The striper fishing has really turned on. Stacks of slot and even over slot bass are being taken in Narragansett bay. I have been catching a lot of stripers on basically any type of soft plastic lure, and I know charter boats have been crushing stripers with flutter spoons.
One of many striped bass I have caught using the Elias Shad, a great soft plastic for spring stripers
However most of the action seems to be up in the bays where the warm water is (typical for May). I have been shore fishing a few times on the oceanfront and had to work very hard for a handful of small schoolies. If you want to catch striped bass, fish the bay in May!
I also tried for tautog recently, but ended up finding a pile of black seabass. A welcomed sight, but that season is currently closed and it seems like all of the blackfish have also pushed into the bays while the sea bass currently dominate the oceanfront.
This was the biggest sea bass of the trip. However most were under 10 inches… quite annoying when you are trying to catch tog
