What’s Biting in April in Rhode Island?
Sea-Liced Schoolies Arrive
It’s time for Rhode Island anglers to dust off their saltwater gear and put a bend in the rod once again. Our beloved striped bass return this month, ending a long winter in the minds and hearts of striper fanatics. Expectations are low and the goal is often simple this time of year: connect with the first migratory bass of the season.
Most anglers consider reports of “sea-liced” bass as the definitive marker that migratory fish have arrived. Sea lice are small parasitic crustaceans that inhabit the cold water of the open ocean and are adhere to fish that have spent their winters south of New England and then traverse the ocean on their journey north. The lice are intolerant of the relative warmth and lower salinity of inshore water and quickly die off once bass enter those environs.
Finding the first migratory fish on the oceanfront usually requires a few misses before finding success. To increase your chances of success, pull up a map and find large points and breakwaters that bass have to navigate around as they travel the coastline. The first wave of fish is usually in the 12- to 20-inch size-class, and slot-class fish will begin to appear in the following weeks.
The schools of bass on the oceanfront quickly inundate warmer backwater areas as the month goes by. Narragansett Bay is the largest estuary in New England and functions as a bass magnet in the early season. Expansive mud flats and other protected dark-bottomed areas warm up quickly in the spring sun, so water temperatures can become 5 or even 10 degrees warmer than the oceanfront. These higher temperatures encourage the growth of phytoplankton and quickly draw in food sources like squid and baitfish. Every ebb tide flushes this warm water and bait toward the cool oceanfront and attracts passing schools of bass.
I like to use the lightest tackle I can get away with this time of year. Rods from 7 to 9 feet are all appropriate, depending on the water you are fishing. A lighter-action rod that can load up with a half-ounce jighead is essential. This is also a great time for both the novice and experienced fly angler to pick up a fly rod. The large amount of bait and bass that enter rivers, salt marshes, and back bays brings these fish within fly-casting range. The subtlety of a neutrally buoyant fly is also a huge advantage when chasing finicky fish in skinny water. Even if you are not an avid fly angler, learning the finesse game of fly fishing can help your conventional game more than you think. The reduced casting distance forces you to dissect your favorite spots and look at them in a more detailed way. Fly selection should be kept just as simple as lure choice. A few standby patterns, like Clousers and Deceivers, work just fine.
After the novelty of the first schoolies has worn off, we begin the hunt for bigger fish. This requires a slight change in tactics, mainly in the form of bigger-profile baits and hitting the night shift. Get the dust off your surf stick and get reacquainted with the night. It’s also time to start testing different tides and conditions at your spots. Often, patterns that emerge with smaller fish in April can show up again later in the season with larger bass.
The early season is also a great time to refamiliarize yourself with your favorite spots. The pounding force of winter storms can have drastic effects, especially on soft, sandy structure. Before you embark on a night shift, check out the area during the day and observe how the surf breaks and tidal currents have evolved over the long winter. Finding schools of large bait like adult bunker and herring is a great way to find big fish early in the season. They often stage outside river mouths before pushing into their spawning grounds. When timed correctly, you can come across some of the most incredible fishing of the spring when big pre-spawn bass feed voraciously on these large baitfish.
No two spring migrations are the same. Variables like storms, tides, and wind patterns all play roles in the timing and quantity of the first arrivals, so every April is truly unique. Some years, we see a trickle of fish that grows through the end of the month, while in other years, thousands of schoolies invade the oceanfront and the bay before reports have time to get out.
April is important to anglers, but it is also critical for the survival of the striped-bass population. It is imperative that spawning bass can return to their home rivers and find suitable spawning conditions. These conditions are linked to a tangled web of variables like winter snowfall, temperature, and water quality. Much of it is out of our direct control as anglers, but there are meaningful changes we can make to help preserve the juvenile fish we do have. Switching to single hooks and practicing responsible handling techniques decreases mortality rates and helps ensure that future generations can experience the beauty of the spring run for decades to come.
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Source: https://onthewater.com/whats-biting-in-april-in-rhode-island
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