They’re growing – and more bunker
No matter where people are fishing there seems to be more fish, bigger fish, and more bait. Which is pretty much what should be happening as we go into the mid part of May.
Newport schoolies have grown even more, an average fish now is in the low twenty inch range with scattered keepers. The fish are now biting at all hours and are very receptive to topwaters. They’ve also spread out and the
whitewater is occupied with hungry small bass almost everywhere in town. Some of the fish are very fat, but no one has kept any to see what they’re full of. With all the squid around, it seems to be a safe bet that may be what they’re filling up on. Pencil
Poppers are considered by many to imitate squid, and they’ve been very effective for us in the suds here in town. The always deadly Jumpin Minnow taken its share as well.
We’ve even seen a couple schools of adult bunker off Newport in addition to the already full Narragansett Bay, but no fish that are truly capable of dealing with such a large bait just yet.
Narragansett Bay continues to ramp up, but as of yesterday (5.9.07) it still hadn’t busted wide open. The size and behavior of the fish in Bay has basically mirrored the ocean side so far. Any day now though all those schools of bunker are going to be in BIG trouble. Anglers have occasionally found fish on these schools, but the fish are just barely capable of eating the bunker. Keep your snag hooks and 9” Tsunami Shads close, they’ll be needed soon. Bunker are packed into many of the coves and river mouths in the Bay in numbers not seen in quite a few years. It’s a powder keg out there.
Fly anglers will find almost any fly will produce once the better fish arrive, for some reason May bass are just VERY receptive to most patterns, especially squid and bunker. We like big flys in hopes of scaring off the smaller fish. It’s great time to take time off from work or go on a charter. May is one of our favorite months for fly fishing because often it’s just so easy to catch big fish on the fly rod.
