WEEKAPAUG BREACHAY
Like the other breachways of South County, it often gets a bad rap fro the hardcore surf fishing crowd. But also Quonochontaug and Charlestown breachways, it can be one of the more consistent places in the state to target the likes of striped bass, bluefish, fluke, black sea bass, blackfish, bonito, false albacore and others.
Access to the breachway is quite simple and public parking is located on both the east and west sides of the channel. From Route 1 in Westerly, turn south onto Langworthy Road at Dunns Corner; Langworthy becomes Weekapaug Road. When you reach the bridge on your right, at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue, the two parking lots on either side of the breachway can be seen. Parking on one side or the other is determined by personal preference as well as available space, and both sides have their merit.
Success can be found anywhere along either side of the rocks which adorn both sides of the breachway and each angler has his or preferred favorite rocks based on tide and seasonality.
Striped Bass and Bluefish: When targeting the glamour species at Weekapaug, most anglers head straight to the extreme southern end of the breachway to drift live eels, chunk baits or swimming plugs out into Block Island Sound on the dropping tide. The channel itself, from the entrance to the south all the way up into Winnipaug Pond to the north, should not be ignored. Some of the largest striped bass and bluefish are taken each year from this stretch of the breachway. The channel is most effectively fished with bucktail jigs or rubber shads like those made by Tsunami and Storm. At times a simple 9-inch Slug-Go mounted on a jig head can be deadly effective.
Anglers can also do well drifting live eels inside the channel, on either the ebb or the flood, with the deep of the night producing the best. Years back I would set up on my preferred rock, armed with a dozen eels and conventional rod and reel, and drift a live eel to the north on a flood tide. This is a great technique to pull some large fish when a storm lays siege to the coast and the surf makes fishing “out front” all but impossible.
Bottom Fishing: Weekapaug is an extremely popular spot for anglers to fish bait—squid, sand worms, clams, etc.—in search of the perennial summertime species of fluke, scup/porgy, black sea bass, blackfish/tautog and even triggerfish at times. This style of fishing can be as simple or as fancy as you make it, but little more is needed to find success than to drape a small piece of squid on the hooks of a high-low rig and toss the rig a short distance form the edge of the rocks. From there the tell-tale, tap-tap-tap of a feisty scup will likely soon follow.
If you are more ambitious try working a small bucktail jig or tin like a Kastmaster or Hopkins tipped with a short squid strip along the sandy bottom in and around the mouth of the breachway. Many a keeper fluke has been hooked with this method—just be prepared in advance to land your catch as more keepers are lost trying to hoist tem up from the water’s edge than ever make it to the dinner table!
False Albacore and Bonito: While not a guarantee every year, Weekapaug is one of the more likely spots for the shore-bound angler in South County to tangle with one of these speedsters. Generally showing up some time in late July to mid-August, both fly and spin-cast anglers make it a point to give the breachway a look when albies and bones are known to be in the area. Whether you choose to blind cast in the hopes of intercepting a passing fish, or wait for the fish to show themselves and cast like a madman, nothing comes close to hooking up with one of these fish on light tackle.
