Spring Saltwater Bonanza in Rhode Island
This past weekend I took off work and made the trip to Narragansett, Rhode Island, for an all out fishing weekend. This being my old stomping grounds of two years, I was eager to get in on the bite that was, by all reports, rapidly accelerating. Striped bass are already well established in Rhode Island waters, with larger fish being reported up in Narragansett Bay. Word of bluefish cruising they bay was also out, and smatterings within the rumor mill suggested that inshore tautog and weakfish were not out of the picture. Eager to dip my toes in saltwater for the first time this season, these whispers were more than enough to justify the seven hour drive from Pennsylvania.
I arrived in Rhode Island Friday night, just in time to catch the dusk bite on a decent mid-incoming tide. I met up with our friend Christian on the southern shore and worked a rocky outcropping with soft plastics, swimmers, and spooks. This time of year, you usually have a variety of striped bass size classes occupying the same waters. I tend to throw beefier presentations in these situations to try and entice the larger fish classes to strike and weed out some of the 10’ peewees. It’s usually a no-lose scenario because voracious schoolies will hit basically anything in the spring, so you aren’t making any exclusions. One of my favorite early season plastics is the Al Gag’s Whip-It Fish, a bonified fish-catching machine that has good castability and durability. Hit the top with a little touch of Zap-A-Gap to extend the lifespan of your plastics, especially when you’re fishing schools. We picked off a few shorts here and there, but it wasn’t until the sun had set that the fishing really turned on. We ran into a pile of 25-28’’ hard fighting fish in the 30 minute window before darkness set in, marking an excellent start to the campaign.
The next morning, we were fighting against sub-par conditions. The forecast from the day before had suggested 10 mph winds: it was clear that they had forgotten to add a zero or simply enjoyed the thrill of trolling innocent anglers. A solid 25 mph with gusts to 40 plagued us the entire day, so we had to make some adjustments. Rough and windy surf isn’t necessarily a bad thing when targeting striped bass. In fact, fishing pockets of intense whitewater and churning currents can be quite productive, so long as you can cast effectively. Throwing a heavier weighted lure with a larger 8-10 ft rod can increase casting distance and sinking rates when fishing rough water. We had a decent morning, running into a few schools of smaller fish feeding near the shore. We selected a spot that had the wind blowing directly in our face as opposed to our side, so the line was more responsive to hits and hooksets. The lack of quality fish drove us to try our hand at tautog fishing in the afternoon. While shore fishing for tog is already challenging enough, a sustained cross wind makes it damn near impossible. We picked off one or two shorts, but decided to call it a day with plans to return tomorrow when the weather improved. Plus, we had ambitions to wake up early and take our kayaks into the bay to target larger bass, bluefish, and hopefully weakfish.
The weather gods must have felt guilty about the trick they had played the day before, because we had perfect conditions early the next morning when we launched in the bay. Similar to our experience with last-light, first-light provided the best bass fishing of the day. Fish were responsive to bucktails and plastics, and you could catch a slot fish and yearling on consecutive casts, emphasizing the diversity of size classes. The second the sun came up however, the bass bite died completely. We switched over to top-water lures, and despite the high rising sun, the bluefish were not shy at all. 30’ gator blues were smashing our lures at the surface and putting on dazzling, energetic fights. Once we had our fill, we took a stab at weakfish, but ending up just washing our lures for a few hours and heading back in. Returning to the tautog grounds in the afternoon, we ran into a consistent bite that was mostly comprised of shorts but produced a nice 17’ keeper, first of the season. We ended the marathon day back in the bay, shore casting top water at dusk. Christian caught a few sporadic bass, but I think the fact it was dead low tide may have hindered the bite.
Overall, it was a quite successful return to saltwater fishing and a great excuse to see my friends, my old house, and to remedy the saltwater withdrawal symptoms I was having on a daily basis as I read about the fish continuing their migration up the coast from afar. Back in Pennsylvania now, I have to switch gears as the sulphur and drake hatches are ramping up. Stay tuned.
-Declan
