Rhode Island Fishing Report
The Frances Fleet in Point Judith continues to offer customers fall tautog trips as well as trips targeting cod and black sea bass. They found a few nice weather windows this week, in between some more wind, and results were excellent. On Sunday, they had 20 anglers aboard, and managed a full tautog limit by 10:30 AM, then spent the rest of the trip catching and releasing. Monday was more of the same, actually even better. They decided to try out a few new rockpiles and were rewarded with triple-digit keepers to 8-pounds. Each trip is starting to see more and more keeper cod as well. They’ll be sailing whenever the weather allows, and this weekend looks manageable. Their full schedule can be viewed on their website where you can also make reservations for upcoming trips.
Dave at Ocean State Tackle in Providence told me that the main interest for anglers across Rhode Island continues to be hunting for big tautog. The weather, wind and temperatures have improved a bit this week, and results have been excellent. Hard structure in the usual areas are all producing as they should, and fish are still coming from a wide range of depths. Quality fish have come as shallow as depths in the teens, and as deep as 110 feet of water. Anglers that are still targeting striped bass are finding blitzes of schoolie to slot fish in the Narragansett area. There are still some better fish up in the bay, and most of the beaches are holding fish, but the Narragansett area appears to be the hotspot. The fall squid bite has remained good, but it’s best around Block Island. Anglers hunting squid out around Block are reporting solid numbers of bluefin, so it would appear the fall season is still in its infancy, despite what the calendar says. Freshwater anglers are reporting excellent trout fishing, as the RIDEM has continued with their fall stocking program. Dave is now open Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7 AM to noon.
Ralph Craft at Crafty One Customs said that fishing for tautog remains very good in and around the bay, with limit catches reported by most of their customers. There have been quite a few double-digit fish caught this season and it’s been nice to see a lot of these fish returned to the water after a few quick pictures. There are still striped bass being caught in the bay and along the south shore beaches. Squid reports have been very good around Newport and around Block Island for boaters. Anglers are also catching squid from shore, but results have been a little less consistent from shore than by boat.
Captain Connor at Tall Tailz Charters provided the following report as he hits the pinnacle of his late fall tautog season: “Tautog fishing is in full swing for us. The temps are finally settling down. On most drops, I’ve been seeing 57 degrees or lower. We’re still getting plenty of action, with numbers of quality fish coming from 40 to 60 feet. We’re also seeing bigger fish out in the deep. Greens and spider crabs are working well in shallow, while the white crabs are doing the job in the deeper water. This week we’ve seen some fish to over 15 pounds on the jig! We’re also getting some quality sea bass and cod as bycatch. With water temps still warmer than usual, I expect a longer inshore season for us in RI!”
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Captain Rob Taylor at Newport Sportfishing Charters has been continuing to get after it on the fall bottom fishing grounds. Tautog fishing has been as strong as ever. Rob had a couple fish in the mid-teen range late last week, which isn’t as surprising as it sounds, with the pinnacle of Newport tautog fishing taking place right now. Rob also mentioned that he saw an encouraging uptick in quality cod and sea bass this week. It seems that as the tautog finally start to transition deeper, a nice slug of bigger sea bass and cod are showing up in the mix.
Dustin at Rhode Island Kayak Fishing Adventures reported another week of solid tautog fishing, as the water continues to cool down, and the fish starting to chew in deeper water. With all the small bait around the mouth of the bay and along the beaches, you’re apt to find a few striper blitzes while out there, but these blitzes are getting tougher to count on as the fish start to move on. Even if most of the migratory fish move on, Dustin expects the holdover bite to fire up soon and last throughout the winter. The RIDEM did a great job with the latest round of trout stocking. Trout anglers are reporting strong catches of rainbow and brook trout from across the state. Even though the main season is starting to wind down, there will still be some nice species to target during the cold months. Head over to Dustin’s website to book your kayak fishing trip!
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Jay at Pamela May Charters told me things stayed status quo this week, with a few blitzes of small bass around, but most of the attention being focused on tautog. The tautog fishing has been as steady as ever, with most anglers leaving with full coolers and a great day of fishing. The tautog are still spread out on a number of depths and haven’t fully transitioned to the deeper structure that they are usually on in November. I’m hoping to get on some more waves of stripers moving out of the bay. The water temperature only dropped a bit this week, so Jay thinks we should still have plenty of time!
Rhode Island Fishing Forecast
While most anglers may feel like things are wrapping up for the season, the extraordinarily warm fall, along with the great late-fall tautog season, is keeping ambitious anglers busy. The tautog fishing remains red hot, whenever anglers have been able to anchor out of the wind or find a weather window. Inside the bay has been fishing great on those days that you need a bit of a shield from the wind, and all of the deeper wrecks and rockpiles out front are also fishing great. The tautog are starting to transition to slightly deeper water, so while that may hurt for anchoring purposes, it helps in terms of bycatch. Much improved numbers of big cod fish and knothead sea bass are showing up from the tautog grounds this week.
Striped bass fishing has grown more inconsistent, but a plethora of small bait is still keeping some fish around. As far as out front, it seems that the best bet for finding some bass is around Narragansett. Otherwise, look inside the bay or the salt ponds for late season/holdover fish.
Late season trout fishing has been excellent across the state following the RIDEM fall stocking, and flows should finally be improving.