Fall fishing is going strong—now is certainly not the time to call it quits! Plenty of bait has bass blues and bonito on the feed, tautog fishing is very good on shallow structure, and there are still plenty of sea bass and porgies around as well.

Rhode Island Fishing Report

Narragansett Bay is loaded with bait—almost too much of it, reported Greg at The Tackle Box in Warwick. Pogies are schooled up and easy to find, but it may take some work to find the schools that are being harassed by bass and blues. Weakfish are still being caught with regularity from the boat and shore. Tautog fishing is improving daily as the water temperatures fall and keeper tog can be found on all of the shallow upper bay rock piles. The limit on tautog/blackfish increases this week (October 19th) to 6 fish per angler, but remember that the limit of 10 fish per vessel remains in effect. Black sea bass seem to be all over the place, and scup fishing has stayed strong, with shore and boat anglers finding limits.

The talk was about the tautog bite at Galilee Bait and Tackle in Narragansett. The fish are mostly shallow at this point in the season, 15 to 30 feet of water, on rock piles and at the center wall in Point Judith. The Saltwater Edge in Newport described the fishing as typical fall fishing, but typical of several years ago when lots of bait would fuel regular fish feeds. Years ago it was mostly peanut bunker that drove the fall fishing, but this year it’s mostly bay anchovies. There are schools of stripers feeding on the abundant anchovies, and bonito remain in the area off Newport as well. The only disappointment has been the lack of false albacore, but with the great bonito fishing few are complaining.

Shore fishermen are connecting regularly, mostly in the evenings when bass are pushing the bait in towards shore. Nighttime surfcasting has also been quite consistent.

The RI Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Fish and Wildlife stocked approximately 6,000 brown and brook trout in several locations throughout the state. Due to elevated water temperatures, fall trout stocking was delayed this year until the beginning of October. A list of stocked ponds and other information of interest to anglers can be found on DEM’s website, www.dem.ri.gov, by clicking on “Fish and Wildlife” under “Offices and Divisions,” and then choosing “Freshwater Fisheries.”

Connecticut Fishing Report

There aren’t many reports from the reefs, but that doesn’t mean that the bass aren’t out there, reported Pat, at River’s End in Old Saybrook. Most fishermen are either fishing for blackfish or sticking to the mouth of the Connecticut River, where good numbers of hickory shad and big schools of bunker remain in place—for the moment. It’s a little late for the bunker to still be in the river, and they could head out at any moment, says Pat. For now, many shore-bound anglers are soaking chunk baits and keeping themselves entertained by catching hickory shad on a second rod.

Blackfishing has been good at the Clinton breakwall and in Niantic. Again, the bite is fairly shallow, 15 to 30 feet, and although there are lots of short fish there are plenty of keepers as well.

Over at Hillyer’s in Waterford, they’ve weighed in some big blackfish this week, including a 9-pounder and several 6s and 7s. Most of the inner structure is holding fish—pretty much any place on the map that has a name connected to “ledge” “reef” or “rock” and 15 to 30 feet of water is worth a drop. Bartletts in particular has sea bass and lots of porgies. The Mijoy 747 out of Waterford has been doing very well on a mix of sea bass and porgies and will continue running daily trips until November 1, when the boat will switch to blackfishing.

The Outer Race has had huge flocks of birds over fish, mostly blues, and there are bluefish of all sizes in the Connecticut River and anywhere else you find bunker.

Speaking of bunker, Norwalk Harbor has been loaded and all that bait is providing anglers with some great bluefish and striper action Dan at Fisherman’s World in Norwalk reported big bluefish taken by anglers livelining bunker in the harbor. Striped bass have also started to key in on the bunker and are being caught with some regularity. Out in the sound, big bluefish and keeper-sized bass continue to fall to diamond-jigs around cans 11B, 28C and at Green’s Ledge. Weakfish can be found all over the western sound from Greenwich to Milford, the scup and black sea bass bite remains strong, and the shallow-water blackfish bite is very good on the shallow rock piles.

The CTDEEP recently stocked the Western CT trout streams for the fall, and added Atlantic salmon to the Shetucket River (200 salmon), Crystal Lake (Ellington, 45 salmon), Mount Tom Pond (45 salmon) and the upper (150 salmon) and lower (150 salmon) sections of the Naugatuck River. These stockings bring the total number of salmon stocked so far this fall to nearly 1,700 fish. The group of Atlantic salmon released recently range in weight from 2 to 6 pounds each. In November, an additional 150 salmon ranging in weight from 3 to 15 pounds each will be stocked by the CTDEEP.

This fall’s trout stockings have been completed in western CT and DEEP will complete fall stocking next week by releasing 5,500 rainbow trout into a total of 15 lakes and ponds in eastern CT. A total of 23,500 trophy and adult-sized trout have been stocked so far this fall. Approximately 12,800 were trophy size brown trout (all greater than 12 inches in length) and the 10,700 adults are standard size (9-10 inch) rainbow trout.

There have been good reports last week from the Housatonic River, Naugatuck River, Salmon River TMA, West Branch Farmington River and Hammonasset River. Fall is streamers & nymphs time (try early mornings and late afternoons). For streamers, white, yellow and brown are typical colors and common patterns to try include White Wooly Buggers, Muddlers, Micky Finn, Grey or Black Ghosts (#4-10). Bottom bouncing nymphs with Caddis pupa (#14-16), Serendipity (#14-16), Prince (#6-18) and Hare’s ear (#8-20) is a fine choice.

Best Bets for the Weekend

It’s way too early to even think about packing it in – fall fishing is just nearing its peak. Early-season blackfishing in shallow water is tons of fun and should be tops on your list if the weather allows, but consider bringing gear for blues, bass, porgies and sea bass and making it a multi-species trip. In Rhode Island, it’s worth trying to see if you can wring a few more days out of what has been a phenomenal bonito bite, and if you’re a surfcaster, now is the time to hit the beach to try to intercept a bass blitz. Finally, be sure to remember all of the excellent angling opportunities we have in our freshwater lakes, ponds and streams; fall trout (and salmon) stocking has our local waters loaded.