The Benmar Fishing Report

Captain George had promised a fishing excursion to various family members today.  Despite the brisk west winds, everyone was ready to go and brave the wavy conditions out on the Watch Hill reefs.  The intrepid anglers were rewarded with a good striper bite and they managed 10 keepers before calling it a day.  Ryan Piper had the biggest linesider of the day and therefore has bragging rights at least until the next trip!  The BENMAR is booked up for the rest of June but there are plenty of open dates for July and beyond.

See more photos on the BenmarCharters.com Photo Gallery.

Fred from NY and four of his buddies had a nice trip today taking advantage of the bargain-priced weekday special.  They managed ten nice keeper stripers and lots of action out near Catumb Rocks in a half day of fishing!  Capt. George plans to keep the weekday special going throughout the summer……$500 for a great outting on one of the best charter boats in CT! 

Today was a beautiful day on the water with mild temperatures, light wind, and low humidity.  We were glad to share it with Mark A. who has been going out on the BENMAR for many years.  He is a vivid character who loves to fish and appreciates all the gifts of the ocean, large and small.  We started  fishing for Stripers out near Watch Hill and boated a couple of beauties.  Then we drifted in several spots for bottom fish and scored a few jumbo porgies and a sea bass.  We ended the day on an inshore reef and picked up another striper along with some more jumbo porgies.  A large fluke and a few black fish which had to be returned since they are out of season, spiced up the day’s catch. 

The weekend provided knockout striper fishing with all three trips coming back to the dock with limit catches.  The fishing was challenging due to faster tides associated with the new moon.  On Monday, the tides were really ripping and the numbers were down a bit but Capt. George and his anglers kept at it and came home with 5 big keepers.  The bite continues to be in the “good to excellent” category for stripers, “fair”for fluke and “heating up” for porgies.  Blues are not around yet in good numbers but we expect them to arrive in force very soon.

Capt. George just called in from the Watch Hill Reefs to report that the Junior Falcon Hockey Dads limited out on Striped Bass up to 35 inches.  It was another great day on the water and everyone had a blast!

Last year Joe booked a trip and we never got out due to weather.  He let his deposit “ride” into this season and was finally rewarded with a great day on the water!  A limit of stripers, a 24 inch fluke, some very large porgies and assorted other denizens of the deep made up a great day for this nice group of guys!  It looks like the season has really popped!  June is quite booked up but there are plenty of days available in July which is traditionally when we catch the most stripers.  Blues will also be running pretty good by then and of course the porgies should be a great side catch. 

Nice day on the water and very productive!

Red and his bartender crew from work quickly “limited-out” on Striped Bass today.

Today’s catch included:
12 keeper Striped Bass up to 39″
1 keeper Fluke

4 Blackfish (Tautog) throwbacks
(Can’t keep…they are out of season.)

Pictures to come soon.

The Zazzaro/Bush/Turner group enjoyed their trip last week, the returned this Saturday!

 Nice group of fish, with a hefty 36″ caught by Mary Turner. Nice Job!!!

Thanks to Joe Zazzaro of Westfield for sending us this great photo from their trip with Benmar Custom Charters on May 29, 2010!

This is Tom Bush of Lee, MA with a beautiful 36″ Striped Bass, weighing in at 25-27 lbs.

Stripers are active on the local reefs.  Capt. George had a great outing on Wednesday with the boat catching 29 stripers with many of keeper size and the biggest measuring 49 inches!  Alas, the camera was left in the truck!  Today the fishing is going well with bass up to 36 inches.  This is a great time to go fishing if you like to catch stripers because the blues haven’t arrived yet.  Memorial day is still open!  The weekend of June 5th and 6th is still available!!! There are also several weekdays open in June.  Call the Captain at 413-374-4199.

