Fishing Forecast - August New Moon

It's that time of year when we begin to see some tropical visitors here in Rhode Island. With the consistent southwest winds and warm weather, the water out front has that deep-blue color with excellent visibility. These are the conditions that we see more and more life coming from out east and down south. There have been days where you have to hunt for the clean water, but if you can find it, there's a chance it is holding some sort of pelagic or tropical fish. From jacks and snappers to cobia and hammerheads - there have been some exciting reports the past couple of weeks. This is the time of year when a typical night of chunking for bass, or a lazy day fluke fishing could produce the fish of a lifetime. You just have to be out there. And a little lucky!

The warm water temps and clean water have brought in a nice early push of bonito. They aren't huge ones, but there are good enough numbers to get out there and target them. Who knows if they will stick around for the next couple weeks, but with no big weather events in the extended forecast, we can be hopeful. These early arrivals have been pretty willing to eat. The top producers so far have been minnow plugs like the SP Minnow and Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow. There's also been some taken on Albie Snax, which are the perfect small squid impression. Metal/Epoxy jigs are always a safe bet, too, and you get the best casting distance if you're targeting them from shore. The Westin Solvpilen is a cool new addition to the shop and will definitely get the job done on the bonito and albies. 

Bonito caught on the Bubblegum SP Minnow earlier this week.

There are also bluefish of all sizes in the same areas you may run into bonito. I've been catching them as small as one pound and up to 15 pounds in the past few days. You may see them cruising the surface on the ocean front. If so, you can pitch just about anything at them and get bit. In this scenario I like something inexpensive but effective. The Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper and Tsunami Talkin Popper XD are both great choices. If they're on small bait, the Rebel Jumpin Minnow is tough to beat. You also may mark them on your fish finder while you're fluking or black sea bass fishing. In this case, drop a Metal/Epoxy jig or a paddletail like the JygPro Swym down to bottom and retrieve it back quickly. Catching bluefish vertically is as fun as it gets, especially when they're big ones.

A nice bluefish caught recently while trolling a Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow.

The striped bass fishing is pretty much unchanged from the last forecast - lots of big fish out front and offshore. This should continue through the summer and into the fall run. Although things are still relatively quiet from the surf crowd, there have been some better reports in the last couple of weeks. Not a whole lot of big fish, but some decent numbers. We're still at a point in the summer where the bass are hanging out on structure, and aren't always willing to stray very far from it. As we transition into more of a fall run, bait-oriented bite over the next month or so, that will change. 

For the boat guys bass fishing the reefs and wrecks out front, there's a small handful of tactics that just keep getting it done. Big spooks like The Doc, Joe Baggs Skipper, Hogy Dog Walker XL, and Yo-Zuri Mag Dive are all still great options. The rougher days seem to get the bass fired up enough to come up and hit a big topwater presentation despite the warm surface temperatures. On the calmer days, it may be a bit trickier. Live eels are always a go-to all season long. Plastic eel presentations like the GT Eel and Joe Baggs Block Island Eel are still producing plenty of big fish too. The Joe Baggs SPJ Jighead is perfect for these big baits. The Butchie Built Trolling Tubes are still crushing fish on the reefs, so make sure to have a couple of those with you, too.

The "fall run" generally begins to take shape in early August here in Rhode Island. Not that the fish are migrating south yet, but they transition to feeding on the small bait that becomes available that time of year - peanut bunker, silversides, bay anchovies, etc. Beginning in the next couple weeks, and continuing through the fall, if you can find the bait you should be able to find the fish. Smaller presentations will usually work better in these scenarios. Small spooks like the Jumpin Minnow, Game On! X-Walk 6", and Yo-Zuri TopKnock are all perfect. Soft plastics like Lunker City Slug-gos, Hogy Original 7", and Albie Snax are also great options if they're being shy to the topwater presentations. 

Good bass taken recently on an amber albie snax.

While the fluke fishing is still pretty lackluster, the black sea bass bite is great. Some days it takes a bit of extra work to find the keepers, other days it's easy. Check any rockpiles or humps in the areas you fish - they're probably there. Even a subtle 1-2 foot rise can sometimes hold a large school. Metal/Epoxy jigs are great for finding them and catching numbers. However, they're often magnets for the smaller fish around. To cull out some bigger fish, try using a decent-sized soft plastic. Paddletails like the JygPro Swym and NLBN 5" are both great options. Straight tails like the Hogy Original 7" and RonZ 6" or 8" will also help cull out some bigger fish. If that doesn't work, you may just have to bounce around to different pieces of structure in the area. Eventually, you'll run into some bigger sea bass.