish) drifting live pogies.

Another technique that has worked well is chunking. Find a spot in relatively low water (under 20 ft.), anchor, and start chumming cut pieces of menhaden. This works well when you have a supply of dead ones. I like to use no weight and a relatively small chunk when chunk fishing. Let it to the bottom and bounce it up and down with the rod tip. This has accounted for many bass in the 28-34 inch size range and some big blues.

Finally, don't discount plugging. We were drifting yesterday and suddenly bass and blues were popping here and there for bay anchovies. We started plugging with Hogys and Zara spooks on top and ended up picking up quite a few large blues and small keeper bass.

My brother and I landed 25 fish yesterday and used all of the techniques described above. In the same area we were fishing, many inexperienced boat fishermen went fishless.