Respect the past and embrace each wave of the future as they come.
It was still dark on a cool, late-May morning in the shadows of the Route 1 Bridge over the Connecticut River. All was quiet apart from the odd car passing overhead on the bridge and a small outboard whirring in the distance. Captain Mike Roy pulled into the parking lot and began hauling rods and gear down the ramp to the lighted dock below.
The two Reel Cast Charters center consoles waited at the dock. The big boat is an off-white 27-foot Conch with a Suzuki 300-horsepower outboard. The decks are clear of clutter as the livewells are below deck and well-thought-out storage space absorbs every other loose bag of tackle, clothes, etc. Originally designed for live bait fishing in the Florida Keys, Mike customized it to meet his needs for fishing whether in the Connecticut River or making a run to Block Island. Because casting is such an important part of their charter business, Mike customized the T-top, to be a narrower, streamlined structure, greatly improving the room for casting. This also allows all 12 rods to be stored along the console. With guys casting from the bow and stern, Mike operates the boat from the midship helm, overseeing an impressive array of well-tuned electronics.
The “little boat”, a pale yellow, 23-foot deep-vee Pathfinder with its 250-horsepower Suzuki outboard, is laid out very much like the Conch, with below-deck livewells, ample storage to keep the deck clear and the same streamlined T-top for ease of casting. Rod storage is also alongside the console, easy to access but out of the way of casting anglers.
Tech Savvy
Captain Roy is both a Hummingbird and Minn Kota sponsored skipper because of his fishing skills and professionalism. Mounted on the bow of both boats are Minn Kota 115-pound thrust trolling motors with “Spot Lock” the GPS integrated system that allows the trolling motor to hold the boat’s position regardless of wind or tide. Recessed into the console of both boats are two 16-inch displays that give Captain Roy a wealth of information 270 degrees around the boat, and directly below.
Some of the most important equipment on these two boats are below the waterline and not immediately visible. Each boat sports twin side-imaging transducers, as well as a through-hull “High-Wide” Airmar 2D sonar transducer. In addition, there are forward-facing live-imaging transducers on the trolling motors. One of the attributes that sets Reel Cast Charters apart from other guiding operations is the very serious attention to well-tuned fish-finding electronics.
Mike always catches his bunker with a cast net at the beginning of each trip. He does this by locating the bunker schools on his side imaging if they are not showing on the surface, then throwing a well-placed net. The freshest caught bait is key as bait that has been stored in a live car is not as effective. Time management, proper preparation and doing the extra things that help ensure a successful trip is a big part of the Reel Cast Charters business philosophy.
Captain Roy finds that fish in the river are generally finickier, especially early in the season, than those in the open ocean. Whereas later in the season, plugs and Slug-Go’s will take fish in the river almost as well using a live bunker, in late May – if you can get bunker – they tend to be a more effective bait. Another interesting observation is that in the river you usually catch your bait in one location and the bass in another. “This may seem counterintuitive, but is true more times than not,” says Mike, “as the bunker can survive in lower quality water conditions than the bass”.
Mike’s two charter clients pulled into the dock’s parking lot right on time, came down the ramp with their gear and they were away from the dock before 5 a.m.
An Obsession Begins
Mike Roy’s fishing career began in Milford, CT where his dad first introduced him to fishing on a series of boats including a 14-foot aluminum skiff, a 19-foot Bayliner and a 19-foot Wellcraft. In elementary school, Mike Roy and Mike Morazzinni became friends and lifelong fishing partners. Living a couple blocks away from Long Island Sound, the two Mikes dug worms for bait and fished any water within ‘bicycle range’. When Mike expanded Reel Cast Charters with the second center console, Mike Morazzini was a natural to run the Pathfinder when he was available.
In 7th grade, both boys were given 12-foot inflatable boats which they rowed along the shore, trolling Niantic spinners and sea worms for bass. Whether those days of rowing were the exercise that propelled Mike Roy to pursue the undergraduate and graduate degrees to become a physical education teacher is not clear, but it did set the stage for “advances in technology” in the form of an electric trolling motor, then an 8-horsepower Johnson outboard to move that 12-foot inflatable along.
