Striped bass fishing in Rhode Island and Cape Cod

In Rhode Island and Cape Cod, striped bass peak May–June and October and are around April–November, according to Fish Scouter's month-by-month season calendar. May: The run fills in: Cape Cod Canal, the Westport and Narragansett rivers, herring runs; big fish follow the bunker.

1. JanuaryNot here
2. FebruaryNot here
3. MarchNot here
4. AprilArrivingFirst migrants into Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay late in the month; schoolies on soft plastics.
5. MayPeakThe run fills in: Cape Cod Canal, the Westport and Narragansett rivers, herring runs; big fish follow the bunker.
6. JunePeakCanal blitzes on mackerel and pencil poppers at dawn; tube-and-worm in Cape Cod Bay; Block Island at night.
7. JulyAroundGiants in Cape Cod Bay; fluke, sea bass and bonito. Giant bluefin in Cape Cod Bay and off Chatham (trophy category closes early — check HMS); bucktail fluke off Block Island and the Vineyard; bonito off Watch Hill.
8. AugustAround
9. SeptemberArrivingAlbie season — the Vineyard Derby month. False albacore on the Rhode Island beaches, Watch Hill, Point Judith and Nantucket Sound; stripers start the fall feed; the biggest bluefin of the year off the Cape.
10. OctoberPeakFall feed: the fish stage on Block Island, the Rhode Island beaches and the Elizabeth Islands before they head south.
11. NovemberLeavingLast of them leave the Rhode Island beaches.
12. DecemberNot here

Rhode Island's rocky south coast and salt ponds, Narragansett Bay, Block Island, Buzzards Bay and the Elizabeth Islands, Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds with their shoals and rips, the Cape Cod Canal, Cape Cod Bay's sand flats, and the Monomoy rips and outer Cape beaches; offshore Coxes Ledge and the southern New England canyons (Block, Atlantis, Veatch).

Fish Scouter charts 86 lake, 52 reservoir, 4 artificial reef spots in the Southern New England map area — the kinds striped bass hold on.

• Live eelsHooked through the lips on a 5/0 to 7/0 circle hook and sight-cast to a cobia or dropped to a cobia on a ray — the eel is the cobia bait.
• Menhaden (pogies)Nose-hooked on a circle hook and free-lined or slow-trolled; cut in chunks for the bottom.
• HerringCut-plug for salmon: head off at an angle, guts out, two hooks in tandem so it spins slow behind a flasher or a banana weight. Whole and live on a circle hook for stripers where the herring run.
• BloodwormsA piece threaded on a #2 to 2/0 hook on a hi-lo or fish-finder rig — the striper, spot, croaker and white perch bait of the Chesapeake and the surf.
• Sand eelsFree-lined or on a light jig head for stripers, fluke and bluefish; strips teased on a fluke rig.
• Minnows (fatheads, shiners)Hooked lightly through the lips or behind the dorsal on a #6 to #2 hook under a slip bobber for crappie, perch and walleye; a big golden shiner on a 2/0 to 4/0 for largemouth, pike and stripers.

• Leader10–20 lb fluorocarbon
• Hook#2–3/0
• Jig head1/8–1/2 oz
• Braid10–30 lb

Feeds in 42–80°F water, best at 50–68°F.

All about striped bass · Southern New England, the whole year