Your boat is drifting with the current through a fog covered rip line and you hear the high pitch squawking of terns just a few yards away.

Could they be working over a school of fish?

There they are!

Is it just one fish and a couple of birds?

No.  It’s going off!

Two terns wait for their opportunity to feed on the silversides that stripers are herding.

What are they feeding on?

Could it be squid?

It might be bay anchovies.

It’s spearing!

A tern makes a quick meal from a single spearing it snatched off the surface

Wait, there are some big bass mixed in with the schoolies.

Both a single tern and a single striper feast on silversides near the surface

I can see the bass opening their mouths and gulping down the bait.  It’s really starting to heat up now.

A striper clears the water as it gulps down a meal of silversides

Wow!  The stripers are coming right out of the water as they suck down a quick meal of spearing.  Awesome!

Just how much bait is down there?

Silversides or spearing packed together near the surface.

Another big fish just flew out of the water!   This is insane…I’ve got to get a cast out there.

A large striper feasts on a silverside it sucked off the surface

But, I’ve got a big pink, squid fly on…what the hell, no time to tie on a smaller fly.  Where are they?

Over there!  The birds are gathering.

The focus of attention is a school of silversides being harassed by stripers

Get the boat closer.

Common terns hoovering over schooling baitfish

I’m on!  He took the squid fly!

Sometimes you should't 'match the hatch' but instead go large

If you’ve ever experienced a similar occurrence, whether alone or with friends, you know the excitement of having a a mini-blitz all to yourself.  It’s amazing to watch the dramatic trials of life unfold right before your eyes; the almost irritable timber of the terns squawking, the sounds of tails slapping the water, fish crashing bait, birds diving, and bass flying out of the water…all  happening in your very own room, squared off by a curtain of fog.  And just as quickly as it erupted, it’s over.  Even if you can’t connect with a fish, the sights and sounds have to arouse your emotions and  leave you in awe.

Set the quality for HD 1080P for the full experience
and consider viewing full screen

A feeding frenzy showing bay anchovies being ambushed underwater by cigar minnows and a fish-eye view of the perils baitfish face when schooling up against a breakwater.  Striped bass, triggerfish, stingray, tautog, black sea bass, rudderfish are also highlighted in order to provide fishermen with a highly detailed anglers-eye view of bait.

Bay anchovies packed like sardines in a can

This dive on the last day of July was simply extraordinary.  I entered the water at the base of the breakwater near East Matunuck state beach and proceeded to dive the entire length of the wall, up and back.  Along the way I stopped to film the “trials of life” that the hapless bay anchovies were experiencing.  

I hope the video gives you a feel for what it must be like to be under constant attack from all sides.  The cigar minnows are not a common sight in our waters and a lot of bathers have no idea that giant stingrays weighing several hundred pounds could be cruising right off the beach.  

Each year more and more triggerfish show up and the same can be said for jacks and banded rudderfish.  The tautog were along the bottom where the sand reaches the stone wall, while the bass cruised  the mid-water zone looking for a quick meal.  I saw flounder, lots of sea bass, cunners, snapper blues, baby peanut bunker, silversides, scup, and a host of other marine life.  It was a fantastic dive, in so much as there was always something going on; it’s always nice to see a healthy ocean with lots of biodiversity.  

Call them mahi-mahi, dolphinfish, dolphin, dorado, bulls, chickens, or peanuts, but tie into them on light tackle and you’ll call them one amazing gamefish.  Mahi are among the fastest growing fish in the sea with a short lifespan of only four or five years.

Big bulls are hard to hold, but easy to grill

They don’t match the strength of a tuna, wahoo, amberjack, Cubera, roosterfish or other highly sought after gamefish, however they are sensational on light tackle.  Did I mention stunning, dazzling, beautiful, gorgeous, and radiant?

A big bull dolphin stretches the mono as it runs from the boat

These slides are a tribute to a wonderful sport fish that I enjoy catching, filming and eating.  These photos were taken over the past 12 years and they feature dorado caught off the coast of Costa Rica.

Click on any thumbnail to enlarge, once opened you can navigate all the images by clicking on the image or using your right and left arrow keys.

These amazing game fish are members of the tuna clan and can reach speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.  This slide presentation will give you a close up look at six distinct albies that put on a show for me as they fed in one area for over an hour.  They allowed me to take hundreds of pictures and 36 minutes of awesome video.

 Another hunting party, this time it’s dolphin following yellowfin tuna 20 miles off the coast of Costa Rica .

Another pod of six on the hunt — only this time it's mammals.

The Race Rock Light stands sixty-eight and a half feet above the water

Thursday, July 12, 2012

I met up with Captain Wayne Wood at Barn Island, Stonington, CT

After transferring my equipment to the “4-ME”,  a 27′ Conch center console, we shoved off with high hopes for a productive day of filming, diving and fishing around Fishers Island and Race Rock.

Boat ramp at Barn Island, Stonington CT

The fog lifted revealing cyan blue skies and only the slightest ripple on the water.

