Some of the most experienced surfcasters in Rhode Island have called this the greatest November of fishing they can remember. After an early end to the fall run for most of New England, a flood of bait entered Rhode Island waters and the bass and blues stuck around to pig out. Steve McKenna, the resident surfcasting pro at Quaker Lane B+T and a regular contributor to OTW, has reported catching big bass on metal-lip plugs nearly every week in our Rhode Island Fishing Forecast. Another OTW contributor, Dave Pickering, has been writing about this “November to Remember” almost daily in his excellent saltwater fishing blog. Along with this great fishing, it’s been one of the mildest Novembers on record, providing beautiful conditions for comfortable late-season surfcasting.
As I heard these reports all month, I kept expecting that any day the fishing would go ice cold and the fall run would be declared officially over in Rhode Island. Instead, a day or two of slow action or un-fishable weather would be followed by more good fishing. Just when I assumed that the fat lady had sung, I heard the reports from Tuesday, November 29: Captain Ian Devlin of Rowayton, Connecticut sent photos and told tales of an incredible “Blue Planet” scene on the Rhode Island beaches, with gannets plummeting from the sky just 20 yards offshore as 8- to 10-pound bluefish forced schools of sea herring into the wash and glittering scales washed up on the beach.
It was all I could stand.
The weather kicked up waves on Wednesday and Thursday, but Devlin planned to head back to the beach on Friday. I told OTW publisher Chris Megan and editor Jimmy Fee that we couldn’t wait any longer to try and get in on this fantastic November bite – and so we tried to do just that – on Friday, December 2.
After weeks of warm weather, the wind had gone north, and I had to scrape frost of the windshield when we left Cape Cod at 6 am to start the drive to Charlestown, Rhode Island. Captain Devlin, staying in touch via cell phone as he drove in from Connecticut, posted the current weather on Facebook:
Our expectations were reasonably low – it was December after all. But even if we didn’t find an all-out blitz, the potential to catch a few bluefish and maybe some schoolie stripers from the Rhode Island beaches in December was worth the trip.
When we pulled up to the beach in Charlestown, there were no signs of action other than a scattering of gannets far off shore and a few loons floating and diving just beyond the breakers. It was cold – cold enough that Chris and I decided to stay put in the truck and finish our coffees while we watched Jimmy walk down to the surf to make an exploratory cast.
First cast, three turns of the reel handle, and Jimmy was tight to a fish! Chris and I watched through the windshield as a 3-pound bluefish came flopping onto the sand, and it was all the encouragement that we needed to pull on our own waders and struggle to tie the frozen laces before joining Jimmy at the edge of the surf.
Unfortunately, the Curse of the Fish on the First Cast haunted us for the rest of the day. The weather warmed up beautifully, and we met a lot of great folks as we bounced from one location to the next, but we couldn’t find another fish. Capt. Ian Devlin’s texts confirmed that the bite just wasn’t happening, and everywhere we went, we heard a variation of the familiar “You should have been here yesterday” story as anglers told tales of the great fall fishing. Finally, after hours of watching a huge flock of birds dive on bait about a mile offshore without ever venturing within three cast lengths, we gave up and decided to head home, stopping to grab a bite to eat around U.R.I. on our way back to the Cape.
Just as we tucked into our 2-pound calzones (“International Zone” in Kingston – worth the stop), I got a call from Dave Pickering – he was into fish at the Charlestown Breachway, a mix of small bass and blues. We made the easy decision to avoid Providence traffic by doubling back to see if we could salvage the day with a few fish before sunset.
By the time we arrived the fish were gone, and the new story was that we “should have been here an hour ago.” Still, the scenery was reason enough to make us glad we were back on the beach. And then, as the sun hit the horizon, Chris hooked into a bluefish. Then a father/son duo on the beach next to us hooked into a couple blues as well, just before the sky went from yellow, to dark orange, to just dark.
The fishing wasn’t great, but it was an unbeatable experience for December in Rhode Island. And four bluefish fillets were just enough to make it worth whipping up a bowl of smoked bluefish dip.