The season is now underway and we have had a couple of trips thus far.  The fluke action seems to be ahead of last year with good numbers showing up off Misquamicut Beach.  You have to work through a bunch of shorts to get the minimum 19.5 inch  keepers but so far it looks good for hooking up with the tasty flatfish!  Stripers are starting to heat up also.  We had a nice 33.5 incher on the last trip so we expect a breakout in the number and size as the water gets into their comfort zone!  Capt. George took a couple of days off to work on a new paint job for the back deck area.  The boat is looking good!  There are still a couple of dates open for the Memorial Day holiday.  That weekend is traditionally excellent fishing for bass and fluke.  Please call Capt. George at 413-374-4199.

The Benmar is in the water!

Her gear has been made ready and the first trips of 2010 begin in a few days!

Capt. George has been busy over the last two weeks, making final preparations. If it moves, we have made sure it has been properly adjusted, lubricated or exercised. If it doesn’t move, we have cleaned it, painted it, sealed it or waxed it…

 We are ready to go!

Stay tuned for upcoming posts with the results of our trips.

The Captain and his able-bodied assistants took advantage of the unusually early warm weather. They worked hard Friday (4/2/10) to get a jump start on getting the Benmar ready for the 2010 fishing season.

The hull and drive gear were scraped clean and a fresh coat of anti-fouling bottom paint was applied.

The rest of the equipment is getting cleaned and checked out in preparation for this upcoming season. With a few more breaks in the weather like this, we should have no problem in getting into the water before the end of this month. The last weeks of April will be used to shake things down and make sure we are fully ready to go!

Fishing starts for the Benmar the week of May 1st… Dates in May and June are already booking. If you are thinking of going this year, on a weekend especially, call Capt. George Rettew as soon as possible to ensure you get your first choice of dates!

413-374-4199

The days are getting longer and we are eagerly anticipating another season of ocean adventure! It isn’t too soon to call captain George (413-374-4199) to set up a charter or two aboard the BENMAR.  Early-bird bookers will get their pick of dates at last year’s prices! 

We had several more good blackfishing runs during the last two weeks but all good things must come to a close eventually.  Capt. George and his crew wish to thank all the Benmar anglers who helped make the 2009 fishing season so enjoyable.  The Benmar will be going up on the blocks very soon and will get a thorough maintenance treatment before her winter rest.  The 2010 season begins in May and we will be ready to take old and new friends for a great day on the water!  Please enjoy a safe and happy holiday season!

It was a beautiful day on the water with light winds and sunny skies.  The blackfish are still cooperating as our three anglers limited out by noon with fish up to 8 pounds.  Our traps are still catching plenty of crabs which means the water hasn’t cooled down too much.  The blackfish will stay around as long as there is plenty for them to eat!  It is not uncommon to make nice catches of jumbo tog right up till Christmas but we will probably haul the boat around Turkey day so we don’t have to do the winterizing work in the middle of a snowstorm!

Fishing for blackfish is about as good as it gets.  Guys who have some experience are catching limits and picking and choosing their keepers up to 10 pounds!  We went out today and just had a ball with about 50 fish coming over the gunwhales in about 4 hours.  The final limit catch was just a beautiful bunch of tog of 3 to 10 pounds.  The small “keepers” of 14 or 15 inches just got thrown back.  If you are a regular Benmar customer reading this you might want to give Capt. George a call to get out one more time this season.  Check the weather and just go!

The last three days have been pretty good weather-wise and the blackfish have been cooperating as well.  Most people are getting their limits and we have seen a number of fish in the 8 to 10 pound range.  We call the big ones “tiderunners”.   Although we have taken down the “Google Ads” for the remainder of the year, we are still in the water and accepting charters on a “weather-permitting” basis. 

Looks like Mother Nature is giving us a few days off.  Wind, rain and well-below-normal temperatures will keep us off the water until Monday.  We do have charters scheduled for several days next week and look for a break in the weather to get out there after some of those big blackfish that have moved onto our favorite reefs.  We expect that the porgies, blues and some stripers will also still be in our local waters. 

A good group of anglers today who spent most of their day bottom fishing for blackfish and porgies.  They returned to the dock with a nice cooler full of fish including a a good number of tautog up to 8 pounds.   We tried for bass and blues for a while but didn’t find them in some of our usual spots.  They still should be in our local waters, however, because they love to eat porgies which are still here in abundance.

