Last year was an above-average season on nearly all fronts!
As we put away our gear and patiently wait for the upcoming spring, it’s the perfect time to reflect on Rhode Island’s 2021 season. After spending 150 days on the water running Sara Star Charters with my father and fishing with friends every chance I got, it’s safe to say the 2021 season was far from average. It produced “magical” days for many, including myself. From those early May stripers to the last fall tog, last year was a season to remember in Rhode Island.
Stripers & Squeteague
One of the biggest surprises of the season came early in the form of an influx of weakfish. Reports poured in from all over Rhode Island, but the hotspot seemed to be Narraganset Bay and many anglers were able to catch their first-ever weakfish. The best bite came in late May, I remember a day fishing with Capt. Joey from Woozy Fishing where nearly every cast resulted in a weakfish hookup. The fish stayed deep and hit everything from soft plastics with a jighead to weighted flies, they also showed no real preference in color, but I had great results using white or pink. High tide seemed to produce the best action for us, but results varied by location. I talked to Capt. Joey about what he thought might be in store for next season and he said, “They were better than ever last year. Then this year, it was unbelievable. So yes, if that’s a trend, they should be better next year.” It’s hard to know for sure what will happen next year, but it is obvious weakfish have made a huge comeback in 2021.
The spring of 2021 also surprised us with some of the biggest striped bass I’ve seen that early in the season. Narragansett Bay produced fish up to 60 pounds with many fish in the 25- to 35-pound range. The bite began the third week of May and lasted into June before moving out front. Most of my spring was spent fishing for stripers up the Bay with Woozy Fishing. Sometimes the bite was early, many days leaving the dock at 3:30 a.m., if I wasn’t late. My biggest striper of the season was caught in the dark before the sun came up, measuring 47 inches and weighing 42 pounds. Pogie schools filled the Bay, so bait was never hard to find, but sometimes was hard to catch. Filling up on bait was crucial to being able to keep up with those sometimes-pesky bluefish. Trolling or drifting live pogies were the two most popular methods, with a few lucky anglers catching on topwater plugs like the Doc. Weighted and unweighted rigs were both producing however I noticed unweighted rigs produced more bluefish than bass, sometimes it was just the day. Perhaps you could say the spike in large striped bass during the spring of 2021 is a sign that the slot limit is working, with more people practicing conservation on Rhode Island’s most beloved fish. Either way, it is encouraging to see, and it brings hope for the future of the striped bass fishery.
Tuna Time
The summer fell nothing short of a fisherman’s dream with arguably “the best local tuna bite Rhode Island has seen in 20 years” according to Capt. Rob Taylor of Newport Sportfishing Charters. School tuna flooded New England fishing grounds; Coxes Ledge and the Gully produced school tuna up to 60 pounds; with the bite kicking off in mid-June. After talking with many Rhode Island captains, most of them reminiscence on the local tuna bite, such as Capt. Tristian Raynes from Ohana Charters when he said, “Having small bluefin so close for over two months was just awesome.” With the influx of bait all summer long, school tuna came as close as the Block Island windmills. Trolling widetracker bars seemed to be working well this season while others got the thrill of using spin gear. Capt. Rob Taylor shared with me something special, a lucky few found giants within sight of land. As Capt. Rob put it, “we caught five giants within sight of home, that was pretty damn special.” Who knows if we will ever see a bite like this again, but it sure gives us something to look forward too.
A New Tog Record!
After an exceptional summer, the fall delivered in the form of an awesome tog bite, culminating with a 21.57-pounder breaking the Rhode Island state record in early November. The bite in the Bay started as early as the first week of September with fish moving into deeper water beginning in October. What was surprising this year was the quality of the fish caught. Double-digits seemed to be a regular occurrence with my biggest of the season weighing 10 pounds. You didn’t need to go far this season to find big tog. The bite in Narragansett Bay lasted into late November and produced a handful of double digits throughout the month of October.
Jigging was a popular method, with most anglers utilizing jigs weighing between 1/2 and 3 ounces. I prefer using jigs when I can, and only switch to rigs if I am having a hard time staying on the bottom. When fishing the Bay, jigs are most successful on the incoming tide, preferably on a half moon. But sometimes the bigger tog prefer stronger current, meaning you need heavier weight and a rig is a better way to deliver a crab in a strong tide.
Over the last few years Rhode Island has become a very popular place to target tautog. Although the bite has been phenomenal over the last couple of years, it’s important we preserve it for the future. A keeper-size tog, at 16 inches, is already 9 years old! These fish grow extremely slowly and with more and more people fishing for them it’s important we do our part as anglers to keep this a sustainable fishery. Practicing catch and release on all fish over 7 pounds, especially females is key to keeping Rhode Island’s tog fishery robust for seasons to come.
My final thoughts leave me feeling optimistic for what the 2022 season will bring. Whether it was a new species, a personal best, or new memory, 2021 provided us with season-long opportunities, making 2021 an unforgettable season. From the return of the weakfish to an epic tuna bite, Rhode Island had one of the better fishing seasons we’ve experienced over the last decade; maybe 2022 will be even better.
