Hillyer's Tackle

Ed at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle said action in his area seemed to be in a holding pattern for the most part. There was lots of talk at the shop about albies this week but for the most part it was just that – talk. Albie reports have been the same for another week, sporadic pods of fish seen here or there and occasionally a second hand account of one or two being caught. Bonito reports from Rhode Island continued to come in and seem to slowing down some. Still, bones from 2 to 7 pounds were caught from Watch Hill east to Newport and beyond. The shop is well stocked with a wide variety of epoxy jigs and Albie Snax for when the funny fish show up locally. After going gangbusters at The Race again last week bluefish reports were mixed and the fishing seemed to be a lot more hit or miss during the slower mid-moon tides. Sea bass reports were the same as last week. Fishing deep on slack tides for sea bass has been the best bet and Ed encourages his customers to get away from the fleet, find their own rock and that should help get away from shorts on your way to a limit. Reports of good action for local fluke continued to come in with a few limits of 20-inch plus fish from inside Niantic Bay. Shore anglers looking for scup are having no trouble finding fish. Pleasure Beach has been fishing very well and those making the ride over to Fort Trumbull and Avery Point are catching as well. Lots of talk in the shop centered around the nearshore bluefin tuna bite and it sounded like this week there were some much larger fish being caught, mostly on jigs and butterfish.

Ed at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle said that he’d heard from customers who said the big bluefish had returned to The Race after a week long hiatus. Large blues in the 10- to 15-pound range were back to snapping up Diamond Jigs and smashing topwater lures at slack tides. Bottom fishing in the area was mostly the same as the last couple of weeks. Fishing deep on slack tides for sea bass has been better and better each week. With that said, Ed encourages his customers to get away from the fleet, find their own rock and that should help get away from shorts on your way to a limit. Lots of customers were waiting on reports for false albacore and bonito. The word was there are good numbers of bones along the Rhode Island shore but albies have been pretty scarce so far. The shop is well stocked with a wide variety of epoxy jigs and Albie Snax for when the funny fish show up locally. Good fluke reports continued to come into the shop and the size of the flatfish has been impressive. One boat reported catching fish to 28-inches from inside Niantic Bay. Shore anglers looking for scup are having no trouble finding fish. Pleasure Beach has been fishing very well and those making the ride over to Fort Trumbull and Avery Point are catching as well. Lots of talk in the shop centered around the nearshore bluefin tuna bite and it sounded like this week there were some much larger fish being caught, mostly on jigs. There are blue crabs and snapper blues to keep you busy inside the river if you’re looking for some action closer to home. They are all stocked up with crab traps, handlines, ropes, nets and starting this week even frozen chicken legs and wings.