The first week of June has arrived and brought with it some much warmer temperatures and hoards of bait in the saltwater across Rhode Island. Good numbers of big striped bass remain prevalent around Newport. The waters from central Long Island Sound to South County Rhode Island have seen their first early arrivals of large bass as well, and with the combination of climbing water temperatures and masses of bait, saltwater fishing across the entire region stands to blow wide open any day now.
Rhode Island Fishing Report
Chris, at The Saltwater Edge in Middletown, reported that another slug of larger fish showed up around Newport this week, and a few fish eclipsing the 40-pound mark have been taken from both boat and shore. Along with the larger outliers, there remains plenty of smaller keeper bass on the Newport reefs and loads of schoolies in the bay. Local fly-fishermen have been putting a hurting on the bass in the bay and Chris reports that early June provides the best opportunity to land good numbers of bass on the fly and light tackle. Groundfishing has yet to really take off in the area but some better fluke reports have come in from around Block Island, mainly from the west and southwest sides. Squid remains plentiful around Newport and Narragansett and anglers fishing jigs after dark are still filling their buckets with relative ease.
The Block Island surf has been relatively quiet, but a group of local anglers that spent the weekend out there were rewarded with a fairly consistent striper bite, with most of the fish in the upper teens to low 20-pound class. A few schools of sand eels have popped up around the island, and fishing will undoubtedly improve as more of this staple bait takes up residency around the island.
Steve Mckenna, at Quaker Lane Bait and Tackle in North Kingstown, has managed quite a few bass from the Narragansett and Matunuck beaches over the past few nights, but the majority remains of the schoolie to small-keeper variety. Steve did hear some reports of larger bass coming from Newport, Block Island and Massachusetts waters and believes that some larger arrivals will hit the beaches of South County in the next few days. Steve is seeing more bait, mainly bunker, in Narragansett Bay than he has in quite some time, so when the larger bass do arrive there should be plenty of food to keep them in the area for a while. Fluke fishing has started to improve locally with keepers becoming a bit more common on the Rhode Island reefs, but the bulk of the effort has been spent around Block Island where the bite remains more consistent.
At Breachway Bait and Tackle in Charlestown, some hefty bass have been reported the past few nights from anglers pitching eels on the south-facing rockpiles of Charlestown and Westerly. The cinder worm hatch is at full strength in the local salt ponds and fly-fishermen that have been able to “match the hatch” have reported excellent results. A few gator bluefish have made their first appearances of the season in and around the breachways, and have been eager to crush poppers and topwater swimmers. Some keeper fluke have started to show up on the Watch Hill Reefs, along with the first few reports of keeper scup for the season.
Fishing Forecast for Rhode Island
Early June is right up there with the October fall run as one of the best times to wet a line in the saltwater of Rhode Island, and this year appears to be no exception, despite the cold spring. With highs in the 80s forecasted for the weekend, surface temperatures will continue to rise and so will the amount of bait, bass and fluke in the region.
June 3 – 2 of us spent ~5 hours between the Pink House and W. Hill reefs, drifting (almost flat calm until noon); several schools of 2-3 pound blues (caught 9 w/o really trying); 3 short fluke – huge surprise a ~4 pound black sea bass on the fluke jig! (~50 feet of water) – too bad the season is closed as he would have been mighty tasty.
Very Nice, but where were your keeper FLUKE?? 6/1 Sundaay fished Misquamicut from Water Tower to Town Beach…..2 guys. No Blues………….But 8 keeper fluke, 5 of which were in 20-23 inch class. The bigger fluke were taking the Jig viciously. Fair amount of squid around as they followed our rigs up. We did land 2 blues weekend before…. Dave Big Baits….Big Fish
Why is it that the first and second hand reports that I get are very different than these OTW: RI fishing reports? I’ve been told squid are sparse, there was a wave of keeper stripers a week ago and then none, blues are just starting to hit in-shore, fluke are nowhere but South County and scup are nowhere to be found. This reminds me of the traffic reports that I used to listen to where they would say 95 was clear all the way up to the i-Way while I was stuck in 30 minutes of traffic on 95.
I walk the beach at Weekapaug on Monday from breakwater to breakwater. One dead seal, huge rollers from an ocean storm. Not so much as a splash. I am only a beginner from Ct. Somebody please tell me where I can at least find a schoolie.
@Dan, lots of places to catch fish. In fact, most of our shores are good for catching something or other. Start with the places everyone knows, West Wall, Ft. Adams, Conimicut Light, etc. and learn what looks good and what compares to other spots you might see. Aside from that, fish the sides of any beach.
Spent a hour and a half using pogey chunks and landed three blues of 30 inches weighing 7 lbs. Day before caught a 30 inch blue and a 26 inch striper in Newport.
Schoolie Location = Narragansett Bay, Alternate Location = Pawcatuck River.
Good Luck, talk to fishermen, ask questions, check in with the bait shops. Develop a network.
Fished 3 hrs in Jamestown and caught 2 stripers, 31 and 36, on a bomber before sunrise… Caught 6 monster blues hitting pogies in the bay… Was a good day…
I been catching striper from 31 to 38 inches in providence river on live line bunker… 12 so far the bigges one 38″ about 20 pound.
You guys got it lucky. I was out trolling Bucktails and bunker spoons, chumming, chunking, bottom fishing with blood worms, clams, live peelers, and cranking rattle traps in the middle Chesapeake bay for striper yesterday. When I say, “not one”, I mean “not one” nibble, strike, or picked hook all day long. And I fished Thomas Point light channel edges, Bloody Point light channel edges, Love Point, Swan Point, Rock Hall, Baltimore Light channel edges, the main shipping channel under(north and south) of the bay bridge, and several bay bridge abundments. If you guys are ever thinking of the Chesapeake for fishing, do your research and or reconsider. You coukd be in for a long, expensive, aggravating day…
Also, I didnt see one boat catching anything in those areas either. Me and a few buddies are getting a group together to come up to RI to charter a boat for stripers in a week or two. Any suggestions?
There are loads of charters for stripers. Most of them head out around Block Island, limit out on stripers (2 per person), then try to load up on blues or fluke if anyone has arm strength left. This year, however, people are getting skunked all over the place. Gator blues are around though, so you should still have fun. Fluke have started slow, but they should be pretty good in a week or two.