Albies continue to tear up the Southern New England Coast 
The albies have returned and seem to be making up for the past few years where they’ve been scarce around Rhode Island, at best. Inshore light tackle and fly anglers that have been on the water in the past 2 weeks have enjoyed the best albie fishing that has occurred around here in many years. While the albies often displace the bonito, the bones have stayed in the area as well and some anglers are catching just as many of these tasty fish as they are false albacore. On many days these fish have fed from dawn to dusk, only taking a brief pause around the slack tides.
As great a year as it has been so far for these inshore speedsters, they have been very frustrating for many anglers. The fish were feeding on miniature bait and also the boat pressure has changed them since they arrived. Many schools require a stealthy approach, and sometimes won’t even tolerate a flyline over them. Anglers even had incidents where just a piece of metal landing in the middle of the school caused the fish to instantly sound. Speaking loudly as you approached the school was often enough to send them down into the depths. Stay quiet, minimize the run and gunning, and possibly most importantly try and find albies eating bigger bait. They’ll usually be much more willing to eat if they’re focused on larger bait.
Albies running scared
On the fly we’ve been throwing
Dave Skok’s Whitebait Mushy at albies and bones that are on smaller bait. On spin we’ve had success with a variety of offerings, in particular the
Yo-zuri Live Bait Minnow Jig as well as the Rebel Jumpin Minnow. If you find albies that are extremely spooky try the edges of the school instead of the center. And definitely try to stay low profile in all ways around the schools.
While many of us have been distracted by the albies and bonito, the bass fishing has quietly been very consistent. Nothing particularly large, just lots of nice fish between 5 and 20 pounds. The blues continue their usual later summer routines of marauding the shoreline anywhere there are baitfish. Activity has increased throughout Narragansett Bay as well. Traditional bluefish hot spots such as Barrington Beach, Colt State Park, and Conimicut Light should turn on the next few weeks if they haven’t already.
One of many albies 
Baitfish, bunker in particular, have been numerous this year. It’s interesting that there are various size classes of bunker around, from little tiny ½” fish right up to 4 inches. There are also some schools of adults that are still exiting Narragansett Bay. If you find one of these schools, be sure to keep an eye on it. As always, big adult bunker can result in VERY big stripers and bluefish. Down towards South County the baitfish are similar, but you can throw some more big silversides in the mix as well. In some areas there have been some sardines as well. These are another fairly large baitfish, coming in around 6 inches long. Krill are around as well, tunring some areas red due to the vast amounts of these small crustaceans.
Jigging the bottom during slack tide 
Look for the albies to stay as long as the bait does, but eventually falling water temperatures or a big storm will chase them out. Water temps that scare off albies could easily be a month or further away though. We’ve heard many reports now of big bass off to the East, so look for some of these schools to be passing along the Rhode Island coast in the next week or so. Bluefish will of course be on the rampage for many weeks to come. Enjoy it while it lasts, for inshore light tackle anglers it’s about as good as it gets out there. This is an albie run that will be the benchmark for some time to come.
Jim's 9 pound bonito 
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