O ne theme among a great many of my sources, New York to Maine, is their insistence that while the striper fishing really hasn’t come together in their respective territories, the “table is set.” What they mean is that they have droves of bait, several kinds and in huge quantities and the right kinds of it. On a region-wide basis, the table is indeed set in the baitfish department. The trouble, as I see it—and maybe I’m just being overly cynical, here—is that baitfish is nice. It’s critically important, in fact, and I’m sure glad that it’s around in so many different places, New York to north of Boston. The problem is, until there are some striped bass in the pipeline, baitfish is just…well…Baitfish. The set table is just a set table until someone comes in and sits down for supper. Things are running late, it appears, but there are also fish in quite a few places they’re supposed to be, and more or less on time, too. I guess what I’m driving at is that we all need to think hard about exactly what it is we’re looking at. There are fish in Jersey but not, at least for guys I’ve consulted recently, gangbusters. The western end of Long Island Sound is finally starting to get some bigger fish in the bunker-fuelled May fishery that is generally in full swing by this point. Here’s hoping things start firing off for us mighty soon in the places we know to go looking.
The visible squid run—what was going on in Newport Harbor and Galilee for a couple weeks—slowed a bit over the last four days or so, but the squid catching is still pretty solid out front, 30- to 60-foot spots outside Matunuck, for example. One of my sources, fishing with one friend out on Nebraska Shoal, reported tooling on the big tubes three at a time through the slack, when all the squid came up off the bottom and gathered beneath a HydroGlo light hanging off the transom. If you’re new to the squid racket out front, know that you really won’t mark much in the way of squid until after full dark, when you may be surprised to discover that there’s a sudden band of life rising out of what had appeared to be dead ground a half-hour prior.
WATCH HILL
Mikey Wade at Watch Hill Outfitters wasn’t raving about much when I caught him Thursday evening. He, like most of us, has the feeling we’re standing right on the verge of something—that not much has happened thus far, but that it’s going to go off like someone hit a switch any day now. One bright spot in his neighborhood has been the arrival of some keeper fluke in fair numbers off Misquamicut—anywhere from as shallow as 25 feet out past 60—with some nice sea bass in the mix. There’s squid along the beach, though not like it was. The guys fishing in the Pawcatuck River continue to catch schoolie bass along with the occasional keeper into the mid-30-inch range. Cemetery Cove has been fairly good to his regulars, especially guys with the advantage of a kayak and the mobility that provides. Scup are starting to move in at Watch Hill, and should continue to fill in by the week. Blackfishing is still underway but closes very soon. Quonny has had tiny and small schoolies along the bar on the inside on incoming tides.
BLOCK ISLAND
There have been some schoolies and a few keepers on the move with schools of bait along the east and south sides, but nothing with any real rhyme or reason so far. If there are fish around the SW Corner—which there should be—the charterboats that have been running early trips down that way have been keeping it mighty quiet. Codfish reports have been zero, but there are fluke moving in; this would be a good time to give the green cans of SE Light and northward a look, working the 30 to 40-foot drifts with fresh squid strips and fillet baits.
SNUG HARBOR
Joe Mollica at Snug Harbor noted the striper scene is almost unnervingly quiet. A couple of his friends have sampled Potters and Point Judith Pond looking for worm hatch action—any action, for that matter—but it’s been mighty slow going so far. The main bright spot over the last week has been a noticeable uptick in the fluke activity along the beach—40 to 65 feet—where some of his contacts have been finding enough decent slabs to call their efforts fishing. The best bet for better numbers at this stage has been the lower west side of the Island, anywhere from New Harbor down to SW Point, and that action should be moving closer with each warm day. Cod reports have been nil, probably because we’ve had plenty of wind on most of the nicer recent days.
NARRAGANSETT BAY
One of my anonymous sources noted there have finally been some keeper bass showing up among the bunker schools up in the Providence River, from Port Edgewood over to Barrington, and up to around the Hurricane Barrier. While no one he’d heard from had stuck anything north of the 20-pound so far, there have been decent numbers of teen-sized fish on the prowl. Per the early-season norm, the fish have not been bunched up, and the guys catching are using methods designed to cover ground as they search for stripers they can effectively work on. What that means is either slow-trolling—in and out of gear—in the immediate vicinity of visible bunker schools, or live-lining around shallow (high-relief) structures where fish are likely staging.
The coves and harbors of the West Bay—Warwick, Greenwich Bay, Apponaug—have schoolie bass and fits and starts of weakfish to around 25 inches, the latter a welcome diversion since they began to make a sudden return last season. Tautog are still chewing around the mid- and upper-Bay islands, around rockpiles and wrecks in less than 20 feet of water, but the season closes after this weekend.
Kenny from Ray’s Bait in Apponaug (Warwick) was drifting pogies through a slack tide when he called (slack tide being a fine time to catch up on work). He and crew had already stuck a couple fish in the 35- to 37-inch range. He confirmed that the bigger fish have indeed pulled into the Bay, adding that most are in the mid-30-inch range, with an occasional better one. Rumors are flying about 30-pounders, but Kenny had yet to see one of those proportions as of Friday morning. Fluke have also moved up into the Bay, with fish now spreading out north of the bridges—a mix of sizes, with keepers for the taking if you’re willing to put in the time and energy to cull through some little stuff. Tautog are still around, though reports, per the togging norm, are all over the board: The guys who are getting them are mowing them, and the guys who aren’t…well…really aren’t. Conimicut Light seemed to be the odds-on favorite in the latter half of this week.
NEWPORT
Peter Jenkins over at the Saltwater Edge noted there were some keepers caught along the oceanfront last week, and some fish reported out on the reefs—the latter a welcome surprise, given that there’s been precious little action elsewhere for the small-boat guys. The squid run is still on but it’s gotten less consistent the last week or so. Fluke reports have been scarce so far, but there should be some better fish moving in around Baileys and the other early spots over the next two weeks. Keep an eye on the southern west side of Jamestown as well. Peter confirmed a bit of bass activity up toward Providence.
