Experience Kayak Fishing in Narragansett Bay

Like so many fishing journeys in mid-Could, it started at first gentle with caffeine and sky-high expectations. My host Jonny Rego’s transient recon journey the day earlier than confirmed the arrival of massive, ravenous bluefish in higher Narragansett Bay. 

There was no trace of wind as we slid our kayaks off the sand seaside and commenced pedaling. Circumstances couldn’t have been higher for recognizing bluefish cruising the shallow flats of Greenwich Bay, a sheltered offshoot of Narragansett Bay simply south of Windfall’s TF Inexperienced Airport. I had three rods rigged and prepared: one with a topwater plug (a bone-colored Doc), one with a Z-Man delicate plastic (in case the blues have been the slightest bit choosy), and a fly rod with a popper on a wire chew tippet (for after I’d had my fill of catching gator blues on spinning deal with).

Inside 200 yards of the seaside, I spooked a fish simply forward of my kayak, a quiet swirl on the floor that grew to a sizeable upwelling. I halted my pedaling because the unseen bluefish kicked off and I coasted one other 10 yards, setting off two extra bluefish boils. Coronary heart pounding, I reached again, lifted the spinning rod out of the rod holder, and unhooked the again hook of the Doc from the reel deal with. 

The primary forged landed with a splash that spooked three extra blues. The fish have been in all places. I began the zigzag, walk-the-dog retrieve, listening to the rhythmic knock of the lure’s inner rattle, anticipating the stillness-shattering blow-up to come back at any second.

I used to be stunned when the plug got here all the best way again to my kayak with out even a observe, and shocked when the subsequent 5 casts yielded the identical non-result. I appeared over towards Jonny, who was experiencing the identical frustration.  

“Seems like they’re being tremendous choosy this morning,” he mentioned.  

It could’ve been straightforward to pivot to a different possibility—Narragansett Bay has loads of them to supply kayak anglers. The most important estuary in New England, it’s fed by contemporary water that turns into brackish because it flows in from the Windfall, Taunton, and Sakonnet rivers, and mixes with tidal ocean water dashing round Jamestown, Aquidneck, and Prudence islands. It options a variety of aquatic habitats, from shallow muddy flats and again waters within the higher bay, to deep rock ledges and ocean swell the place it opens into Rhode Island Sound. 

Narragansett Bay is a vacation spot fishery for spring and fall blackfish. It’s well-known for its striper run that begins with contemporary schoolies in April, continues with massive bass on bunker (menhaden) via the spring, and offers up stripers in deep water all through the summer season. There’s the inflow of bluefish in mid-Could, a resurgent weakfish chew in spring, after which albies and bonito cost in from the ocean in late summer season. Lastly, backside fishermen can put collectively a combined bag of fluke, sea bass, and scup.

Whereas shore-based fishing entry is an ongoing problem in Rhode Island, acres of water are open and accessible for a kayak angler who, with a sturdy set of wheels, can cart a vessel throughout most of the seashores and right-of-way areas situated across the bay. If wind, waves, or boat site visitors make kayaking a problem on open areas of the bay, there are numerous protected areas and leeward shores that present protected and productive fishing. 

Jonny and I switched to delicate plastics, anticipating the cautious blues can be unable to withstand. I managed a observe that waked behind my paddletail earlier than disappearing in a boil a rod’s size from my kayak.

Jonny was beginning to really feel some strain, since he’d invited me down with a cameraman in tow, now pondering that the promise of epic video content material was in peril of being thwarted by bluefish appearing in a decidedly un-bluefish-like method. Some fast recon on the hand-held VHF confirmed that different kayak anglers within the space have been experiencing the identical, with just a few of them abandoning bluefish to pursue different species.

We switched to trolling minnow plugs—not as thrilling as casting, however virtually sure to generate some motion. We lined water. We spooked extra fish. Jonny noticed dozens of fish on his side-scanning Humminbird unit. We spooked these, too; nonetheless nothing. 

The phenomenon of choosy bluefish on shallow flats in spring isn’t restricted to Narragansett Bay. I’d run into the identical scenario kayaking the flats of Cape Cod, however I can’t say that I’d ever seen this many bluefish in a single space and never been capable of get no less than just a few response strikes.

Because the solar obtained increased, a breeze picked up. I had taken a break from fruitless casting to work on my espresso and watch a JetBlue flight acquire altitude overhead after I heard the unmistakable sound of a fish blowing up on a lure.  I pedaled over to shoot some pictures of Jonny’s 8-pound bluefish and discover out what had lastly gotten the skunk off his Previous City kayak. 

