This is the fifth in a series of 2008 saltwater-fishing forecasts for Rhode Island waters.

Forecasts for Narragansett Bay, South County, Block Island and Long Island Sound are available with other outdoor news at projosports.com.

MIDDLETOWN — Anglers planning a fishing vacation should mark the calendar for the last two weeks of May and the first two weeks of June.

That’s the time when slugs of 20-pound stripers pour into Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay, says Peter Graeber, manager of The Saltwater Edge and a hard-core surf fisherman.

If you’re looking for bonito and false albacore, they generally arrive around the first week of August.

Last year was the best Graeber has seen for bonito and “albies.”

“They were on baby bunker, silversides, you name it — whatever was in the water,” he says. “They were coughing up squid — everything. They were ravenous. That intensity lasted through the second week of September.”

Generally, school-size stripers arrive in Newport around April 10, Graeber says. Then, migratory menhaden — also called “bunker” or “pogies” — arrive ahead of the big bass in May.

Last season was unusual, because large schools of menhaden stayed in the Bay for an unusually long time, and the bass stayed with them.

“In the Bay, there were fish all season long,” he says, “but that stretch into early June was really good. I generally start to shift toward Rhode Island Sound around that time.”

On the reefs from Jamestown to Westport, Graber says, “It felt like it has for the last few years: Fish come in waves. If you can dial them in, you’ll do well. Otherwise you’ll find a lot of quiet stretches of water, especially when it gets real hot in late August. It was real tough for stripers” last season.

The arrival of bonito and false albacore compensated for the dearth of summer bass.

With the bonito and “albies” were bluefish in a range of sizes.

In contrast, Long Island Sound had only scattered pods of bonito and “albies.”

“They were all here,” Graeber says, “every last one of them.”

The fish were here through the second week of October, he remembers.

Autumn was disappointing for many striper anglers.

“It was like a lot of the recent falls,” he says. “Striper fishing was marginal. The concept of a fall run was minimal.”

“The guys who were fishing at night picked up some bigger fish, of course, but a lot of fish never made it to the Westport-Newport area.”

“We intercepted a lot of good fish going through the [Cape Cod] Canal, but we kind of lost them after that. We can only assume that they ran out along the islands. They didn’t hug the shore.”

Like their counterparts in South County, Block Island and Long Island Sound, fishermen on Rhode Island Sound saw the season end abruptly by the first of November.

“After that, it was distinctly quiet,” says Graeber.

Looking back, fishermen on Rhode Island Sound took several bass in the 40-pound class, Graeber says, “but there weren’t any truly big fish. They may have been sucked into the Bay. It’s hard to say.”

Looking ahead, Graeber says, “Regardless of whether we get those schools of bunker again, May and early June are always good for the Bay. That’s a great time to fish, and a lot of people overlook it. There may not be any 40-pound fish then, but there are plenty of 20-pound-plus bass. That happens every year.

“There’s herring, there’s squid, there’s plenty to eat out there. May is a great time to get out there for those 15- to 30-pound fish.”

tmeade@projo.com