Like many inshore game fishermen along souther Rhode Island's
shore, my primary menu for a successful season goes something like
this. An appetizer of springtime school bass along Point Judith
Harbor's West Wall and the Deep Hole area in Matunuck. Hearty portions
of early run keeper bass and bluefish follow this course. The main
entree' is hopefully a generous helping of hefty fluke. Supplement this
with a combo plate of hard fighting bonito and false albacore. Dessert
usually closes the season in the form of migrating bass and mega-blues
into the fall. |
For the past several seasons, however, a different mid-summer
arrival has
appeared with more and more frequency to spice up this fisherman's
platter. The beautiful, almost radiant squeteague has visited our
beaches and rocky shores on an increasingly consistent basis. The
summer of '98 delivered the jackpot. |
In the late 70's and early to mid-eighties, these beauties
regularly invaded the South Shore as well as Narragansett Bay. Some of
these invasions included big tiderunner specimens often attaining
weights well into double digits. We enjoyed such a steady diet of these
big fish that i often wondered if any state record fish were taken home
and inadvertently eaten by anglers unaware of just how significant a
catch they had made. |
Tales of 16 to 18 lb. fish often filtered down the fishing
pipeline. My most prized fish back then was the eleven pounder that
graces my wall. While this wasn't the largest I'd ever taken, the fact
that it fell to an ultra-light 6 lb. test outfit that spent most of its
life taming stocked trout made it quite special. |
Some hotspots in those days included East Greenwich Bay, Sandy
Point, along Warwick Neck and around the islands within Narragansett
Bay. The rocky coast of Narragansett from the town beach right around
the Point Judith lighthouse as well as Block Island's North Rip also
hosted the migrating squets. Bucktail jigs and Sassy Shads in yellow
and white were our primary offerings, but Kastmasters and Hopkins
No-Equal spoons in a vertical jigging pattern were also effective. |
In more recent summers past I've taken squeteague on a variety of
tackle, most of which was aimed at other species. A two-footer that
slammed a homemade bunker spoon of about 10 inches comes to mind because
proportionally the lure seemed way out of his league. A few each summer
fall to squid-baited fluke rigs and I even managed one on a slow trolled
12-inch eel. |
The summer of '98 kicked it up a notch during a two-week stretch in
mid-July. Fishing along the beaches of Matunuck, Moonstone and
Charlestown provided reliable action every day with July 9th supplying
the most spectacular squeteague action I've ever experienced. |
Birds working tight to the beach had coaxed me in close, but the
lack of breaking fish had me puzzled. I grabbed my always-ready 7-foot
Ugly Stick/Penn 4000 combo armed with a 3/8 ounce curly tail-dressed
chartreuse bucktail and started casting. The second cast enticed a bass
of about 25 inches. A quick release and another cast connected with a
squeteague of about 4 pounds. What I surmised was that the squeteague
were pushing up small squid, but not all the way to the surface. |
Once I established a pattern of allowing my jig to fall almost to
the bottom, I was hooked-up on just about every other cast. This
explosion of luck continued for well over an hour by which time I had
lost count somewhere beyond 25 fish. Six of these fish hit the ice
chest for an afternoon fish fry, while the rest were released. After
rendering two bucktails hairless and mangling a dozen curlytails, my
weary arms gave out so on one of the few occasions in my angling career,
I headed home with some fish still there. |
These handsome golden fish with the vampire fangs are often
referred to as weakfish. This does not pertain to their fighting
prowess, however, which is considerable. It's attributed to the soft
tissues of their mouth, which facilitates the use of a net. |
At the table, squeteague have a rather mild flavor that many people
prefer over the strong "fishy" tasting varieties. They lend themselves
well to frying, baking, or my favorite recipe, steamed in an aluminum
baking dish with in-season vegetables and lemon. This concoction is
sealed with foil and popped on the grill for about 20 minutes or until
flaky. |
Be on the lookout, south shore anglers, for these magnificent
fish. Although the fact is, more often than not, they'll find you.
|
