Fishing Forecast - August New Moon

Pushing into the second half of August means faux fall is upon us, and the fall run really starts to kick off. There are hoards of peanut bunker and spearing flushing out of the salt ponds and estuaries. Bass, blues, bottom fish, and hardtails are ready to capitalize. There is some decent bass fishing to be had up in the bay, with bigger fish still hanging out front. The bluefish bite seems to finally be picking up, with small-medium sized fish under the bait balls. The bigger blues should be around any time, as late August is generally a great time to target them on light tackle and fly as they hound small bait. There have been some great windows to get offshore recently, and really, all summer. Hopefully that luck continues. There's a storm down south that's definitely worth tracking as next week things could get a little more interesting on that front. Depending how they hit, big tropical storms can be detrimental to both the offshore and inshore fishery, or they can help to push warm water in closer and the fishing can light up. As of now it looks like it may be the latter, so that could bode well for us New Englanders. We'll just have to keep an eye on it.

Offshore

The bluefin bite is still going strong. Despite the season closure yesterday for recreational anglers, there are still many reasons to get out there. Don't cancel your charters! Catch and release is still a blast and the fleets should shrink as naturally, some people will opt out. There's also excellent mahi fishing and a small sprinkle of yellowfin mixed in with promise of more showing up. The jig bite is definitely king right now - you may be able to get popper bites around first light but that seems to be less reliable. The bite in general is very much day-to-day. The fish seem to be moving a lot and certain spots may be on fire one day and a desert the next. Overall, though, the bite has been reliable. You may just have to hunt and network to find it on any given day. The UVT jig is still crushing, especially pink glow early in the day. Once the sun is up, the Hogy Sandeel Jig has been the hot ticket whenever I've made it out. The Point Jude Deep Force Jig is another great option. Pink is always solid for any jig. With the abundance of sandeels around, anything that looks like one is a good bet. There's also plenty of hake and mackerel fueling the fire. The RonZ is a constant producer and works great jigged, retrieved, and dead-sticked. Live lining whiting and mackerel has also been working recently, although you may need to fight through some sharks to get through to the tuna. Chunking usually picks up around this time and into September, so I'd expect to hear more and more about that in the coming weeks. That's a great way to stumble into a yellowfin, which we can only hope will show up in good numbers any day now. 

Mr. Spicer with a perfect fun-sized bluefin before the season closure.

The mahi fishing continues to be great, with plenty of fish in the 5+ pound range and a good amount of really solid fish pushing over 10+ pounds. The mahi bite usually doesn't peak until a few weeks from now, so it should just keep getting better as we approach September. Depending on the day and whether you're the first boat to cast at them, they'll either hit anything as soon as it touches the water... or reject anything and everything you throw at them. But there are some tips and tricks that should help in the case that they're being finicky. The go to is always a simple Metal/Epoxy. Try to vary your retrieve, how much you let it sink, etc before you give up on it. Try different sizes/weights as sometimes having that little extra weight to keep it a few feet lower can make the difference. A small piece of FishBites tipped on the end of your epoxy can go a long way, too. You won't want to rip the epoxy in quickly in this case, but they'll hit it on the drop or on a snap jig back to the boat. Other good lures to try would be Swimmers/Minnow Plugs, Bucktail Jigs, and even Poppers. They also respond well to chum and chunking, so that's always worth a shot if they aren't responding to artificials. 

Hardtails

The second half of August means the official start of hardtail season here in Rhode Island. We've been lucky the past two years to have bonito around for a good chunk of the summer, but now things should really start to kick off. The bonito bite was red hot in June this year before it hit a bit of a lull - they've been around, but not necessarily easy to target. That has been improving recently and should only get better as we move into September. There have also been a small handful of local albies caught in the last week or so. That hasn't taken off yet, but should very soon, so it's time to get out there and start looking! As always, Metals/Epoxies are a great place to start for casting distance and fast retrieve. Albie Snax are another go to, and a personal favorite of mine (and many) for those early arriving albies. The Yo Zuri Mag Minnow is a particularly great bonito lure, although theres no reason an aggressive albie in the right mood won't take a swing at it. 

Captain Ray Jarvis of Salt of the Earth Sportfishing with a recent, local albie!

Striped Bass

The striped bass bite is probably as tough as it'll get right now. That said, as the small bait flushes out and water temps will soon turn the corner and begin to cool, the bite should pick right back up. Last September saw weeks of consistent, hot bass fishing out front with fish of all sizes feeding on small bait. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks here, we start to see signs of a repeat from last year. Don't forget that elephants eat peanuts during the fall run. The bite is actually pretty good up in the bay despite some pretty warm water temperatures. Soft plastics like the Albie Snax, Slug-gos, and Zoom Flukes are all great options. Small spooks like the Rebel Jumpin Minnow and Game On! X Walk are sure to get them fired up, too. As small bait becomes more available into the fall run, the Larry Lurz Casting Egg paired with a Striper fly or Bonito/Albie Fly is a really fun way to catch fish. The Float N' Fly, the Splash N' Flash, the Pop N' Stop - whatever you want to call it, it's effective and it's a blast. Overall, the dog days of summer are just about behind us and things should get very interesting very soon. It's also that time of year where you never know what you might catch - exotics, sharks, and all sorts of funny species make their way to RI waters around this time and into the fall. If you're a multispecies angler, it's your time to shine!