In one trip I caught my first two tautog and migratory striped bass in Rhode Island for the 2024 season. I was out on April 19th, but I have heard of guys finding fresh fish as early as April 15th. I was further up in the bay on my kayak, and the water temps were showing 50-52 degrees which is when the tog should start chewing. The blackfish bite was slow, but after a few hours I landed two of them both around 14 or so inches.
Since the tog bite was lackluster, I decided to chase after some striped bass and it was definitely the highlight of the trip. I was trolling a small blue Rapala X Rap (an excellent early season/holdover striped bass lure) and was hooked up within the first 5 minutes.
One Of Many Schoolie Bass Landed On The Troll
Most of the stripers were schoolie sized and I was thinking they may have been holdovers, but one striper that came up had definitive lice on it’s tail, an obvious size that it was a “fresh” migratory fish. The fish are here… game on.
