Fishing Forecast – June New Moon

The May full moon is a time that many striped bass anglers up and down the east coast will look forward to all year long. This year here in Rhode Island, we were not let down. The full moon period brought in a significant push of big bass that have been filling into their usual haunts. The fishing in the bay has been excellent and things are starting to pick up out front as well. The weather has finally figured out that we’re almost into June and taken on our late spring/early summer pattern. Warm, breezy afternoons with calm nights and mornings. The next several weeks, most nights and early mornings should be great times to be out on the water. Also, the start of afternoon thunderstorms is a warm welcome, as they seem to create bite windows that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

A nice bass taken on the Yo-Zuri Mag Dive 6.5" last week. 

Striped Bass – The Big Girls Are In

 We got a very significant push of big bass over the full moon period. Even though there has been a major lack of bunker around in most parts of the bay, the bass are staging in the same areas the bunker shouldbe. Whether it’s their biological clock telling them where to be and when to be there, or if they know something about the bunker that we don’t, I’m not sure. Either way, make sure to check on the usual spots you’d find bass pushing bunker even though they are still AWOL. Big spooks are still the name of the game. The Doc is always a go-to. That said, I’ve been really liking the Yo-Zuri Mag Dive. In my opinion, it has the perfect rattle – loud enough to get their attention but not obnoxious. It will dip and dive erratically, especially if you work it aggressively. A nice smooth, but quick retrieve will walk it more like your typical spook. Speaking of typical spooks, some mid-size options include the Game On! X-Walk 6”and Lil’ Doc. For the fly rodder, there are still some cinder worm bites happening with jumbo bass mixed in with the usual schoolies. We have several good worm flies at the shop to try and convince them, check them out here.

 Jumbo bass taken on a pink GT eel matched with a 10/0 Titan Diver Hook. 

With the lack of bunker around, live eels and eel-like soft plastics have been doing really well. The Gravity Tackle Eel has been my MVP since the full moon period. I’ve always liked to throw them either weightless or on jigheads depending on the situation. Recently, I’ve been really loving the BKK Titan Diver hooks. The 10/0 has been working great on big bass. The belly weights are interchangeable, so you can quickly go up or down in weight without having to change hooks or plastics. Other big soft plastic options include the classic Lunker City Slug-go, Hogy Original 10”, and Game On! Duratech Eels.The Fish Snax Super Snaxare a slightly different style and profile, but similar and will work in the same scenarios. All of the above can be thrown weightless, on a jighead, or the Titan Diver.

The SWE's Tyler King with a very nice start to his fluking season.

Cooler-Filling Season 

Aside from striped bass, fishing for our summer species is just starting to pick up. The bluefish are here in force, residing on flats and in coves/bays chasing just about anything that swims. Most of the time, they will crush any of the spooks discussed for the bass. Or any topwater for that matter. Look into some pencil poppers too, like the Tsunami XD Talkin’ Popper, Cotton Cordell Pencil Poppers, and Yo-Zuri TopKnock Pencil Popper. The weakfish bite has improved over the past two weeks, although it still doesn’t seem to be quite as good as last spring. Small soft plastics on light jigheads are always the best bet. Straight tails like the Zoom flukeor Gulp! Jerk Shad are tough to beat. Grub tailsseem to work really well on the weakies too. The tautog season is closing for the next two months, but things are just heating up for several other good-eating fish. Fluke fishing is starting to get going in the bay with a handful of nice keepers reported the last week or so. They will eat the plastics discussed for the weakfish. Gulp!and/or Bucktailsare always a fan favorite for the flatties as well. Scup fishing is starting to really improve all over the bay. They are willing to hit just about anything that moves, but they have relatively small mouths, so keep that in mind. Small metal jigs and epoxy jigswork really well. They also respond really well to bait if you can get your hands on worms, clams, or squid. Black sea bass fishing is picking up and only going to keep getting better. They’ve been on structure out front grabbing live eels meant for striped bass. They will readily eat most soft plastics and bucktails.Some big sea bass make their way up the bay this time of year, so don’t be surprised to see them as far north as Providence. It’s also nice to see blue crabs coming out more with the climbing water temps in the backwaters.