Narragansett Bay offers a shot at big bass and blues for the springtime kayaker.
The waters of Narragansett Bay offer a unique opportunity to catch large stripers and blues from a kayak in May and early June. These tranquil and warm waters lure a variety of baitfish in late spring that are streaming northward and the predators are right on their tails. Add the fact that these waters and their many harbors, bays and rivers are quite protected from the elements, making them ideal to fish from a kayak.
A Two-Pronged Approach
Experienced kayak fishermen often take a two-pronged approach when fishing ‘Gansett Bay in May. One approach deals with fishing in the shallow water, the warmest water, that heats up quickly from the May sun. These places are quiet and protected spots away from the main shipping channel of the Bay. These spots are usually no deeper than 5 feet, making fishing from large boats in these spots problematic. But, a kayak can easily navigate these waters. In those shallow, warm water spots you might find worms hatching, baitfish schooling and even herring running in and out of nearby streams. All of these attract big numbers of early season stripers and bluefish.
The second approach deals with fishing deeper water, the waters around the shipping channel that runs from the mouth of the Bay up to Providence. It is here that you will likely find the adult menhaden that are streaming into the Bay in massive schools at this time of year. Kayak fishermen will often work the edges of these channels or even the deep water in search of large stripers and blues that are generally under the schools of bunker.
Plugs & Plastics
I generally begin my backwater kayaking adventures in the shallow waters of Narragansett Bay. Early May will bring a mix of hefty schoolies along with slots in many of the low water coves and rivers on both sides of the Bay. This is a game of using artificals on light tackle. I like to troll at first in many of these places just to find the fish. Trolling is quite easy as I have a pedal driven Old Town Sportsman PDL 106 kayak. I usually have two light 7-foot rods in my Yak Attack Omega Pro rod holders. I like to troll both plastics and traditional plugs. My go to lure when trolling plastics is a large, unweighted fluke-style bait rigged with a swimbait hook. I also like to troll a small swimmer. The 4-inch Rapala X-Rap is my favorite. Once the fish are found, I will quickly change tactics and start casting jigs: flukes mounted on jigheads, small bucktail jigs and paddletails mounted on jigheads all work well for the early spring fish.
As the Bay waters warm up in mid-May, I turn to surface plastics and plugs. By now, the predators are a mix of stripers (usually slots and even “over slots”) and large bluefish in the 8- to 15-pound range. Recent years have seen big numbers of bluefish enter the Bay in May where they will stick around until mid-summer. Two lures work particularly well for me later in May. A Rebel Jumpin Minnow in a bone color is deadly from the kayak. This is my preferred lure when there is a mix of bass and blues. Slug-Go’s in the 7-1/2-inch length are very effective when just stripers are around, but the blues will mercilessly chop these.
Let me warn you about fishing for large blues from a kayak. There are REALLY tough to get to the yak for unhooking. I like to overplay these fish until they are very tired. When I get them near the kayak, I will grab them with a Boga Grip. Never bring these monsters into the kayak. Once in the grip, I hold them on the edge of the kayak and use pliers to unhook the plug. Note that it’s a good idea to crush the barbs on any trebles on your plug (Jumpin’ Minnow) for easy and safe unhooking. You might also consider using single hooks on the rear and front of your plugs. Last year I had a big blue right alongside the kayak that suddenly took a leap right over bow of the kayak. Lucky for me it did not land inside!
Live Feed
The other big fish approach involves fishing with adult menhaden. Schools of these prized baitfish will begin arriving in mid to late May. Find a school on the surface and almost surely there will be big fish under them. Schools can be found anywhere, but they are more likely to be found in deeper water in the mid to upper Bay. This is a heavy duty game using heavy tackle. I have a rod for snagging and a rod for fishing the bait. I use a heavy duty homemade rod with a Daiwa BG5000 reel spooled with 50-pound test mono for the snagging. My fishing rod is a heavy duty rod with a conventional Penn reel spooled with 30-pound test mono.
Once a school is found I will snap on a snagger and try to snag a bait. With no means to keep the snagged baitfish alive in my kayak, I will need to quickly unhook it from the snagger and hook it up to a circle hook on another rod to fish it. I go back and forth about hooking the bait through the mouth (under chin and up through roof of mouth) or hooking it under the dorsal fin. Other fishermen might cut up the bait and use it as chunks which also works.
While the circle hook is the law for fishing live bait, things don’t always work out that way. On many occasions last year I snagged a bait that was immediately hit as I pulled it away from the school. When that happens, you want to pull back as soon as you feel the hit. That will not allow the larger fish (maybe a striper) to swallow the bait. Note that you must release any size striper if it is hooked by mistake with the snagger. None of these rules apply if you are catching bluefish.
Just about every outing last year produced a mix of large bluefish and large stripers when I fished with menhaden. When I called the RI DEM about the legality of catching a striper on a snagger treble hook by mistake (fish takes bait right after it is snagged) even they admitted this is a “gray” area. Their suggestion was to try to get the bait to the kayak quickly and then transfer it to a circle hook.
There are some rare occasions when frenzied fish will hit a big plug when stripers and big blues are feeding on menhaden. I landed a few large stripers and blues using a large “Doc” plug. I always carry a supply of big plugs with me just in case and will usually try them when fish are around. Last year’s spring fishing in Narragansett Bay with menhaden produced some epic days for me from the kayak. In a one month period I had 200 stripers, all slots and over slots from 28 to 45 inches. Mixed in with all those stripers were good numbers of bluefish that were all in the teens.
| EASY-ACCESS BASS |
| Another beauty of kayak fishing in the Bay is easy access. You can generally launch a kayak anywhere you can park and gain access to the water. The many town beaches and parks that dot the bay shoreline are not very busy at this time and can be ideal places to launch. The many boat ramps also offer easy access. |
I think we are headed for another epic year of larger stripers and big bluefish. Narragansett Bay is one place to be in the late spring as its unique waters lure large numbers of baitfish and predators. A kayak will get you into places you can not reach from shore or with a large boat. It is also an ideal craft to chase down the schools of menhaden that almost certainly have big stripers and blues under them.
