Pogies, worms, sand eels, and squid are on the menu in Rhode Island and Connecticut.  The pogies are still light in Naragansett Bay and have been well below last years numbers.  Worms and thus bass are still around in the salt ponds, but the RI beaches have been quite.

Despite massive feeding frenzies, bass often feed like trout.  Below is a nice spring striper caught while sipping worms in a salt marsh.  This fish and many other bass were sitting along a marsh bank sipping the worms as they drifted into a channel from a small cut in the marsh during a droping tide.  It was very similar to trout stacking up during the summer at a cool feeder stream.  If you didn’t know any better you’d think they were feeding on mayflies.  When there are no large concentrations of bait, sometimes it pays to go where the bait is concentrated by even small tidal forces.

Narragansett Bay

Worm sipping bass

Captain Ray of Castafly charters reports “Lots of running around working for a few quality stripers. Finding concentrations of baitfish has been a problem this week.  Most of the pogies we have seen have been around the shipping channels of Bullocks Reach.  A few small pod have appeared around Greene Island to Gaspee Point.  Once in awhile there will be a few stripers under ‘em.

There was a consistant bit of teen size striper east of Hope Island Tuesday in thirty feet. Drifting with a full sink line with a full deceiver pattern or squid fly produced numerous fish in the ten pound class.”

South Shore

Ted Stebbins caught and released this nice striper on an olive Clouser.

Busy week for Captain Ray as he was also down at Ninigret helping out with a worm hatch class.  Unfortunately the fishing was slow for us that night but worms are still around.

Fishing along the beaches seems to be very quiet.  Bill Downing took a break from the canal and headed south to the beaches.  According to Bill he ”did absolutely squat” along the south shore beaches from Quonnie to Pt.  Judith.  He experienced very few people out fishing despite good morning tides.  Maybe they knew something he didn’t.

Connecticut

Happy Spring!

Captain Mike Duclos of Tiderunner Charters reports “It didn’t seem to matter this week where you fished or how you fished; if you spent time on the water you managed to catch Stripers and Bluefish.  It seems early to be catching Bluefish but who am I to complain, some days they are a blessing. Good size fish are being caught at all the usual places, Bartlets Reef, the Race, which has produced for the jiggers the wire buys and even light tackle on the surface for Bluefish at the end of each tide. Watch Hill has a solid run of bass iinto the 30″ plus sizes,the word there is a mix of squid and sand eels. Caught a 24″ bass at Race Rock that was tagged with a Literal Society tag, the report that came back was that the fish had been tagged in March in the Hudson River.  Nature sure is remarkable.  Have a great week, and tight lines.”

Weather looks good this weekend, take advantage of it.

Garth