Thank goodness the Bay waters are clearing. That tea or coffee color brought on by the heavy rains and floods of the last two weeks is clearing and water quality seems back to normal in the upper and mid Bay locations. The lack of rain in the last few days and the exceptionally high tides have contributed to improve things. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the fishing has only slightly improved. I got out the last two evenings in the upper Bay and landed 4 schoolies from shore on bucktail jigs and plastics on jigheads (see photo of last night's fish). The biggest fish might have gone 22 inches. I have seen very few boats around so I suspect the pogies have moved out of the upper Bay as they often do in late June. I've run into a few guys fishing, and all are complaining about the lack of fish in the Bay for shore fishermen. In recent years, the Bay fishing has taken a nosedive in late June. At this time of the year stripers and blues exit the upper Bay waters and move toward the cooler waters in the lower Bay and along the deep water drops along the oceanfront. Unfortunately, I'm not hearing any better fishing reports from shore guys in those locations either. Ho hum, summer fishing has arrived in RI. The next two months will be tough.
