BAY

Small bass were swirling on the surface off Conimicut Point Wednesday, said David Henault of Ocean State Tackle.

Yesterday, menhaden were spotted at the mouth of the Kickemuit River, he said.

On Aquidneck Island, look for small bass at dawn and dusk along the corners of the beaches in Middletown.

Henault also reported that a few jig fishermen were catching squid in Newport this week.

The first schoolie stripers of the season are dripping into Greenwich Bay, says Kenny Ferrara of Ray’s Bait & Tackle. It will take another week of warm weather for a larger slug of fish to move in, he says. Right now, shellfishermen have been seeing swirls in the waters off Goddard State Park. After Sunday’s full moon, fish will be hitting small lures off Chepiwanoxet, the mouth of the Pawtuxet River, and along the grassy banks of the Seekonk River.

BEACHES AND SALT PONDS

Small stripers have been taking jigs and small swimming lures at the West Wall in Jerusalem, said Ron Mouchon of Breachway Bait & Tackle. He also reported that bass have moved into the Pawcatuck River.

Last year at this time, bass moved into Quonochontaug Pond, says surf fisherman “Rock Hoppin’” Mike Frank.

This is the time to look for small bass near the Joyce Family Pub in Matunuck, according to Ed Hughes.

Winter-flounder season opens on Rhode Island’s salt ponds April 26 – May 25.

PARTY BOATS

Wednesday’s cod bite was a bit slower than it was over the weekend, according to the captains of the Frances Fleet. “However, anglers managed good numbers of hake, including some real jumbos,” said Frank Blount, skipper of the fleet. “Anglers had from a few to as many as 15 nice hake apiece. Some big ocean perch and truly super-size ocean pout were mixed in as well. Nicky Blount had the largest codfish of the day with a fine fat codfish just over 10 pounds. John Wilks from New York won the pool with a nice green codfish. That same fellow jigging in the bow also snagged both mackerel and herring indicating just how thick the bait is on the local cod grounds. This is the most bait this angler has seen on the local cod grounds in nearly a decade! We feel that the codfish are swimming all over the place chasing bait. Whales could be seen throughout the day, and the codfish were spitting up sand eels.”

FRESHWATER

“We fished the Wood River on opening day and then early this week and did extremely well,” reports Ed Lombardo. “I thought that the heavy rain and thunder storm that happened early on Saturday morning would have shut things down, but just the opposite occurred and we had rising fishing most of the day. We had hatches of Black Quills (size #12 ), small winter stoneflies (size #16 and #14 gray in color ), tan caddis (size #18 & #16 ), midges and a few #10 tan mayflies that I couldn’t get a good look at to identify. The fish where feeding both just below and on top of the surface. We observed fish taking all of the insects mentioned above. The water temperature was 49 degrees and with the water level being a little high, both dry fly and emerger imitations were moving relatively fast, giving the trout less time to examine the artificials. The water level is not bad at all for wading which was how we fished the river. Both my Gray Soft Hackle in size #14 and a Burgundy Loop-Wing Emerger in size #12 worked very well. We also took fish on an Adams Parachute, size #12; Trico Spinners, size #18 and Small Tan Caddis size #18 and #16.”

On Olney Pond in Lincoln Woods State Park, trout have been taking Gulp bait, small shiners and small Kastmasters, said David Henault.

DOCK CHAT

Snug Harbor Marina in South Kingstown is opening its annual used-tackle sale over the weekend, and this year’s event will include gear from another tackle store that was scuttled, said Al Conti. 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.”

tmeade@projo.com