OK, don't believe, but we're 15 minutes from Providence, RI, New England's second largest city just south of Boston ( 4 million +) and not that far north of the NY metro jungle (18 million +). The sweet spot is Narragansett Bay and here Ed-in-Chief Todd Smith is tossing topwaters for schoolie stripers up a feeder. He's about to get clobbered. ADDITIONAL INFO Capt. Jim White is a Narragansett Bay legend and has been joined by his son Justin who now works a second boat for White Ghost Charters (401-828-9465, whiteghostcharters.com) out of Coventry, RI. Season is May-September with prime times late May-June and mid-August into September. White Ghost negotiated a special rate for anglers staying at the Coventry Hampton Inn (401-823-4041). It has a great free breakfast, all amenities, free shuttle service, is 15 minutes from the airport, a close walk to four restaurants. Capt. White meets you at the hotel for a 10 minute ride to the boat in East Greenwich Cove next to the Harborside Restaurant with wonderful seafood. Outdoor Life Online Editor
See, not a bad starter, and we hit them like that non-stop but it was syanora to the bite at this spot once the tide stopped. What you do then is ease down the creek, look for birds or look for good holding structure. Maybe try a switch in technique. Outdoor Life Online EditorWe'll start feeding them subsurface snacks now–plastic paddle tails with jig heads; weighted Fin-S-Fish; other soft plastics. Capt. Jimmy White loves plastics. He wrote a book about them and is finishing a second. Just make sure to use a loop knot to tie the things on. Outdoor Life Online EditorDelete the light house and you could be fishing freshwater bass. Work the rocks, the current sweeping past, then the grass bed behind. Pier coming up to skip baits under. Let the lures drop off flats edges. Yep, just like bigmouth bass but these striped ones fight some harder I'll tell you. Outdoor Life Online EditorWe're still wondering where the crowds are when Capt. Jim says "Nobody's bothered using the old striped bass swimming plugs around here for some time. Why wouldn't they still work?"Â You don't want to take a chance, waste your time, right? You want proof. OkÂ… Outdoor Life Online EditorSun is pretty high and we're well out in the bay and the bite has really quit. Could run outside; there'd be blues, stripers and who knows what all there now, but the swells are sickening after the storms– no fun even in Jim's big Triton. So we'll find fish by trolling; trolling what? No, not the plugsÂ…. Outdoor Life Online EditorYes, the dreaded worms""bloodworms and sandworms, horrid things that gush when you impail them and if you hold one too long baiting up it'll extend fierce nippers from its probiscus and sink 'em into your hand. Hurt wicked, draw blood, too. But the stripes love them, love their eel-like configuration and stink. Outdoor Life Online EditorHook the worms a couple times through on the aft hook of a tube rig. Jim's tubes aren't longer than two feet. Some guys use them way longer. You get the worm stink and writhing and the tube's lively farandol""more moves than Enron's Fastow""and the bass think it's eels on steroids. Outdoor Life Online EditorThe tubes start finding fish. Heck, the guys even let me catch a fish before having to go back to baiting duty. Tube rigs; they're so effective they outta be outlawed. Especially if you let Capt. Jimmy fish them. Outdoor Life Online EditorSee what I mean? What a fish. Wouldn't I love to have nailed her on a topwater Slug-Go or even better a big grocery fly. Jimmy says come back. Stripers, blues, alibies, bonito, weakfish, bluefin tuna. Outside the bay are cobia, dolphinfish, lotta makos, too. Crazy. Oh, we caught bluefish, too. That's another story. Outdoor Life Online EditorSee what I mean? What a fish. Wouldn't I love to have nailed her on a topwater Slug-Go or even better a big grocery fly. Jimmy says come back. Stripers, blues, alibies, bonito, weakfish, bluefin tuna. Outside the bay are cobia, dolphinfish, lotta makos, too. Crazy. Oh, we caught bluefish, too. That's another story. Outdoor Life Online Editor
Angling legend Jerry Gibbs, accompanied by his boss, editor-in-chief Todd Smith, chased stripers near Providence, R.I. Nothing beats a calm day on the water, especially when the bite is on. Check out their tactics and see the catch.
