Freshwater fishing is the name of the game this week. It’s been difficult to locate the fish or produce a bite at times, but as we push further into march, steadily warming weather will have largemouth bass and holdover stripers feeding more actively.
Largemouth bass are going to begin feeding heavily over the coming weeks and they’ll be the most popular freshwater target.
Will from Big Bear Hunting and Fishing reports a little snow setback after nearly a week of mild conditions. But, they have sold out of bait for bass fishing, and they are focused on getting customers rods and reels cleaned up for 2022; they’ll be teaching a reel cleaning class on the second Thursday of April (4/14). Right now through the remainder of March, Big Bear is selling all of their ice fishing gear for 20% off. As we near the 2022 season, they look to host more Fishing Tournaments using Fishing Chaos, and assembling a fishing team!
Dustin Stevens from Rhode Island Kayak Fishing Adventures says the freshwater bite has been hit or miss over the past week due to the constantly changing weather conditions, but patience prevails. Dustin has been finding bass willing to eat even on slow days. In warmer weather, Dustin is finding fish in shallower areas where the fish have easy access to deeper water; he says he’s fishing slowly along bottom, near ledges and drop-offs, where the fish are staged up in schools often times.
This weekend, Rhode Island Kayak Fishing Adventures will be at the New England Saltwater Fishing Show located inside the Kayak Centre booth. Stop by Dustin’s booth to sign up for a free kayak fishing trip giveaway, and chat with him about taking a guided trip before stripers make their way north!
The Frances Fleet out of Narragansett reports: “Captain Cole and crew were happy to be back on the water after a very windy winter. We had a great group of anglers who have tried us week after week and wanted to break the cabin fever. The whale zone is still in place so to maximize fishing time by fishing the local wrecks and rock piles. The weather was amazing and we were excited. We set the hook to start the day off but with zero wind we couldn’t stay tight. We bounced around spot to spot all day and found a few fish here and there but over all it was slow. Fishing should only improve as the weather gets nicer.”
Rhode Island Fishing Forecast
With wreck fishing nearly available again, anglers who have been itching to get on a boat and put some fish in the cooler can look ahead with promise. It’s been a long winter, and if you’re like much of the OTW team, you’ve gone through the last of the stash. A wreck trip is a great way to start off the spring with a group of friends.
Largemouth fishing will continue to heat up and striped bass are already actively feeding in salt ponds. If you can find the bait, you can find the fish. It may be difficult to trick stripers into feeding once they’re located, but try downsizing paddletail swimbaits and slowing down the retrieval even more than fathomable. Often times, striped bass will pick up a lure sitting relatively inactive if it’s in the right place. This time of year, striped bass and freshwater bass are mainly opportunistic feeders, and will only make the effort for a meal if there appears to be minimal risk or energy exertion. A kayak with a fishfinder is an anglers best friend when bass fishing in salt or freshwater during the spring season.
With fishing in mind: we hope to see many of you this weekend at the New England Saltwater Fishing Show hosted by the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association ! Drop by the On The Water booth to pick up a magazine, sign up for Striper Cup or just talk fishing.