As I found in the report that fluke up to 7 lb were caught, I brought in a rod for cod with Okuma Avenger ABF50 spinning reel with 50 lb PowerPro I used for striper. I also prepared a 5.5’ light rod with Shimano reel with 30 lb braid. As for a rig, I had no idea what was the right rig before the trip. I brought bulk hooks of bait holder 5/0 and some leaders, and planned to make a rig after seeing what other fishermen do. I also bought Gulp swimming mullet and a 3 oz SPRO bucktail jig.
When we got to the dock at Point Judith around 6:40, most of the spot were occupied. We managed to find spots near port stern. After reviewing rigs on the boat, I decided to make a bait rig. I made a high-low rig with triangle swivel. Lower leader was 20’’ with a 5/0 hook. Thirty inches above the swivel, I set a branch of 5’’ and tied a smaller hook. I used a bunk sinker of 8 oz. As for rods, most were salt medium, much softer than cod one. The boat, Gail Frances, left the dock at 7. We arrived at the first spot around 8:20.
The boat started to drift. It was pretty comfortable with light wind. Baits were spearing and strip of squid. I put Gulp, spearing and squid on lower hook and only squid on higher hook. At the beginning, several skates came into the boat. I also got one. After 30 minutes or so, keeper fluke began to come on board. I got a 15’’ seabasss as the first keeper. After a while, I felt something and hooked up a 20’’ fluke. In an hour, I got another similar size fluke and a larger one. A fluke was definitely different from a skate, which came up like seaweed without swimming.
Around 10:30, the captain moved for 30 minutes or so to a spot near Block Island. I kept a seabass and three fluke at that time, not so bad. I wanted to try a light tackle with a buck tail jig if the drift speed was not so fast and the depth was not so much. So I prepared a rig during the move. When the drift started, I found the bottom was a little rough. I saw some seabass came in with a few fluke on port side. When I felt like a little hard to settle the jig at the bottom as the wind became stronger, I got something like snag. As I pulled, it moved. I thought it should be a big fish. The tip of the light rod ran toward the water. I reeled in without being pulled the line from the reel whose drug was adjusted to the 15 lb of load. What I witnessed was a huge door-mat size of fluke! I had a monster netted by a mate. Awesome! He told me not to bleed just in case of pool competition. It fit in my 50 QT cooler although the tail has to be bent a little.
I continued to use the SPRO but snagged soon. I thought it would happen sooner or later at this rough bottom. I lost the only bucktail jig I carried that day so I got back to a bait rig. Meantime a mate brought a cod caught at bow. It looked like at least 12 lb. I thought it would win the pool of the day. Catching got slower around noon. The boat moved to south of the island. When I walked to bow, I found a fisherman I had seen at school. I talked with him and found that he got the big cod. He said he didn’t join the pool. He also said that several big fluke also came into the boat around bow.
The boat started to drift about a mile away from the island. Fishing was slow. I had a spearing taken by half. As I found smaller seabass on board, I put strips of squid only on hooks. That didn’t work. Half an hour left. The boat moved toward the dock and drifted for 15 minutes. Then the captain called the end. After all, I caught nothing in the second half.
I took the biggest fluke to stern for pool competition. Compared with a huge one in the basket, mine was heavier by a little. As mates cleaned fish, it was compared with big ones. I found two more huge ones but mine beat both. Yes, I won the pool as a first timer! It was 28’’, 9 lb monster. About 50 fluke were on board that day but some got several and others had no-keeper. Although 3-4 of 9 lb size were landed, it was a little spotty fishing. I realized that no medium heavy rod was needed for fluke. Salt water medium works as long as it can handle 8 oz sinker.
I kept 4 fluke with a big seabass, and won the pool. Definitely an excellent trip!
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