The land of the giants hold huge summer potential for your next ‘personal best’ striper!
Just 13 miles south of South County’s Weekapaug Point, sits Southwest Ledge, or as I like to call it, the kingdom of cows. This is a place where striped bass dreams come true.
Block Island looms in the distance and holds the key to even more striper dreams, whether they be surf, boat or even kayak…the famous Block Island delivers that chance. It is the premier destination in the Northeast for striped bass, it’s the Mecca! And if you need any more cajoling, let my personal experience convince you; in the last 15 years I have broken 50 pounds at Block over 20 times, with my largest going 60-plus, that fish ate a 3-ounce Jeck’s bucktail on the September new moon… but I digress. The simple fact remains that Block Island puts out giants and you can catch one too.
Like any other type of fishing or destination spot, time spent is the key to hooking those fish of a lifetime. I make between 30 and 40 Block Island runs every year and that has left me with many stories to tell. Some include giant fish and epic bites, some tell of towering waves and surprise conditions that weren’t in the forecast—obviously, I’ve lived to tell these tales, but I’ve also learned what I am about to share with you, the hard way.
Dock To Block
The first and most important thing that I pay attention to before making the run to Block is the weather. In fact, weather dictates the whole trip. We launch out of Bristol Rhode Island in a 20-foot center console, and it’s a good two hour steam from dock to Block, this time can change considerably if the seas are sloppy. I think it’s healthy to go into a trip like this with the attitude that you are going to battle with Mother Nature and she can ‘flip a switch’ and make things really ugly, really fast. As you might imagine, in 15 years of doing this 30-plus times per season, we have been faced with many runs where we shouldn’t have been out there, but some of those trips produced massive fish. The bottom line is this: if you don’t have the boating experience to make a long run and fish through nasty weather, plan to make the trip when seas are calm and the winds are light.
As soon I leave my 9 to 5 at Lucky Bait & Tackle in Warren, Rhode Island, I go directly to my buddy’s dock and we begin the obsessive ritual of planning. We start by poring over marine forecasts from various sources; NOAA, Windy, WindFinder and any others we can find. Once we decide that the seas aren’t going to be prohibitive, we move on to checking gear. I am of the belief that “it’s better to have and not need, than to need and not have,” so we pack a little heavy so that we never go wanting (or needing).
It should go without saying that you will need to have all of the Coast Guard mandated safety equipment and know where it is and how to use it. But this is a long run so you’ll also want to have food and plenty of water, a few extra layers of clothing in case you get wet or the temp drops and the wind kicks up, extra batteries for headlamps, fully-charged cell phones (hopefully you’ll be taking lots of photos), a Red Bull or two and a can-do attitude!
Attire & Artillery
Before we get down and dirty with rods and reels, I can’t stress enough how important it is to dress for success. All that weather obsessing should have given you an idea of what the temperature would be like while you’re out there, so layer up accordingly and bring and extra hoodie and a foul weather top, at the very least. Regardless of whether you’re fully bundled up or rocking shorts and a t-shirt on a summer day, wear your bibs. Remember we’re ‘battle bassing’ and that means you’re gonna get wet, and with any luck you’re gonna be bear-hugging a 40- or 50-pound cow and getting covered in slime. You’ll thank me later if you heed this warning and wear ‘em.
I bring three outfits when I fish Block, two spinning and one conventional. All my leaders are connected with FG Knots and my leaders are long, from 8 to 10 feet, given all the gnarly structure, bluefish, sharks and monster bass. The two that see the most action are my eeling setup and my soft plastic/jigging setup, both are spooled with 50-pound PowerPro Red. The eeling setup is a 7-foot Jigging World Nexus heavy, rated 2 to 6 ounces paired with a Shimano Baitrunner 8000 D. My leader is 60-pound Daiwa J-Fluoro and measures 8 feet. My hook of choice is a Gamakatsu 6/0 or 7/0 inline circle and I use egg sinkers of 2 to 4 ounces to get the eels down into the kill zone.
For my jigging setup I pair a 7-foot-6 Tsunami Platinum heavy spinning rod with a Tsunami Salt-X 6000; my leader is an 8-foot section of 50-pound J-Fluoro and I use a 125-pound TA Clip for faster changes. I use this setup for bucktails and soft plastics on jigheads, I’m typically using 2 to 3 ounces, but sometimes the tide may dictate going a little heavier. The Jeck’s Bucktail in blurple coloring is my favorite, and I’ll often spice it up with an Otter Tail or eelskin for added scent and action. My top-producing soft plastic is the GT Eel, I mostly use ‘Plurple’ or ‘Barbie Pink’ – both have crushed fish, I feel like the pink one works especially well when the bass are eating squid. Another favorite bait is the Tsunami Heavy Shad, this thing crushes.
