Rhode Island Fishing Report
As we turn the page on the 2025 season, there are plenty of fond fishing memories to look back on. A stellar fall tautog bite that, until recently, yielded dozens of double-digit fish and a new state record caught on Tall Tailz Charters, an excellent summer of striper fishing off Block Island fueled by sand eels and mackerel, and another great bonito season with enough albies to go around. But January is here, which means it’s time to look ahead.
Right now, many of the ponds that harbor good largemouth bass fishing are locked up with skim ice. However, that may change in the near future. Air temperatures are forecasted to steadily drop into the 20s, and even the teens into next week. For the smaller ponds that are currently locked up, these frigid temperatures should solidify the already existing ice and kickstart Rhode Island’s ice fishing season.
With the sea bass, scup, and tautog seasons now closed until the spring, saltwater fishing opportunities have grown slim. Unfortunately, the cod fishery is closed, but headboats like the Frances Fleet will continue sailing for cunner (bergall) when conditions allow. If you’ve got some space in the freezer and you’re looking to bend a rod, give them a shout. Other saltwater fanatics who prefer to play catch and release were getting their fix with winter holdover striped bass in the salt ponds and rivers, where small soft plastics and suspending minnow plugs were doing the most damage prior to the holidays. However, since then, finding open water has proven difficult even in the brackish creeks and salt ponds where resident stripers and white perch spend the winter months grubbing on killifish, silversides, crabs, and sometimes even peanut bunker. At this time, the key is to focus on larger rivers and creeks where there is better flow, which will inhibit the formation of skim ice.
The Ocean State, like many parts of southern New England, is currently in a fishing stalemate. The ice is not yet safe enough to fish through, and it’s just barely too thick to break apart and cast around. According to Dustin Stevens of Rhode Island Kayak Fishing Adventures, some larger lakes have spotty areas of open water, which has allowed a few shore and wading anglers to continue casting for trout from the state’s fall stocking. Most fishermen though, are halting the search for open water and are instead running north to Massachusetts where there’s reliable safe ice. Largemouth and smallmouth bass, pike, panfish and more have been entertaining hardwater enthusiasts for weeks now, and it should only get better from here. Dustin reiterated that in just a few days, after several nights of temperatures in the teens, the Rhode Island ice season should be underway.
The good folks at The Saltwater Edge in Middletown echoed Stevens’ report, claiming that the only way to get to the holdover stripers right now is by fishing larger rivers where there is stronger current and less ice. The salt ponds are too stagnant and the thin ice they bear is too slushy to fish through right now, but if this winter is as cold as it’s being forecasted, there may be a chance to fish for stripers through the ice later on. If you can find a few spots to cast for stripers from the bank or potentially splash a kayak, stick to small minnow plugs with Storm SuspenStrips to neutralize their buoyancy and keep them in the strike zone. Otherwise, 3- to 6-inch soft plastics on light jigheads are your best bet for winter holdover baits.
If searching for open water to cast for stocked trout or holdover stripers is not your cup of tea, take this time to prepare your ice fishing gear for the days and weeks to come. Most tackle shops are on limited winter hours, so give them a call to inquire about bait and secure it well in advance of your planned ice fishing outing. There’s nothing worse than scrambling for shiners, nightcrawlers and waxworms at the last second only to come up empty.
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Rhode Island Fishing Forecast
Holdover stripers and a few trout spots aside, there’s not much left to do but wait for safe ice to take hold on Rhode Island’s lakes and ponds. You can kill some time by getting ahead of the curve and prepping your gear for the 2026 saltwater season, which is always a process. Bring in your reels to get serviced, respool the ones you’re not dropping off at the shop, swap out rusty hooks and split rings, or tie some jigs and flies. Before long, we’ll all be jigging micro plastics and hyperglides through the ice to stave off cabin fever.
With the cod season closed, winter headboat trips are less enticing, but large cunners (choggies/bergalls) are excellent table fare and some boats will be heading out to fill coolers with these under-appreciated bottom fish. There are also plenty of headboats out of the greater Boston area that offer winter groundfish trips, so consider booking an outing with the Yankee Fleet or the American Classic to load up on pollock, Acadian redfish, or haddock.
We’ll be running monthly fishing reports and brief, weekly updates for Rhode Island until the first week of April. If you have a catch or a fishing report you’d like to share in the meantime, tag us on Instagram @onthewatermagazine or send pics and reports to our Assistant Editor, Matt Haeffner, via Instagram @matthaeffner.
Fingers crossed for some safe ice this week! Be safe, stay warm, and have a Happy New Year!