It turned out to be a paddletail swim shad that he’d sacrificed to the enamel of a bluefish, one among a number of lures that had been ignored on dozens of earlier casts. Possibly it wasn’t the lure, however the fish have been lastly beginning to activate.

With renewed optimism, I fan-casted the Doc. Not 5 minutes later, a bluefish smashed it a split-second after it hit the water earlier than I had even began a retrieve. 

Because the wind picked up, the blues began behaving extra like bluefish, following and placing the identical lures they’d ignored all morning. A number of mid-20-inch stripers discovered their appetites as effectively. Whether or not it was the constructing wind, altering tide, or time of day, one thing shifted, and Narragansett Bay confirmed off, as soon as once more, why it’s one among New England’s biggest fishing locations.

Kayak Fishing Entry Factors

Narragansett Bay has wonderful kayak-fishing entry, particularly if you should use a cart or hand-carry your kayak and don’t want a ramp. Listed below are some in style entry factors:

Higher Bay

1. Salter Grove Memorial Park (Warwick) – Simple launch, good for spring stripers, entry to rocky construction.

2. Conimicut Level (Warwick) – Entry to Windfall River, although concentrate on robust currents.

Mid Bay

3. Goddard Memorial State Park Seaside (East Greenwich) – A great spring spot with entry to flats and deeper channels.

4. Wickford Cove Kayak Launch (North Kingstown) – A sheltered launch with entry to Wickford Harbor and the bay.

5. Compass Rose Seaside (North Kingstown) – A handy launch close to Quonset with entry to the open water of the West Passage.

Decrease Bay

6. South Ferry Highway, College of RI Bay Campus (Narragansett) – Entry to deeper waters, good for stripers all through the season and tautog.

7. Third Seaside (Middletown) – Nice for launching into the Sakonnet River, the place you will discover striped bass, fluke, albies, and bonito.

A Season on the Bay

Jonny Rego grew up fishing Narragansett Bay by shore and boat, and for just a few seasons, he guided kayak-fishing journeys with Rhode Island Kayak Fishing Adventures, owned and operated by information Dustin Stevens. Rego’s kayak-fishing season begins and ends with blackfish, however in between, he targets each species and even does some leisure lobstering from his Previous City Autopilot kayak. 

“Narragansett Bay is a extremely cool fishery to have the ability to entry from a kayak,” he mentioned. “There’s simply a lot happening, particularly in Could and June. Fish transfer up from the ocean into the bay’s warming waters, then the bay will get too heat, and so they begin vacating again towards the ocean. There are such a lot of completely different avenues you’ll be able to strategy fishing the bay.”

Blackfish

Rego’s spring kayak fishing begins by focusing on tautog in early April when the water temperature is round 46 to 48 levels. He seeks out typical tog construction like bridges, oyster beds, wrecks, and rock ledges, fishing with Asian crabs he gathers alongside the shoreline.

“I discovered a lesson just a few years in the past about what baits work finest, particularly within the spring,” Rego mentioned. “I used to be fishing inexperienced crabs, however Dustin Stevens was utilizing Asian crabs and completely outfished me.”

Rego begins by specializing in bridge construction, usually utilizing his kayak paddle to knock barnacles and different critters off the pilings to behave as chum that pulls in tautog. Then, he units the Spot-Lock function on his kayak, which acts as a GPS-enabled anchor to carry him subsequent to the construction. 

Whereas bridge helps are unbelievable construction for tautog, they draw loads of consideration from anglers and may get fished out rapidly. At that time, Rego strikes on, utilizing his electronics and Navionics cell app to seek out new spots. 

“I attempt to discover hidden treasures, like a wreck and even oyster beds,” he mentioned. “There’s loads of water to cowl within the bay, and from a kayak, I don’t have the velocity to go so far as I’d need to. The profit is that it encourages me to seek for under-the radar spots that don’t get as a lot strain.” 

Stripers

Striper season within the bay begins shortly after the primary migratory schoolie stripers present up across the second week of April alongside oceanfront seashores and at Level Judith. These fish start shifting into the bay and mixing with any striped bass that held over via the winter in brackish ponds and up inside rivers. Then, in early Could, the primary wave of larger bass arrives. 

