Fall run builds in Narragansett Bay as storm clears, tautog season nears

What's biting

What's next

With the storm expected to clear early this week, Snug Harbor Marina and Quonnie Bait and Tackle both expect boaters sidelined by rough seas to be back on the water within days. Frances Fleet and Booked Off Charters, per The Fisherman — Rhode Island, plan to resume trips as conditions improve, with tautog season opening October 1 and black sea bass action building alongside it into fall. The colder nights and northerly winds Saltwater Edge Blog is tracking should also help kick the surf striper bite into gear after a slow September.

Today's low tide falls in the mid-afternoon, close to 4 PM at both bay stations — worth fishing the last two hours of the ebb and the start of the flood in the breachways, where stripers have been holding. With the moon past full and waning toward the new phase, tide swings should ease slightly over the next few days.

Context

Late September is when Narragansett Bay's fall run typically kicks into gear, as the baitfish exodus from the salt ponds and estuaries pushes striped bass, bluefish, and false albacore onto the oceanfront. This year's push has been slower than usual, with the recent nor'easter adding a further delay, but the overall timeline is on schedule for the season — tautog and black sea bass fishing traditionally strengthen through October as water temperatures keep dropping.