The third setup is what I call my ‘Jaws Rod’ – and I am actually bringing it to target sharks. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no better way to cap off a successful night of bass fishing than catching a big shark. No pain, no gain! This setup is a 5-1/2-foot Tsunami Patinum 50-100 heavy paired with an Accurate Boss Magnum 870, I spool this reel with 65-pound PowerPro DepthHunter and top off the rig with 10-feet of 100-pound J-Fluoro and a 14/0 Mustad circle hook. You’ll also want to have a pair of bolt cutters to aid in a speedy and safe release and a good pair of offshore gloves to avoid injuring your hands.
Corralling The Cows
Fired up yet? I’m fired up just writing about this! Let’s dive in on how I like to fish Block. First of all, I mainly like to fish at night. You can catch these fish in daylight too, but going at night puts the big girls on the feed and the bite seems to be less weather dependent, meaning you’re likely to do better in a friendlier sea when it’s dark, in daylight the bite tends to be better when it’s a little nasty out. With its variety of dynamic structure, deep humps, drop-offs, ledges and boulder fields coupled with fertile waters that are teeming with bait; the waters surrounding Block Island offer some of the best striper fishing in the entire Atlantic Ocean.
| DON’T GET PINCHED! |
| One, very important, thing to be aware of is that Southwest Ledge extends beyond the three mile line and it’s illegal to target stripers beyond that point. It might feel like you’re a hundred miles from civilization, but DEM runs regular checks out there, even at night, don’t say I didn’t warn you! |
Block Island has so many favorable fishing conditions. The mixing currents of Long Island Sound, Rhode Island Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean creates a nutrient-rich environment loaded with baitfish. These currents also oxygenate the water which fires up the striped bass. You will notice a difference in the way these fish fight! Sometimes I swear, Block Island fish have an extra tail! Another great thing about these cooler, oxygen rich water is that it makes for healthier release of summer stripers and I’d say that July is the top month out there, with October and September being my next two favorites.
The fishing methods that work best are simple, targeted drift fishing over structure is the name of the game and the best way to get it done is with a live eel fished with an egg sinker to get it down into the structure. Once the eel is down, you’ll just want to guide the eel through the structure and wait for the thump. If you’re having trouble knowing that you’re down on the bottom, bump up your weight. If you’re newer to this kind of fishing, make sure to remind yourself not to set the hook when you feel the hit, with circle hooks now mandatory, give it a 5 second count, bow to the cow, reel ‘til you feel weight and hang on! The first fish I get always says, “ladies and gents welcome to the kingdom of cows!” You’ll see!
If you want to go the ‘artificial route’, any of the soft plastic eels on the market will get the job done. I mentioned above that I like the GT Eel, but offerings from JoeBaggs, Game On, Al Gaggs and others, will work every bit as well, as will bucktails and big shads. The main thing is just getting your weight right. You want to the jig to tick bottom now and then, but you don’t want it to be bouncing or dragging. I also don’t like to be jigging it hard, I maintain intermittent bottom contact and use subtle rod movement to keep it swimming and looking sexy. Once you get that down, you’re just waiting for impact.
Lay Of The Land
One important thing to note is that Southwest Ledge is a well-known hotspot and on a calm night it might look like you’re approaching a floating city because of all the boats out there trying to catch that prehistoric striper of a lifetime. So the first thing I do is watch. I try and pay attention to how the boats are drifting, where the drifts are concentrated and get a feel for the ‘vibe’ of the night.
Once I have that figured out, I start getting rods ready, get a fresh eel rag, re-check all my knots and leaders. Then start puttering along the ledge, watching the screen for concentrations of big fish. Once I find a pile of fish, I will target that area with my drift. You want your offering, whether it’s a live eel, soft plastic or a bucktail, to be fishing straight down below the boat—you may have to adjust weights to get that dialed in, it’s all based on feel. Drop it to the bottom, pull it up a crank, maybe two and then just wait for the boom.
Tide is always a factor in striped bass fishing and that’s true around Block Island as well. You definitely want that tide to be moving if you want to experience the best bites. The real magic happens around the turns of the tide, figure two hours before and after the switch. These windows become even more productive during periods of strong tides, like those around the moons. If you didn’t read between the lines on that, the full and new moons are apex times to fish Block.
Block Island is more than just a vacation destination or summer getaway, like most people think it is. It is filthy rich in striped bass history and its God’s gift to striper fishing. I have been very lucky to experience so much of the striper fishing this place has to offer and it’s become such a part of who I am that it’s almost a sickness or addiction. But the best part is, you can experience this too, all you have to do is plan ahead and follow my lead. The giants are already there, you just have to be there to present to them. Do that, and your odds of popping that next personal best will increase by a staggering factor.
If I were you, I’d make a Block trip your top priority this month… maybe I’ll see you out there!
