April Full Moon

It feels appropriate to start these forecasts with the weather, since that really drives the rest of the conversation. Particularly this time of year. The past couple weeks have brought a handful of really nice days, a couple washouts, and some days in between. All the tell-tale signs of spring are really showing themselves now. Ospreys are all over the place, feasting on a quickly growing supply of different fish and gathering brush to build up their nests. The nights are finally staying up in the 40s and 50s. Daffodils are popping and adding some very welcome color to our drab early-April landscape. The chorus of peepers are in full voice every night (at least somebody enjoys all the rain). Dandelions are growing, lawn mowers are running, and birds are singing. I could go on, but you get the idea. Spring is in the air.

Striped Bass – On the Move

A nice bass from last April's full moon. This night they were crushing anything that created a "V" wake.

Every year is a little different when it comes to the arrival of migratory striped bass. Sometimes it’s like an all or nothing, sudden wall of fish. Other years, there is a slow trickle of bass for a week or two before the “real” first push shows up. I’m not sure what drives that, but this year has definitely been the latter. Although there isn’t an abundance of bass around just yet, there’s certainly some. By the next forecast there should be liced up bass being caught everywhere in the state. The great thing about fresh arrivals, is they’re usually hungry, energetic, and willing to hit different offerings. Of course, this isn’t always the case. Minnow plugs are often one of the first things out of my bag this time of year whether the fish are picky or ready to feed. Some go-to baits for these fresh fish are the Daiwa SP Minnow, Yo-Zuri Hydro Minnow, Yo-Zuri Mag Minnow,and Nomad Shikari.I like to fish these relatively fast with several big twitches and pauses when the fish are fired up. They all have a nice enough action to slow down with a steady retrieve and get bit that way, too. If the bass are really in the mood, it’s always fun to see how early they will crush a topwater. The Rebel Jumpin Minnow is tough to beat, but other popular options include the Heddon Super Spook, Game On! X-Walk 4.5in and 6in, Yo-Zuri TopKnock Pencils, Tsunami XD Talkin’ Popper.We also have a ton of new (to us) MirrOlure products that should be perfect for the spring schoolie bonanza. Check them out Here.

The Bait 

In the last two weeks, we’ve gotten a great push of river herring. It seems almost every single osprey that flies overhead has one in its grip. By the look of things, the April herring run is in full swing. The last time I went out, I saw bass hitting herring out of the water with their tails. In that sort of situation, I like to get a big fly in the mix if I can reach them. Whether it’s a fly, plug, or plastic, it’s important for your offering to  look like a herring. It’s much more important for it to  act like a herring. The absolute best way to imitate the action of a herring is with a big weightless soft plastic or fly. My favorite plastics to throw in April are the 7” and 10”Hogy, LunkerCity Fin-S Fish,andNLBN 8” Straight Tail.When the bass are in the right mood, I’ll work these quickly across the surface almost like a spook. When they’re not, try long pauses with big twitches to simulate an injured or dying herring. Even dead drifting a weightless plastic in heavy current can be really productive. Big swimbaits are good bets this time of year too, like theBerkley Magic SwimmerandG-Ratt Sneaky Pete.Even if the bass don’t commit to it, they are likely to show themselves with a swirl or boil.

River herring making its way up one of our local runs. 

We are coming up on my favorite moon of the whole season for throwing wake baits. By that, I just mean any swimming plug that throws a “V” wake behind it. Although the full moon may make the bass wary, there will be a window where they go bonkers for herring. It’s just about being in the right place at the right time. Some of the eats under the bright April moon are so electric they’ll have you reminiscing on them nine months later while you’re sitting inside by a fireplace sipping on hot cocoa. The Cotton Cordell Red Fin Swimmers slowly crawled along the surface at night is tough to beat. On top of the herring, we also got our first push of mature bunker in the bay the past couple days, so things are due to heat up very soon.

Tautog – Moving up and in

A decent April tautog caught from the docks.

Similar to our striped friends, tautog are slowly filtering into our home waters. Rather than migrating north and south like striped bass, tautog migrate inshore after spending their winters offshore. Specifically for us in Rhode Island, they will come all the way up the bay in the next few weeks to feed and prepare for their spawn. The fishing is still slow, but there’s definitely some moving up and in. Right now, they can be found anywhere from 60+ feet of water out front, to less than 10 feet of water in the upper bay. The shallow water togging will only improve for the next few weeks as we approach May. That said, the biggest I’ve heard of so far came from about 10 feet of water in the upper bay, so it’s certainly not too early to try. I generally like to use the lightest jig I can get away with given the current and depth that I’m fishing. As long as you can get your jig to stay on bottom, you’re doing something right. Check out our selection of Tog Jigs here. For those looking for a challenge, we have a great selection of Crab Flies. We would love to see some pictures of big tog caught on crab flies this spring!