July 18 & 19 Spearfishing Report, Newport RI - Dave Gleeson

Date: 7/18/18 &7/19/18

Location: Newport, RI

Viz: 4-12’
Temp: 70

Report Contributor: Dave Gleeson

With diminishing winds and clear skies on Wednesday afternoon, John Harrington, Casey Harrington and myself set out off Newport on their zodiac for a last minute bass mission. Visibility at our first two stops was very poor and barely huntable, so we kept moving.

Birds were working all over the place, and everywhere you looked seem to have breaking fish on the surface- it was extremely fishy out there.

I hopped in to our final dive spot and landed on a school of nice fish on my first drop. With the sun going down, I wasn’t picky and pulled the trigger on a good 20-25lb class fish at about 30 ft. The Rob Allen roller gun is a laser, and even at only 80cm packs a punch- I brained the fish with the shot and brought it to the surface. (After sliding the shaft through, the fish woke back up, check out the video clip of that surface fight!)

I hopped in the zodiac and swapped with John, who quickly shot a good bass, as did casey.

A successful day to say the least!

7/19/18

The following morning, I kayaked out front with Tristate VP Mike Meyer. I did some filming in the shallows, and he did some RnR fishing for giant scup and seabass. Conditions were calm and sunny, with little wind, but visibility remained poor. Eventually, we got into bass again, and I shot another fish in the 20-25lb class at about 35ft.

The bass are all over the place, and moving quite a bit it seems. While there are thousands of schoolies, the bigger schools are certainly out there if you have the patience to wait for them. This seems to be one of the better local bass runs in my memory, so if you have the time to get out, do it!

Good luck and dive safe,

Dave

June 7, 2018 Newport RI Spearfishing Report - Dave Gleeson

Date: 6/7/18

Location: Newport, RI

Viz: 15-25’
Temp: 59

Report Contributor: Dave Gleeson

I had a last minute chance to get out for a quick shore dive Thursday morning, and decided to go hunting for big scup and hopefully find some bass. Visibility was great, ranging from 15 to over 25 feet.

I haven’t dove in about a week, and as soon as I started my swim away from shore, I noticed that there was larger bait (and more of it) than the last time I had been in the water. Tog were everywhere of course, but with the season closed, it made it much easier to concentrate on longer, slower dives and a stealthier approach for bass. After seeing a few schoolie size fish, I was followed to the surface by a trio of keeper bass, who swam away safely, I don’t like shooting from the surface because it’s harder to aim while waves bump you around, and I was too out of breath for another dive.

Be sure to check out these super cool slo-mo shots of the Rob Allen Roller taking this bass at - 

https://www.facebook.com/nefreedive/videos/1999895850260050/ 

After searching for a bit longer, I got a great breath up in and dropped to 25 ft in between two massive, weed covered rock slabs. With Tautog buzzing around me, I laid down and waited. About 1:20 into the dive, a nice dinner size bass approached. He turned for a perfect broadside, and that was that! The Rob Allen 80cm roller is an absolute laser. Here are a few screen grabs from the dive. I’ll be posting a video as well!

Get out there and enjoy the clear water, there should be a push of bigger bass arriving any minute out front.

Dive Safe,

Dave