As a teenager, Mike subscribed to The Fisherman Magazine, studying the articles and organizing the information by putting yellow stickies on articles that he wanted to refer to again, such as Gloucester cod fishing or trolling the tube and worm off Sakonett.
The late Al Anderson wrote an article in 1999 on tuna fishing at Sharks Ledge off Block Island. Mike was 14 and he convinced his Dad to take their 19-foot Wellcraft out tuna fishing using Al’s loran numbers. Mike didn’t quite understand loran numbers and plotted his course using the numbers as lat/long thereby ending up on the east side of Block Island in the prescribed 120 feet of water, but unbeknownst to him and his father, not on Shark Ledge. They started chunking butterfish and had a great day catching small bluefin and bonito. Clearly the mark of a good fisherman, that is, to be able to go off by yourself and catch fish (even if that was not the initial plan).
Pro Philosophy
As he moved through high school and college, his successive boats became more seaworthy until he acquired a 21-foot Steiger that would serve as his platform when he kicked off his guiding career. Captain Roy is being rather modest when he notes that Reel Cast Charters key strengths are, “being very good at finding fish with their electronics and catching live bunker.” There is much more to the organization and operation of his charter business including how he respects and relates to his anglers. Mike doesn’t believe that, “fishing is one of those sports that you pay someone to yell at you.” Taking a page from his cross-fit training coaches who looked to encourage the confidence that bring superior execution, Mike works to help his clients realize that they can do more than they think they can.
In addition to Captains Mike Roy and Mike Morazzini, Reel Cast Charters employs three additional captains to make sure the boats are always working and Capt. Roy can take a day off when he needs to. One of the great advantages of having two boats working the same 20 miles of coast, seven days a week, is that they generate the information that helps them stay on the fish.
We all know that the moon has a powerful effect on the strength of the tide and that the tides run strongest during the new (dark) and full (bright) moons, but Mike underlines that it is very important to be tuned in to the shifts that occur during these big tides. “Both bass and bait will often realign their feeding and staging areas immediately after a new or dark moon”, notes Mike. “It’s really important to verify what the new pattern is after these strong tides rather than assuming that the fish are going to be where you found them a week ago before the big tide”.
Echoing the advice of other very skillful captains, Mike says. “Know your own home waters like the back of your hand before venturing to ‘distant waters’”. Early in his fishing career Mike spent a lot of time fishing around Block Island, until he realized that it was not good time management and that he needed to intentionally learn and fish the area near his home port. “Now, I catch more fish, and most of our truly big fish, close to home”, says Mike.
While it’s common for many fishermen to start their fishing day at the furthermost spot, then work their way back toward home until they find fish, Mike does the opposite, as finding fish closer to home means more time for his clients to be fishing. Mike finds that many guys fishing for bass either spend too much time in one spot or conversely spend too much time driving around. “Time management is key” says Mike, “to maximize your success, it’s important to optimize the amount of time at a given location and stage of the tide”.
Stripers Are Unique
Some species of fish are very location specific. Bluefin tuna fishermen will anchor up on a 75-foot wide, ‘cove like’ indentation in the 180-foot contour of a gravel bank, because it is a known pathway for giant bluefin. Trout fisherman will cast to the best lie in a pool, knowing that if there is a big fish, he will have taken that position. Striped bass seem more opportunistic than many other species of fish and they are highly mobile. After one moon, they may be staging below the dam that alewives and shad are transiting via a fish ladder and after the next moon they might be grubbing in the oceanfront rocks for soft shelled lobsters that are coming out of molt. Being able to find those fish in an efficient manner is why Captain Roy has invested so much time and money to install and tune his Hummingbird electronics.
Electronics are helpful, as is the ability to find, catch and hold live bait when the fish are finicky, but there is no real substitute for experience and keen fishing intuition. The sharpies and pin hookers of the 60s and 70s caught lots of big bass based on their knowledge of bass habits and triangulating shore side ranges, (e.g. “put the red tile roof in front of the water tower”) that put them on the bottom that held bait and bass. Mike greatly respects that legacy and looks to those sharpies who are still living for insights, as well as reading the books and articles of those that have passed on. The Reel Cast Charters website has a great video of Mike and Charlie Soares both fishing, then sitting on the deck discussing the differences of running a guiding business now, in contrast to 20 years ago.
