Striped bass blitz holds strong as Narragansett Bay clears post-storm

What's biting

What's next

With the new moon pushing bigger tidal swings this week, the moving water around today's tides is worth building a trip around: a low near 1:16 AM EDT at the Bay's mouth gives way to a high around 8:06 AM, with the upper bay cresting a few minutes later before running back out to an early-afternoon low near 1:38 PM. That incoming morning tide lines up well for breachway and beach striper fishing.

False albacore look to be a closing window rather than a building one — Saltwater Edge says albies have "moved off for now," while Snug Harbor Marina is still marking them, along with green bonito, around the windmills south of Block Island. Tautog should keep firming up as the Bay finishes clearing from last week's storm and water keeps cooling toward the low 60s; Quonnie Bait and Tackle and Snug Harbor Marina both report plenty of action mixed in with the short fish right now.

Context

This is peak fall-run timing for Narragansett Bay. Striped bass push hard through the Bay and along the south shore in October as bait clears out of the salt ponds, and tautog typically take over as the cooler-water fishery once temperatures settle into the low 60s and keep dropping, which matches both stations' readings today. False albacore and bonito are normally a closing fishery by mid-October, not an opening one, so their fade fits the usual seasonal pattern rather than anything unusual this year.