This is not last year's fishing in 'Gansett Bay.There are less pogies, less large bass and a ton more fishermen, many of whom are clueless. However, the sharpies are still catching good numbers of large bass and blues. Moving around and varying tactics are the key to scoring.
Fishing with live menhaden is still a great technique if you can get a supply of pogies. We've found that it is best to move away from the mob scene of boats when doing this. We've gotten most of our 40-45 inch stripers (see pic of yesterday's fish) drifting live pogies.
Another technique that has worked well is chunking. Find a spot in relatively low water (under 20 ft.), anchor, and start chumming cut pieces of menhaden. This works well when you have a supply of dead ones. I like to use no weight and a relatively small chunk when chunk fishing. Let it to the bottom and bounce it up and down with the rod tip. This has accounted for many bass in the 28-34 inch size range and some big blues.
Finally, don't discount plugging. We were drifting yesterday and suddenly bass and blues were popping here and there for bay anchovies. We started plugging with Hogys and Zara spooks on top and ended up picking up quite a few large blues and small keeper bass.
My brother and I landed 25 fish yesterday and used all of the techniques described above. In the same area we were fishing, many inexperienced boat fishermen went fishless.