Amazingly bright skies shine over the Pawcatuck River

Despite the fact that the Pawcatuck river was loaded with grass and algae we set our course for Fishers Island with hope of finding clear water for filming.

We reached the island only to find a huge bank of fog moving in our direction.

Fishers Island shrouded by a fog bank

Even worse was the fact that the water was fouled with weed, algae and sediment…it was filthy.

Dirty water conditions prevented a dive on the east side of Fishers

We plowed through the weeds and fog and when we arrived at the west end of the island the skies opened up and the water was somewhat clearer.  Along the way we drifted for fluke and picked up a couple of  scup and some short fluke.  Small bluefish feeding on tiny rain bait or juvenile sand eels kept the terns busy, but they were too small to bother with.

Race Rock Lighthouse

 For more information on the history of the light visit Lighthouse Friends

Fly fishing Race Rock Lighthouse

Little tunny are a blast on light tackle and this is one of the premiere locations to hunt for them.

A hunting party of false albacore travel in tight formation

Slack tide drew everyone to the rock like bees to honey: The Coast Guard attempted a landing while they glassed Gull Island at the end of the Race four miles away and a boatload of freedivers were back in the boat after drift diving the light looking to spear stripers.

Coast Guard and crew approach the lighthouse

Bait and birds were tight to the rocks and so was this fly fisherman who kept dropped  his fly  into the wash.

Casting a fly tight to Race Rock

The fish seemed to have lockjaw, but we’ll be back when the bonito and false albacore return in a couple of weeks.

]]> http://www.laptewproductions.com/videos/?feed=rss2&p=3825 0 http://www.laptewproductions.com/videos/?p=3627 http://www.laptewproductions.com/videos/?p=3627#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:25:33 +0000 mlapuser http://www.laptewproductions.com/videos/?p=3627 Laptew Chronicles
Rhode Island’s Web of Life

Part 1

River Otter

River otters can live 10 to 20 years.  These three and half to four foot long mammals depend on clean water and a healthy supply of fish, frogs, snakes, mice, birds, crayfish and mussels. 

River otters digest and metabolize food so quickly that food passes through their intestines within an hour.

The web feet and slim profile allow otters to fly through the water

Click to enlarge any of these images

Snowy Egret

The snowy egret stalks the marshes, coves and rivers for small bait fish such as mummichog, spearing, sand eel or sand lance

Snowy egret charges a school of mummichogs

The egret strikes with lightning speed

The snowy seizes the mummi behind the gills

A good squeeze and a shake and the mummi is about to be eaten

Snowy egret gulps down a fat little mummichog

Muskrat

These semi-aquatic rodents feed primarily on aquatic plants and they can be found in slow-moving-streams, coastal and freshwater marshes, lakes, ponds and swamps.

A muskrat swims toward the shoreline

Osprey building nest with marsh grass and twigs

A full load of nesting material

Osprey grasps herring in its talons

River Herring

Alewives and blueback herring  have an enormous impact on the environment and they are a vital component to the food chain.

A group of volunteers help the Rhode Island Dept. of Fish of Wildlife scoop out and transport herring to an aerated truck.  These herring will be transferred to the Pawcatuck watershed where they will fortify 1300 acres and 8 stream miles.

Herring Heroes scoop and transport fish

River herring stack up in a shallow pool

Worker dumps herring into transport truck

Check back for Rhode Island’s Web of Life – Part 2

The parking lots were full at Silver Spring Lake

Boats jockey for position and the shoreline is crammed with anglers

A fist full of rainbow trout

A true RI Veteran Angler

Father and son fishing fun

A young angler's rainbow is worth a second look

Another fine fish for the stringer

Another trout comes to the net

There was no generation “gap” here

Anglers young and old fish side by side

A rainbow gets air

We don't need a larger boat — just larger trout

Berkeley Power Bait Proved Highly Effective

Chartreuse colored power bait was very effective

I didn’t see one kid texting, or on a cell phone, they were actually in the real world and not engulfed in virtual realty.  We just might be able to reel in the younger generation with what we always though was  great fun. 

Even pop tarts taste better on a wood fire

 Get out there and fish.  Take a kid with you.  Better yet, take an old fart fishing too!  When’s was the last time you took your Dad fishing!

It’s nice to see a herring gull actually eating a river herring and not a french fry.

A herring gull grabs an alewife in the Narrow River

With an expandable throat, these most common of all the “seagulls” in our area, are quite capable of wolfing down an entire river herring.

herring gull swallows an alewife in one gulp

Gilbert Stuart's birthplace is the site of a fish ladder

Anadromous Fish Return from the Sea to Spawn

Alewives return to their natal river

Catadromous Species Spawn at Sea and Their Offspring Journey into Freshwater

glass eels

After hatching in the Sargasso Sea, “glass eels” or elvers infiltrate streams, creeks and marshes in Rhode Island

These resilient animals can live over 20 years in our ponds and lakes before heading back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die

This pair of fish-hawks mate high above the Narrow River, also known as the Pettaquamscutt River.
After mating,  the male osprey scoured the area looking for suitable nesting material.

I hope he finds enough river herring to support his future nestlings.