The Gagliardi group had a pretty productive day on the water.  They limited out on Blackfish with several in the 5 to 8 pound range.  They also caught 4 ocean blues of the 8 to 10 pound variety as well as a ton of porgies although they only kept the biggest ones that could be easily fileted.  A good group who fished hard and didn’t mind when the wind came up and made a bumpy ride home.  All in all, a good day on the ocean!

High winds have kept us at the dock the last few days.  Sunday forecast is better so we expect to be out there after some bass and blackfish.

A beautiful day on the water with a great crew of anglers who knew their way around the gunwhales!  Leon and his buddies scored on multiple species….blues, blacks, stripers, seabass and a TON of porgies!  There will be some tasty filets going into their freezers when they get home!  As we hoped for, the fall season is bringing us the chance for a great mixed bag on every trip.  Give the Capt. a call if you like this kind of fishing!  We still have a few weekend dates and a good number of weekdays available.

We had a hearty group of anglers today who decided to brave the inclement weather and go out on Fishers Island sound after some blackfish.  Despite rain that was coming down pretty good at times, they fished right through it and bagged about a dozen nice tog up to 19 inches, 5 keeper sea bass and a bunch of porgies.  The bites were fairly constant and they did well considering the distraction of wind and rain.  The sea bass were a welcome surprise.  Generally, there are not that many of keeper size inside the Island.  So far this fall, there seems to be lots of fish around and we expect some great “brochure” type catches on upcoming trips!

Our anglers scored a nice mixed bag today with three keeper stripers up to 35 inches, 7 or 8 big blues, 9 keeper blackfish and, of course, lots of other fish that were returned to the deep.   Good action, good eatin’ and good times!

October 1st reopened the Blackfish season.  Capt. George took mate Allen and his buddy, Nightcrawler, out to see if any “crab crunchers” were around since he has a number of blackfish special charters comming up this month.  In two stops, the trio caught about 50 of the tasty, toothy, critters plus a bunch of big porgies.  A lot of the fish were throwbackers but it was no problem to come up with their limit of nice tog in just a few hours.   The Captain is running a blackfish special for $500 for the rest of the season so give him a call if you want to get in on the action and put some of those delicious filets in your freezer for the winter months.

A bit breezy but otherwise a nice day on the water.  We had Mark the porgy expert on the boat today and he and his buddies hauled them up until the cooler was filled with their limit of 45 fish each!  We also fished a while for stripers and blues….hooking up with both species.  They kept one nice bass and one hefty blue.  We were back at the dock in early afternoon before the wind got really bothersome.

The hard tides backed off  a little bit and the fishing improved.  We had an equal mix of bass and blues with our anglers catching about a dozen of each species.  Two of the stripers were keepers and the guys brought home a bunch of blues as well.

We have open dates this coming weekend 9/26-27.  The tides should be just right for good striper action! 

It was a perfect September day on the water.  We had a great group on board who have gone out with us for several years.  For them, a fishing trip is a great opportunity to get together, swap stories, get in a few practical jokes and get away from the daily routine for a while.  Throw in a few fish here and there and you have a very enjoyable day.  Due to very hard “perigee” tides, the bigger stripers were not cooperating.  We also had a little bad luck on a few of our bigger bites where the rods really buckled but the fish just didn’t get hooked.  Our anglers did boat 5 blues, 3 of which were of the “slammer” variety and they decked about 8 stripers but none exceeded the 28 inch minimum size.  In the “exotic” category they caught a real nice sea bass and also a fluke, which had to go back in, of course, since it was out of season.

Mark and Joe came out today in search of porgies and were not disappointed!  They limited out (45 fish each) on slab-sized scup up to 17 inches.  In addition, they had a bycatch of 5 stripers and 3 blues.  It was a day of constant action and a nice way for Mark to spend his birthday!  We have good dates available including some weekends.  Don’t forget the blackfish special in October!