It was one of the few instances when a government agency, looking for a location to dump fill or dispose of refuse from a project actually created something positive. The exact dates and history of this project are not known but as a boy I recall rowing out to the island with the waterman from the Yacht Club less than two miles away to dig clams and fish for winter flounder. With two power plants and a large fuel depot upriver a major dredging project was initiated to deepen and widen the channel to accommodate larger coal and fuel barges. One of my mentors was a government dock builder who said the barges set up ranges and dumped mud, sand, and rocks in a pile well out of the shipping channel. From there nature took over.
Today there are fine sand beaches, a cut between two islands that forms a fast running rip and several piles of rocks that attracted growth and provided ambush points for stripers, tautog and at one time winter flounder. Spar island is located in Mt Hope Bay, west of the Tiverton shoreline and just east of the mouth of the Kikimuit River. At one point an enterprising individual used the pilings set there to tie off barges and expanded that area to erect a shack of sorts to live in and sell food and drinks to boaters trafficking the bay.
I recall the base of the building grounded there but the selling of food and drink was before my time. The island has been divided into two sections with a shallow passage in the middle. The western half contains almost all of the rocks with a few underwater at low tide and others visible on high tides. That shoreline provides some excellent casting for stripers and on several occasions it was one of the first locations we caught squeteague, and the first bluefish of the season. Stripers set up in and around the rocks and it’s not unusual, particularly in the spring, to find breaking bass from the red nun buoy to the shore as they trap baitfish up against the south shore of the island. The north face of the island drops off to about 12 to 14 feet with a few humps and sloughs 50 yards out from the shore where we have tubed up stripers to 34 pounds. One of our clients who was new to the area had purchased a new Twin Cat hull asked us to show him around the bay. Of all the productive places in the bay, Spar Island became his favorite. He has emailed me photos of stripers from teen to 20-pounders he caught on the tube and worm. His trophy was a 12-pound weakfish caught on a trolling plug.
The extreme western point of the island drops off quickly and depending on winter storms falls off from 12 to 24 feet and sets up a visible rip on both incoming and outgoing tides. I have cast 3-ounce bucktails and five-inch shads into those depths and have been rewarded with stripers up to 28 pounds and it is one of the most productive locations to troll the tube and worm or live baits. The best times to fish this location are early mornings and evenings because those sand beaches provide a break from the waves set up by a southwest wind. In summer that makes it a great spot for boating and bathing families who take advantage of the warm shallow waters. The westernmost island is also a roosting area for seagulls, cormorants, a few colorful laughing gulls, and a breeding population of terns. The Rhode Island Audubon Society annually sets up protective stakes and with grid lines to prevent the gulls from raiding the nests and devouring the young terns.
Every spring Mt. Hope Bay has been the destination for huge schools of menhaden pursued by schools of stripers of various year classes. Over the past two years we have enjoyed some world class topwater action as stripers pushed pogies up against the north shore of the westernmost island. On one occasion we beached our skiff (away from the nesting birds) on the inside sand and walked over the berm and surf-casted into the melee without spooking the bass with the engine or the shadow of the boat. It was much easier releasing fish in the shallow water without having to lift them into the boat. It’s a great place, with very little pressure.