Sound Advice
High wind, rain and water temperatures affect bass behavior and these are conditions Captain Mike must fish through and he has some recommendations for Fisherman readers. August, during the so called “doldrums” when water temperatures are at their peak, is actually Mike’s favorite time of the year to fish because it requires such finesse. There are typically no blitzing schools of bass and the river is not fishing well. This is when Mike’s skill at obtaining live bait really pays dividends. “Structure is even more important at this time of year”, says Mike. “And because the bass are in what I call a ‘low aggression’ temperament, well-presented live bait is generally more effective than plugs or soft baits”.
He continued, “I look for boulder fields and rocky bottom, in particular, and try to find cooler water, which usually means looking for fish out in Long Island Sound. Fishing during this time of the year is best in low light conditions or at night for these structure-oriented, resident fish”.
I asked Mike how he approaches fishing during and after a nor’easter, and he responded by noting that rain and wind can call for different strategies. “If we’ve had three days of significant rain, and the Holyoke Dam, upstream on the Connecticut River, hasn’t yet been released, we can get a couple of days of decent fishing even though the water flow is higher and the turbidity is up,” notes Mike. “Once that dam-related surge comes, I may need to run 10 miles out of the river to find clear, fishable water.”
“We can get wind, with or without rain”, says Mike, “Which is why I think of it differently than just being part of the rain storm”. In addition to finding fish in the lee of a bank or shoreline, this is where the Minn Kota Spot lock really shines. “It is pretty common”, says Mike, “to find yourself in a situation that the tide or current is running in one direction and the strong wind you are experiencing is perpendicular to the current. If you are trying to drift with live bait and the wind and current are at odds, your bait won’t present as naturally as it should. The Spot Lock on my trolling motor lets me virtually remove the effect of the wind, as I run the boat into the wind and let the current control my drift. Bass seem to be much more comfortable attacking a bait when the bait’s swimming behavior is dominated by the current.”
Time Yields Experience
Back on the boat, Mike decided to go up river, with his eyes glued to the side-imaging sonar. Marking a few fish 75 feet off the starboard side, by a small rock pile on the edge of the channel in 20 feet of water, he kept going for another 200 feet then put out two bunker, with no weight, and started his drift back down river. There wasn’t much wind, but it looked like the current was going to drag the Conch into the deep water rather than over the rock pile, so he engaged the Minn Kota for 90 seconds and realigned the drift. As the boat approached the rockpile, Mike called out, “watch your baits carefully now.” Sure enough both bunker came to the surface and there were some half-hearted swirls of smaller bass, but they drifted over the rocks without a take. “Reel ‘em up”, said Mike and his clients reeled the bunker in, leaving them hooked and dropped them separately into the two small transom “mini livewells”.
Mike continued to motor upstream at 4 knots, watching the screens and stopping to drift when he saw fish, but the fish were still in what he calls a “low aggression mode”. They had nervous baits where ever they marked fish, but they hadn’t had a take in over two hours.
Mike truly values the skills and knowledge of those who have fished these waters before him. Conversations with Old Saybrook sharpie Sherwood Lincoln had pointed to some very fishy bottom 50 yards downstream of the mooring field ahead. As they approached that long rock pile, Mike thought he saw the flash of a school of bait, likely alewives that were dropping back after spawning. The tide was dropping and was close to peak velocity. Mike swung out into the channel, almost reached the boat moorings, then moved closer to shore lining up his drift and put out two baits again.
It is amazing what a difference a seemingly minor change in the stage of the tide can make in moving the bass from “low aggression mode” to “high aggression”. Just as their baits started to drift over the upriver end of the rock pile, the first bait disappeared in bathtub-sized boil and the second bait was blasted out of the water twice before it too was engulfed. Both anglers were hooked up. For almost an hour they had a steady pick of one or two fish on each drift, then it stopped as quickly as it started.
Keen fishing intuition, local knowledge learned from time on the water and listening to those who have fished before us, combined with the sophisticated electronics that are now available, gave Mike’s clients a great morning of fishing. If you’d like to join Captain Mike and the crew at Reel Cast Charters, you can contact him at www.reelcastcharters.com or captainmike@reelcastcharters.com
