Early fall fishing in New England

Being a former midwest fisherman now living in Massachusetts, I love to share fishing stories from this area.

Headed out this morning with my oldest son to have some fun with local bluefish on light tackle (we live in Massachusetts). If any of you ever get out to New England from May through Oct, you have to find time for some in-shore fishing.

Today we headed south about 30 minutes to Narragansett Bay. This bay is in RI and can be an ideal fishery in spring early summer and then again in the fall. It has a half-dozen rivers that feed into it, deep commercial traffic channels which provide 20+ miles of structure, good incoming and outgoing tidal currents, expansive flats, and good protection from anything other than a strong wind directly out of the south.

In the late spring and early summer, this bay is loaded with Striped Bass feasting on crabs, sea worms and other no fish things. Starting in mid August, the juvenile hearing start to pour out of the rivers and flood the bay with bait. Warm water + a ton of bait = fantastic bluefish fishing.

We launched at a state park in the upper bay (near Providence RI) where the Providence River meets Narragansett Bay. In about 4 hours we landed over 50 bluefish from 4-11 lbs. On light tackle (well…light saltwater tackle, which is basically med-heavy to heavy freshwater gear), it is an absolute blast.

Bluefish like to get under schools of bait and then push them to the surface. Additionally, the birds get in on the fun too since the bluefish conveniently pushed the bait to the surface. The result is absolute mayhem. Picture your boat in the water in the middle of an acre of fish busting bait at the surface while a hundred or so birds are flying all over diving into the boiling water occasionly for a snack. This locally known as a bluefish “blitz”. The same thing can occur with Stripers, Tuna and other migratory fish that frequent the New England waters.

This is the perfect time of year to take the kids for some fast action. Tie on a 7″ Rapala of any color, instruct them on how to safely launch it and have them real it in. The first timers usually ask me at this point “how will I know when I hook a fish?”. I usually smile and tell them to pay attention carefully because they bite very softly. Then when their arms get yanked away from their body, it is all they can do to hang on for the first blistering run.

I apologize for the quality of this picture, but I had to try to capture the image on the fishfinder. I have never seen schools so big on the fishfinder. We stayed on this school most of the morning. It had to be 75′ wide and 250’+ long. We could motor around them like the fish were an island. It was solid fish from half way down until the bottom. This is a school of bluefish just hanging at the mouth of the river to gorge themselves on 3″ bait. There were 1000s of fish in this school.

My son had an absolute blast and I had a blast watching him have a blast.

Hope you enjoy a little different fishing report.

Dan

Wow! Thanks Dan! That was awesome!

Good report

Looks like a ton of fun!

Very cool report

Just returned from 2 weeks of fishing in New England as well. My time was spent inland on the Conneticut River. What an awesome fishery it is. Huge bass, walleyes and panfish like you cant imagine!

Ahhhhh, blues….what a blast. Almost as much fun as dolphin on light tackle. I miss the ocean. Thats what 20 years in the Nav will do to yah.

Funny you should mention Dolphin, because the warmer water has extended farther north this year, they are getting Dolphin not far from here. I have never caught one, but I hear they are very fun.

The CT river is a great fishery. With the quality of the ocean fishing in New England, the freshwater lakes/rivers don’t tend to get a lot of pressure in the summer. Ice fishing is very popular. CT has had an extensive stocking program for walleyes and Northern Park for years. The results are really show and these fish are starting to get the attention they deserve. Maine is an uproar over those “pesky” muskies. They were stocked years ago and over time have spread throughout a large region of southern Maine. The locals feel that the musky will eat all of the local trout. There is no minimum length at this time which is a shame.

Thanks for the comments folks.

Thanks for sharing Dan!!

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Hope you enjoy a little different fishing report.

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I enjoyed the report. Just one thing….can we call it a late summer report instead? You still have 71 degree water. You know how long the winters are over here!

Dan, do you guys keep those fish? Any good to eat? Just curious.

-J.

I wish I could call it late summer, but these fish migrate like clockwork and they have started their fall migration. Fortunately, it will continue through mid October.

Most people prefer other species to eat, but some really like the taste of Bluefish. The meat is has an oily feel to it and a stronger taste than varieties that have white flaky meat. The key to these critters is to bleed them before after you boat them and before you put them on ice. A little seasoning and throw them on the grill. Good stuff!

That area I was fishing tends to stay warm well into Sept. The in-shore ocean water fifteen miles to the east of this area is 57 degrees.