The Big Four of Little Rhody
The early September morning was perfect. It had gotten cold during the night, and there was frost on my boat’s deck a few hours earlier when I launched. Now it was downright hot, about 85 degrees and sunny.
I put my Maritime Skiff in at Ocean House Marina in Charlestown, Rhode Island. On my way out of Ninigret Pond, a few schoolies were chasing sand eels on the flat, so I anchored up, waded into the foot and a half of water, and cast a Ray’s Fly, Flatwing. After a couple of fish, I got back into my boat and headed out of the channel toward the open ocean. Just outside of the salt pond, bluefish were blitzing on the surface tight against Charlestown Beach. The blues were small, maybe 3 to 5 pounds, but they attacked my popper as soon as it hit the water.
The sun was climbing high, and with calm seas it took only 15 minutes to run to the West Wall in Point Judith. Two fly rodders were already into fish, so I cut the engine at the end of the current and drifted. A wave of fish sped toward me; I picked up a lighter rod with a small bay anchovy pattern on it and cast.
As they came closer, I could see they were false albacore. One hit hard and ran, and after a 10-minute fight, I had him in the boat. I could hear the guys on the breakwall pretty clearly now. One of them had landed a bonito and the other a Spanish mackerel. I had come to fish Newport’s rocks for big bass, so I cranked up my Yamaha and began the 20-minute ride to Newport. Maybe I’d hit an estuary after I worked the rocks, but for now everything was just fine.
Some people tease Rhode Islanders about the size of their state, but people from Little Rhody just smile. True, there are only 100 miles of beaches and 400 miles of fishable coastline, but it doesn’t take a long drive to get to them all, and you can catch many different species of fish. There are stripers from April through December, bluefish from May through September, bonito from July through September, and false albacore from mid-August until October. Toss in a resurging squeteague (Narragansett Indian for weakfish) population, some skipjacks, small offshore bluefin and yellowfin tuna, and blue sharks, and you’ve got your hands full. There are rocks and ledges, jetties, beaches, flats, salt ponds, and estuaries to fish—and you can hit them all in about an hour’s drive.
Seasons and Structure
Striped bass reside all winter long in some of Rhode Island’s estuaries and salt ponds, but the migratory fish arrive in mid-April to forage along the beaches. Napatree Beach and East Beach in Watch Hill, Matunuk’s Deep Hole, and First and Second Beaches in Newport are top spots and are best fished on incoming tides with intermediate lines. From there the stripers shift around following bait and key on herring moving into the rivers and the salt ponds.
The Pawcatuck and the Sakonnet Rivers are the two largest river systems, and Quonochontaug (Quonny for short), Ninigret, and Point Judith Ponds warm quickly during the early season. Depending on the depth of the ponds, you should bring floating and intermediate lines as well as lines with sinking heads.
Quonny Pond, Ninigret Pond, Point Judith Pond, and Narragansett Bay all have small to medium-size wadeable flats where a floating line is ideal for casting to fish moving with the tide. Stripers can be skittish on the flats, so the morning and evening light that coincides with these midtides are excellent times to fish. If your boat draws shallow water (9 inches or so), you should have no problem fishing the flats. A second alternative is to drop anchor and wade-fish the hard-bottomed flats quietly. Fish the channels and deeper water adjacent to the flats with intermediate lines or sinking heads.
Bass and bluefish also forage higher into Upper Narragansett Bay, which splits around Conanicut Island. The West Passage runs along the towns of Warwick and Greenwich, while the East Passage runs along the towns of Bristol and Barrington and into the Providence River.
The East Passage joins with the top of the Sakonnet River to form Mount Hope Bay. Up there, bass, blues, and weakfish frequent the mixture of flats and estuaries. Other good spots to fish include Mill Gut and the Bristol Narrows in Bristol; the Sapowet River in Tiverton; the Narrow, Barrington, and Palmer Rivers in Barrington; and Nanaquatucket Pond off the Sakonnet River.
Later in the season the small, speedy fish arrive. Bonito usually show up around mid-July, and false albacore arrive in early August. The bonito and false albacore favor sharp edges and dropoffs, particularly on the dropping tide when the bait is concentrated along these seams, and they run along the edges of the river mouths such as the Watch Hill Reef, the West Wall, the mouth of the Sakonnet River, and the Westport and Narrow Rivers.
Squid arrive in mid-May, and stripers take up residence on the reefs at Watch Hill, Napatree Point, and Point Judith. The reefs comprise an intricate chain of rocks, ledges, and passageways that offer structure for feeding fish to trap bait. If you boat-fish this area, be careful around rocks and rip currents; many boats have lost motor lower units in these waters.
From mid to high incoming tides, stripers feed on the outside of the reefs, and as the tide rises, they move in close to shore. But when the tide drops, they hold on the down-current side of the structure, particularly where the passageways suck baitfish back out into the open ocean. Sinking shooting heads are a good first choice, except when the winds are light and breaking fish call for a floating line with a popper or slider.
By mid-June, menhaden, silversides, and sand eels move in, and the fish spread out throughout the Rhode Island coast. The water temperatures have warmed and anglers fish the colder water along the rocks at Newport Neck, Jamestown, Fort Weatherill, Breton Point, Beavertail, and Little Compton.
Studded boots or Korkers are important for traction, and floating lines or sinking heads are standard. You should move around when fishing the rocks because the fish are constantly on the prowl. Later incoming tides and the onset of dropping tides are the best fishing times, and fluorocarbon shock tippets will prevent the bass from sounding and popping your tippet on the rocks.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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