As most of the serious striper shore fishermen know, we are in the middle of one of the poorest summers on record in mainland RI. Narragansett Bay is especially bad. Since June, the Bay has had little bait, few stripers of any size and even very few bluefish. The water temps. from the mid seventies to even an unheard of eighty degrees have taken their toll. But, there just may be a glimmer of hope.
I took my son, Jon, out fishing for snapper blues the last two days in the upper Bay. This is something he enjoys doing with light tackle. In the last two years there were very few of these baby blues around. This year it is loaded. I was amazed at the numbers. In some spots, they were like heavy rain hitting the surface. They were going crazy for small bait about half an inch long that was also around in huge numbers. Stripers and even blues love to feed on these snappers. This all bodes well for the fall. If we can get some cooler weather and rain to lower that water temperature, I suspect the fishing will come alive just as it did last September. There is a glimmer of hope but I think we still have a good month to wait until things really start happening.
