Travel day on this trip is usually a chance to catch up on sleep a little bit, but with the poor fish count and a 12:30PM reservation for the Pt. Judith Ferry both of us were all in on taking just a couple more Newport shots before heading over to Block Island. Back to Sachuest. I had missed a nice fish on a Chicken Scratch Redfin earlier, and that had me mountain-goating across a boulder field to a slippery little point on the back side of the park. I was ready with a bubblegum Hogy 10” soft bait that I had double rigged so if I got the chance again, I would not end up with a short strike and a hole in the water. I had made up enough new words this trip, and did not want to have to increase my vulgar vocabulary any more.

Throwing big, unweighted soft plastics is one of my favorite things, not only because you get to visually eyeball every dip and twitch it makes, but also because they will usually entice fish to make violent topwater strikes. This spot had been very productive for me in years past, graced me with some very nice stripers, and I was hoping my Newport going away present was hanging just out of the current in one of the many deep holes in the rocks. I picked that craggy shoreline apart with my casts like a Dental Hygienist on a bonus program looking for a cavity. My reward for an hour of dilligence was one little bass that may have just barely been bigger than the lure itself. I don’t know what makes these little guys think that they can take on the world, but you have to admire their fearlessness.

The trek back to the truck was peppered with conversation about maybe changing the trip to the Fall and how the beautiful weather had put the screws to our time in Newport. We took a swing down Ocean Drive to kill a little time and Craig picked up a couple more little guys off his favorite rockpile while I rearranged the back of the truck to make room for the luggage and rods we had left in the room. By this time the inside of the Sequoia looked like a tornado hit it, with gear, shirts, wet socks, crushed water bottles, tubes of sunblock and Nature Valley bar wrappers everywhere. My Yeti 65 was doing it’s job; threw 2 5# bags in there 2 days ago and all was still cold, and our customized Ramblers were keeping the caffeine hot. All the gear was holding up well, but with my late run to pick up the new VR150 I was fishing, I had not had the time to convert it to the “no bail” setup so I was still wrestling with it a little. I did not have the time frankly, but I wish it was changed over. I had not done one before and I really did not want to screw up the conversion. Maybe on Ferry ride, which now was only a couple hours away.

We hit the Atlantic Grill on the way back to pick up our bags at the hotel (great breakfast btw) and loaded up our clothes into the small space I had cleared. It was off to Pt. Judith, one of Rhode Islands truly famous fishing spots where we had some great history and a few scary moments trying to walk our way out to the boulders near the Coast Guard station in years past. I lost one korker about 3/4 of the way out to a rock about 20 yards off the shoreline on one of our trips there and it literally took me an hour to get back on safe ground across the slippery underwater round rocks. Treacherous spot, big rocks, big current….. and ask anyone…….big bass. We were not headed to fish, but to get on line for the trip over to Block and hopefully, a rebirth of our so far mediocre adventure.

Although we still did fill in a great deal of our time on Block working the shoreline, the high points in years past had been our two guided trips fly fishing with a couple of local guides from their boats. This year we were booked with Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. John Tondra. I had put my biggest striper ever on a fly on the deck there two years ago, just a hair over 30#, and it was a memory I will always carry. Hopefully, this trip will bring us both another one.

We are all loaded up on the ferry. Headed for a bench upstairs to try and grab a half hours shut-eye before reaching Old Harbor. Maybe the table full of toddlers down the row from us will cut us a break!

High hopes for the next blogpost,

Stay Tuna-ed!