Yesterday afternoon I rode my bike along the bike path that borders the Blackstone River in northern RI. The river was a torrent of rushing brown water that looked like coffee. It has been like that for two weeks now as heavy rains and flooding have caused this.
In the evening I fished a good spot in the mid Bay that seemed to always produce at this time of year in the past. As I waded into my spot, I noticed the water had a similar off colored look I saw earlier in the Blackstone River. I would call it a diluted coffee color. I plugged away for two hours and came away with one fluke and a couple of sea robins. There was not a sign of a striper or a bluefish and there was no bait at all. I also spoke with a regular in this spot who told me he has not caught a striper or a bluefish here in two weeks.
The Bay is sick right now with dirty water and a lot of freshwater emptying out into the Bay. It has sent the fish packing. Heck, I don't even see the boaters in front of the Hurricane Barrier in the upper Bay. I also saw no boaters in the mid Bay last night.
My suggestion if you are looking to fish RI waters would be to fish the oceanftont. Fishing there is not great either from the reports I am getting, but there are some schoolies to be had and an occasional small keeper. Most fishermen are complaining about the lack of keepers for shore fishermen.
As proof of the lack of fish, consider this story. Two weekends ago there was a RI surf tournament called the MS Surf Challenge in which many anglers from a half dozen clubs competed for three days. They caught a grand total of one keeper. June should be prime time, but it's not turning out that way. Maybe it's the weather and all the rain, but maybe we are seeing a big decline in the number of stripers. I don't know. But, I do know that shore fishing for stripers and blues in RI is poor right now.
