BAY

Prudence and Patience islands continue to be best bets for anglers with boats, even in heavy wind. "We had a great time with Billy Silvia and his mate chasing down stripers up to 26 pounds in some very snotty conditions," says Nils Christensen of Ultimate Kayak Fishing, who fished aboard Can't Imagine in Tuesday's blow. "Captain Billy turned a bad weather day into a great fishing experience and put us on fish where there was not much to be found. Mount Hope Bay was barren and we ended up in front of Bear Point off Prudence Island drifting pogies high and low. The larger fish were on the surface and there were bluefish in the middle chopping up the bait on the way down."

The key is to fish among the boulder fields close to shore, says Bill "Eelman" Nolan, who consistently catches fish along the islands.

Ed Hughes caught bass on plugs at Goddard Memorial State Park this week, but the fish stayed for only a brief bite.

The activity in the Providence River has faded as the bait moves out, according to John Littlefield of Archie's Bait & Tackle and Sam Toland of Sam's Bait & Tackle. Littlefield recommends Conimicut Point, Barrington Beach, Poppasquash Point, Providence Point and the Warren River for bass. Toland suggests the west side of Prudence Island, Halfway Rock and the Newport Bridge. Wednesday, George Allen found bass while trolling wire line on the reefs off Newport. Toland weighed a 42-pound bass taken in the surf this week. He recommends fishing live or chunked menhaden.

John Viveiros of Main Bait says bass are biting in the Taunton and Sakonnet Rivers.

Small pods of bluefish are appearing here and there.

Tautog continue to bite at the railroad bridge and Stone Bridge, reminding everyone that the season is closed during June.

Scup have begun to take bait at Colt State Park and the Sakonnet River.

Fluke fishing is spotty. "The water temperature is still in the 50s," says Toland. "It needs to hit 60 to open up."

BEACHES AND SALT PONDS

Fishing continues to improve off South County beaches.

Bass are biting on the reefs in Long Island Sound, says Bill McEvoy of King Cove Outfitters. He also says that bass are biting at high tide in the Pawcatuck River, even in the middle of the day. Jim Gray of Gray's Boat Yard also recommends the Pawcatuck, where the bass tend to be larger than they are on the beaches.

Ron Mouchon says bass, including keepers, have been taking Sluggos and bucktails tipped with pork rind on the flood tide in Charlestown Breachway. Inside Ninigret Pond, the worm hatch has been "fairly decent," he says. A 25-pounder took a chunk of menhaden in the Narragansett surf Wednesday.

Fluke have been biting in 40 to 50 feet of water off the carousel in Misquamicut, says Gray, adding, "The experienced guys have no trouble catching their limits." To the east, Mouchon weighed fish as heavy as 7 pounds this week. Al Conti of Snug Harbor Marina says fluke fishing "is not red-hot, but it's more than adequate." He recommends the waters off Carpenter's Beach and Green Hill.

Both Conti and Mouchon note that tautog fishing is better than it normally is along the rocks off Matunuck. The season closes during June.

PARTY BOATS

Fluke fishermen leaving the Lady Frances were carrying heavy coolers Wednesday. "Many anglers had four and five nice keepers apiece," said Frank Blount, skipper of the fleet. The catch included several jumbos as large as 8 pounds, and several fish in the 4- to 5-pound range. "The last hour of the trip featured some of the best action yet this year, with fish hitting various types of rigs rather aggressively," he said. "Today was the best day of the season so far and we look for the action to only build from here. Tandem-bait rigs and hi-lo rigs were top producers today, but all methods were producing good fish."

BLOCK ISLAND

Bass are biting near Southwest Ledge and off the north end of the island, says Al Conti.

FRESHWATER

"We fished the Blackstone River on Tuesday night, and the hatch was on big time," says Ed Lombardo. We started at about 4:30, and small tan caddis in sizes #18 and #16 were all over the river. Fish were rising from the time we got there to when we left at 9 p.m. I did see Blue-Winged Olive spinners in size #18, and a lot of small midges, tan in color. The fish liked our offerings of deer-hair caddis patterns with tan wings and dark-olive or black bodies. Elk-hair patterns worked as well in #18 and #16. The best presentation was down and across stream or straight downstream into the rising fish. Later on into the night, about 8:30, the small Black Caddis started to emerge, and fish started feeding on them. The Black Caddis' emergence was sparse but we did manage to take a few fish on top before we left.

"Because we were fishing tan-colored caddis patterns up into dark and taking fish, what I did -- instead of changing flies -- was to color the tan fly with a black Sharpie marker."

Sam Toland says the reservoirs on Aquidneck Island are producing bass for anglers fishing with Senko worms and 10-inch Power Bait worms.

Large pike were biting on Stump Pond in Smithfield this week, said Beverly Mouradjian of Big Bear Supply.

BEST BITES

Prudence and Patience islands:

Striped bass

Sakonnet River:

Bass, tautog, possibly scup

Aquidneck Island reservoirs:

Bass

HOT BYTES

For more frequent fishing reports, go to Hot Bytes in the sports section of projo.com.

THE TIDES

The moon causes tides and affects the activity of saltwater and freshwater fish as well as animals on land. Anglers generally find the best fishing two hours before and after a high tide, but fish and other animals also become active around the time of low tide. This table shows the height of tides in feet at Castle Hill near the mouth of Narragansett Bay. Recreational shellfishermen prefer to dig for clams when the tides are lowest, shown on the chart as "minus tides."