Narragansett Bay Striped Bass Fishing: Catch and Release

When fishing for springtime Providence river stripers you may want to narrow your search by finding bait (pogies). Remember, the bait is always on the move, with bass in close proximity. Certain locations may have tons of bait one day and be devoid of life the next.

It's a good idea to keep in mind that although the main Providence shipping channel is very deep, and at times can hold fish, make certain to check out old dock pilings, rockpiles, humps, ridges, river mouths, rips and channels, and don’t hang around if you’re not marking fish on your sounder or hooking up. 

Try another spot. Hot spots can change on a daily or even hourly basis during the spring, so move around.

Striped bass are considered by many to be a true game fish; but are actually very good eating. Once my freezer is well stocked with keepers, I will start catch and release fishing. Here is a few 32-34" fish I caught slow trolling live pogies in the Providence river.

Man, it just makes you feel so good inside, when you release a couple of these bad boys.

I love these fish and would like to see more of them around. (Maybe if R.I. left more pogies in the bay their numbers would multiply).

I know I'm bitching now, BUT...

I have heard reports of the commercial pogie boats, around prudence island, taking pogies before they even get up into the Providence and Seekonk rivers.

I want to know when is Rhode Island going to learn. If they left more pogies in the bay to do their thing, they would not only have have a "world class striper fishery" on their hands, but a cleaner bay!

And any fishery which draws people from around the country, or the world for that matter, pumps a tremendous amount of money into the local economy. Just look at the Florida Keys and Cape Cod, to name a few!

Nuf said... thanks for reading and watching my stuff!!!!! Leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you guys - especially the guys who fish the river!

Paul Beaudette - THE CRAZY POGIE

Atlantic Menhaden the Most Important Fish in Narragansett Bay

In the Months of May and June, live lining a Pogie (Menhaden) in the main shipping channel or around any structure is almost a sure thing in the upper bay. 

From Fields Point all the way up the Seekonk and Providence Rivers, fishing the upper bay in the spring has got to be some of the best fishing "anywhere." 

Stripers are drawn into the rivers to feed on schools of Menhaden that migrate into the bay in spring. "Find the bait...find the fish" as the saying goes. 

But this great fishing could be in jeopardy. Rhode Island still allows a Menhaden commercial vessel to take Menhaden in the bay, even though commercial fishing for them is banned in the state.

In my opinion there should be no pogie fishing in the bay at all, if you can't snag a livey to liveline, you have to buy dead menhaden at the bait shop, and there is nothing better than a fresh, live pogie when fishing for strippers and blues. 

Leaving the pogies in the bay would create a fishing tourist industry, similar to Cape Cod or the Florida Keys. Adding up to billions for the state in fishing tourism dollar!

Besides being the primary diet for just about all of our food and game fish in the Atlantic and the Gulf coasts, they clean our bays and estuaries - talk about important!!!

Pogies are filter feeders that live on phytoplankton. Dense schools of menhaden, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands, migrate through ours waters to feed on plankton and detritus. An adult menhaden can filter up to four gallons a minute.  Purging particles that cause turbidity, this filtering cleans the water, allowing sunlight to penetrate and encourage the growth of plants that release oxygen and provide a healthy habitat for fish and shellfish.

Menhaden has long been an important part of our history, they were vital to the first settlers of North America and the development of American agriculture and industry. For most of the 20th century, Menhaden provided the largest catch of any U.S. fishery, exceeding all other fish combined - talk about OVERFISHING!! 

Menhaden clean our estuaries and bays, playing an essential dual role in marine ecology on a scale perhaps unmatched anywhere.

With another great filter feeder, the oyster, near extinction in many of our bays and estuaries by overfishing and pollution, menhaden are left as the only check on deadly phytoplankton explosions. Marine biologist Sara Gottlieb, author of a study on Menhaden's filtering capability, compares them with your own liver: "Just as your body needs its liver to filter out toxins, ecosystems also need those natural filters. "Overfishing menhaden, she says,"is just like removing your liver."

Atlantic Menhaden have nearly been driven to extinction. In summers, schools used to migrated through New England and up to the Canadian border, since the early 90's no large schools of menhaden were observed north of Cape Cod. As government regs were imposed on our food and game fish, most states banned menhaden fishing, except for two, North Carolina and Virginia, most of our commercial catch comes out of the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake, a tidal estuary that once produced more seafood than any body of water on earth, is ecologically a disaster. 

With the lack of Oyster's available, menhaden partners in filtration, the Chesapeake is literally choking with overgrowths of phytoplankton creating dead  zones. Menhaden conservation makes sense, with little hope of the oysters return, Menhaden are critical to the health of our bays and estuaries.

Leaving "natures vacuum cleaners" alone to clean our bays would serve a dual purpose, cleansing the bay and feeding fish.

It would definitely help R.I. tourism industry - I can see it now ! 

Come fish Rhode Island... Home of the Worlds Best Striper Fishing!!! 

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