We are “all systems go” for red hot saltwater fishing throughout Rhode Island and Connecticut. With a healthy dose of bait in the region, newly arriving striped bass are feasting and anglers are taking advantage of it. The menu consists of squid, river herring, cinder worms, and bunker to name a few. The blackfish and fluke bites are picking up steam in Rhode Island and bluefish are beginning to show their toothy grins at a beach near you. For freshwater fans, new batches of trout arriving from the hatcheries have rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds still producing excellent catches.
Rhode Island
The time is now if you want to capitalize on catching buckets of squid. Arden from Saltwater Edge told me that this could be the best squid bite in a decade. He said that if you set up lights, they will come. A major squid hub is the Goat Island Causeway, but anglers are getting inked all over Newport and Point Judith. Arden could tell that bluefish are showing up in greater force by several reports of sawed-in-half swim shads. Better sounding news to me was the great numbers of striped bass in Rhode Island waters at the moment. Arden spoke of lots of small stripers being found everywhere, with an average of 1 in 10 being keeper-size. He heard reports of bunker and squid in the upper Bay and some larger bass in the mid-thirty-inch range. Cinder worms are hatching from the muddy bottoms of some Rhode Island’s salt ponds, Ninigret Pond particularly. Joe from River and Riptide noted that fly anglers are picking off striped bass, including keepers, using floating lines and Bob Hines’ Cinder Worm patterns with a slow retrieve. Spin fishermen can get in on the worm bite by using small pink soft-plastics trailed behind a wooden casting egg. Joe recommended sticking to the edges of the action in heavy hatches so your offering isn’t a needle in a haystack.
Eric from Quaker Lane Bait and Tackle reported that some customers are bailing lots of tautog off Narragansett, with the heaviest weighing in at 10 pounds so far. He said that using green crabs in 30 to 40 feet of water has been the ticket and that tog fishing should remain good right up until the season closes at the end of the month. I heard some positive reports about another good-eating fish this week as well, fluke. On Tuesday, Mike from Watch Hill Outfitters battled windy conditions for a tough drift in 50 to 60 feet of water off Misquamicut. It sounded like it paid off, as he and a friend caught a nice amount of keeper fluke up to 4.3 pounds. They were using three-way rigs with Spro jigs and droppers. The jigs acted as the weights and were baited with fillets of sea herring. The droppers were tipped with a combination of a mummichog and a piece of squid. Mike pointed out that all of the fluke were fresh and loaded with sea lice.
In freshwater news, the Wood River received a fresh batch of 1,200 rainbow and brown trout last week, ranging from 12 to 20-plus-inches long. Joe from River and Riptide said the recent stocking is providing anglers with a good shot at the “Wood River Slam” – catching a rainbow, brown and brook trout all in same outing. For fly anglers, nymphing with tried and true patterns such as pheasant tails and hare’s ears has been the ticket in the mornings. In the afternoons, trout have been rising to red quills and caddis flies. Or, you can tie on a good old Woolly Bugger, which has been known to fool trout at anytime of day.
Connecticut
Striped bass continue to pummel herring in our tidal rivers, as action in the Sound is heating up too. Joe at the Fish Connection said the Thames and Shetucket Rivers remain red hot for stripers. Bob at Hillyers is hearing more reports of bass being taken out front along the beaches in places like Waterford and Niantic. Q at River’s End said the striped bass bite has noticeably picked up over the last week in the Connecticut River. He told me that it’s definitely worth putting time in now, although there hasn’t been much top-water action to speak of yet, and Q suspects that water temperature is the issue. He had a customer report catching 6 keeper-sized bass and many smaller stripers on Wednesday morning near the mouth of the river. If he had to choose one artificial lure to go with right now, it would be a 9-inch Slug-Go in the glittering “ice shad” pattern, which they jokingly refer to as “Liberace” in the shop.
“Lots of bass, my friend,” was the first line out of Cappy’s mouth at Captain Morgan Bait and Tackle this week. The rivers and beaches in the Madison, Guilford and Branford area have come alive with stripers feeding on river herring and other baitfish. Cappy said a lot of things are working well, from live eels to soft-plastic baits like Hogy’s and Slug-Gos.
Chris at Stratford Bait and Tackle could only laugh when he told me there are no plugs in any shade of yellow left hanging on the walls. Striper anglers have been gobbling up pencil poppers and swimming plugs like Bombers, Red Fins, and Northbar bottle darters and catching bass up and down the lower Housatonic River. Chris said the river herring are thick and there is decent fishing day and night from the Derby Dam to the mouth.
The bait situation sounds promising in the far western Sound too. Rick from Fisherman’s World said there are lots of bunker in the Hempstead area. Some Connecticut boaters are getting their gas money’s worth by chunking fresh bunker there or trolling umbrella rigs. Rick also told me about the solid winter flounder bite in the Calf Pasture area lately. During last Sunday’s South Norwalk Boat Club tournament, the winning flounder was an impressive 3-pounder. Rick suggested the simple and effective method of using clam chum and sandworms in as little as 6 to 12 feet of water. He also reminded me that fluke fishing kicks off in Connecticut waters this Sunday. Recreational anglers are allowed 3 fluke a piece at a minimum of 18.5-inches.
In freshwater, Chris at Stratford Bait and Tackle said some big brown trout have been taken in the Saugatuck Reservoir recently. He mentioned the reservoir is near full capacity, so fishing access spots are slim, but some anglers putting in their time casting chrome Krocodiles are scoring big trout, including four over 7-pounds this week alone.
John at Valley Angler said the bass fishing got a little tougher on Candlewood Lake this week because fish are building nests and preparing to spawn. The Squantz Pond walleye bite, however, remains strong. John weighed in two ‘eyes close to the 8-pound mark recently. A few thousand new trout in the West Branch Farmington River are keeping many anglers satisfied. I spent last Friday and Saturday in and around the upper Trout Management Area and caught my fill of them, with a few holdover trout mixed in. Due to the amount of Hendrickson nymphs in the river, drifting pheasant tail patterns in the mornings has been extremely productive.
Best Bets for the Weekend
If you’ve never caught squid before, it sure sounds like this is a good as any time to try. Scope out the Goat Island Causeway and see how the squid sharpies are getting it done. Striped bass action seems solid across the board and it should only improve in the next couple of weeks. In Rhode Island, focus on moving around the Bay and search for larger stripers using big soft-plastic baits, or head to a saltwater pond prepared for a cinder worm hatch. In Connecticut, great areas to spend time for stripers right now are the Thames, Connecticut, and Housatonic rivers and their tributaries.