Date: Saturday July 11 2015
Location: Brenton Reef - Newport RI
Water Temp: 67 degrees
Conditions: Superb. Sunny, 84 degrees, flat seas with 15 ft visibility. What more could you ask for.
Time: 7:45 a.m.
I managed a last minute quick meet up a dive with local spearo Bob Murtha the evening before for a shore dive at King's Beach. We arrived to calm seas and some decent visibility averaging 12 feet. During the short dive we had many encounters with some smaller bass. But nothing bigger showed itself during the dive. It was great dive with a great guy and glad I had the opportunity to get in with him.
Immediately upon getting in the vehicle for ride home I began checking the weather and wind reports for the following day... it looked liked if what little wind there was stayed out of the north Saturday would be looking promising. I immediately phoned my dive buddy Eric Cadorette for the following day and told him to load his kayak that night we were hitting the reef in the morning. Eric had just purchased a 120 cm Rob Allen Tuna Speargun that evening from me and and as luck would have it, he had the conditions to use it the following day.
With the wind (or lack there of) staying out of the north over night the seas laid flat and at 7:30 am there was not a ripple on the surface from King's Beach to the Seal Rock and beyond. We kayaked out of King's to Seal Rock. Upon slipping over the side of my Ocean Kayak, it was immediately apparent we were in for a delightful dive. Visibility was up to 15 feet and the reef was alive. The only thing that could have been better was to catch this on a higher tide, but with a busy schedule you take the time slot you can get.
The closed season tautog show was in full force and was quite beautiful to see so many large tog about with some swarms in spots of 15 or more.We started seeing bass within first few minutes but all were questionable or sub par. But there were a good amount about so we kept hunting. about 45 minutes into dive my dive buddy Eric shot a decent 34 inch bass and with the visibility being so great, I had the pleasure to capture some of this action on the GoPro for him.
After, we continued hunting Brenton Reef hoping to run into some larger fish but never did. Lots of border line legal size ones to come in and keep you on your toes and the more than occasional "holy sh**" size tog to entertain you. Once or twice we did have a small trigger and small pod of scup quickly scamper away on the drop. Had to be back on shore for 12:00 noon so dive ended with only my dive buddy Eric harvesting a bass. The flat sea, great visibility, the tog show and my buddy shooting I nice bass made it one of my favorite dives there recently. I immediately gave thanks for a beautiful day in the water.
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