“The primary new and full moons in Could are after I’ve seen massive pushes of massive bass into the bay,” mentioned Rego. “Herring and bunker faculties usually transfer in on the similar time, and we begin to see larger bass on high.” 

Together with typical delicate plastics and topwater plugs, Rego believes flutter spoons are super-effective on stripers shifting via the bay on the tails of bunker faculties. 

“Fishing flutter spoons has rapidly change into one among my favourite strategies,” he mentioned. “They’ve change into in style with boat fishermen, the bait retailers couldn’t hold flutter spoons in inventory final spring.”

Rego makes use of a Humminbird Helix fishfinder with side-scanning sonar to seek out faculties of fish shifting via open water, then units up over them and drops a flutter spoon. 

“It’s a actually enjoyable option to catch striped bass,” mentioned Rego. “You hook a forty-inch striper in forty toes of water jigging with a spoon, and it’s a battle. Cling on tight, as a result of that fish shouldn’t be coming in straightforward.” 

Whereas bunker spoons are extremely efficient within the spring when bass are aggressive and keyed in on bunker, they have an inclination to disregard spoons as soon as the bay’s waters heat. In midsummer, when massive bass slide down towards the cooler, deeper waters of the decrease bay round Newport and Jamestown, trolling a tube-and-worm rig from the kayak can carry daytime strikes from torpid stripers. 

Rego retains his trolling rig easy: no leadcore line or keel sinkers, simply braided mainline to a 40-pound fluorocarbon chief clipped to a tube. Since he sometimes trolls in 30 to 40 toes of water, he pedals as slowly as he can to maintain the rig simply over the underside whereas keeping track of the fishfinder for bass holding tight to the underside. 

“I don’t know why, however there’s one thing a couple of tube and worm trolled slowly alongside the underside that massive bass simply can’t resist,” mentioned Rego. “It’s like a cheat code. And although some individuals may assume trolling sounds boring, when an enormous bass strikes your trolling rod on a kayak, it’s a jolt that you just really feel via the entire hull and into your seat. You usually know immediately it’s an enormous fish and also you’re going to get towed round. It’s an adrenaline rush, for positive.” 

Bluefish

In most years, bluefish arrive in Narragansett Bay like clockwork across the center of Could, usually shadowing menhaden faculties. They’ll rapidly amass in bays and on sandy flats, though whether or not they’re there to actively feed or to digest meals in heat water is up for debate. If you will discover them and get them to strike lures (which, Rego claims, is the case 90 p.c of the time), it may be completely lights-out fishing. 

“What I like about spring bluefishing is it takes place in protected, shallow areas the place I don’t have a lot competitors from boats,” mentioned Rego. “It’s like a kayak haven, and I get the fun of massive gator blues smashing topwaters and leaping out of the water.” 

Weakfish

For causes that no one can absolutely clarify, the up-and-down weakfish inhabitants appears to be on an upswing, and Narragansett Bay has loved a constant spring chew for the previous few years. 

“5 years in the past, a weakfish was a unicorn—that’s how uncommon it was to catch one,” Rego mentioned. “We’ve had a very good run the previous few years, and it’s positively captured the eye of kayak anglers. Within the spring, you’ll see bunches of kayakers working areas of the bay the place weakfish are typically caught.” 

Bonito and Albies

The inflow of small baitfish, together with bay anchovies, peanut bunker, and silversides, usually brings in bonito and false albacore in late summer season and into the autumn. Whereas the bonito faculties often arrive first and are quickly supplanted by albies, in 2024, massive variety of bonito caught round whereas the albie chew by no means actually materialized. 

In a extra typical 12 months, kayak anglers will head towards the decrease bay, significantly round Newport and the mouth of the Sakonnet River, to chase albies. In good albie years, the fish push additional into the bay, usually resulting in combined floor blitzes of albies, stripers, and bluefish.  

The Kayak Neighborhood

For such a big and numerous fishery, Narragansett Bay has a tight-knit neighborhood of kayak anglers who’re extra keen than most to share info and look out for one another on the water. At in style websites, you’ll usually see kayak fishermen gathered pre- or post-launch, sharing tales and exchanging Instagram handles. 

“In case you’re simply moving into kayak fishing or need to attempt it, you’ll be able to’t beat the expertise of hiring a kayak-fishing information to take you out,” mentioned Rego. “When you’re into it and seeking to set up a community, it’s fairly straightforward to fulfill different kayak anglers and begin sharing info. And, with a fishery like Narragansett Bay, there’s at all times extra to be taught from one another.”

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