Overall, 2025 was a year of decline in many ways. The striper fishing, especially from shore, continues on a downward and disappointing trend here in RI. Fishing for bluefish of all sizes was poor overall. The one bright spot was a good run of pelagics in the fall which got a lot of people very excited.
It was a very good year for slot fish, thoughover slot fish were in short supply from shore.Stripers- During the first half of the year, I was headed for a super poor year here in RI. It was a bad spring with few schoolies and a bad summer with a general lack of fish. But, all of a sudden out of nowhere, the fall delivered outstanding striper fishing, particularly in the daytime. Fall nights, though, were poor overall. I'm guessing the influx of huge schools of tiny bait, bay anchovies, lit up the striper fishing. That bait would stick around for two straight months. This small bait is a daytime phenomenon and it just lit up the daytime striper fishing for mostly slot and overslot fish.
In all, I landed 630 stripers in 2025, a real drop-off from just 5 or more years ago when I was consistently landing over 1,000 a year. I wish I could tell you it will get better next year, but I really think we are on a downward slide.
Schoolies- It was not good for smaller fish, particularly stripers under 24 inches. I scored my first migrating fish on April 15 along the south shore, right on schedule. But, that day I would land only one schoolie and that set the tone for a lack of fish in the spring along the oceanfront. I fished many days in some hotspots of past years and the most I could catch on my best day was a measly 10 schoolies. This poor schoolie fishing would continue into the summer and early fall along both the oceanfront and the Bay. It was not until late fall in November that we would see good numbers of schoolies. That was the last hurrah to a poor schoolie year. Grade for Schoolies- D
Slots- They were more plentiful as they now make up the bulk of the striper population. I landed my first slot in the Bay on April 24, very early by past standards. Slots were around early in the Bay due to large numbers of adult bunker that also arrived early (but also left early). The Bay was good (not great) for me for slots from late spring through early summer. I was getting them from both shore and kayak. While I had few nights with big numbers of slots, I was usually able to get a slot or two on just about any evening of fishing. I was into a brief flurry of decent fishing in early June when tons of sandeels invaded the oceanfront and brought a lot a stripers with them. These were all fish from just under slots to just over. I had several nights where I landed 10 to 15 fish on plastics and red gill teasers. Fishing in rough, white water conditions was best. These big numbers of slot fish reappeared in the fall (Sept. and Oct.) but now they were on Bay anchovies and very fussy. I had to take a finesse approach and landed lots of fish on Albie Snax, float and flies and small paddle tails. I had many days with over 20 fish from shore and just about all would be slots. I would just ride around and look and generally I could find a blitz somewhere just about every day. Grade for Slots- A
My biggest fish of the year came in June and waslanded from my kayak.Over Slots- This is a year that we began to see a decline in the real large fish. Most of the over slots I was catching were in the high 30 inch range. I landed just a few 40 inch fish from shore and kayak, way off compared to past years. My biggest fish came from the kayak and I estimate the fish was in the 45-50 inch range. Yes, a real monster, but that was my only fish over 45 inches for the year. Note that many of my friends who slugged it out long hours after dark also had disappointing numbers of big fish after dark. They were just not around in any numbers from shore, although some boaters I know did very well in the deeper water. Grade for Over Slots- C
Bluefish- It was another poor year for blues here in RI, especially from shore. I landed my first on on May 1 and from then on it was few and far between although I had a few big ones in the teens from Narragansett Bay. Like the larger stripers, these were after adult bunker. I also hit some small ones in late summer and early fall in the Bay as they found some peanut bunker to feast on in the upper Bay. Like the past few years, the fall was a major disappointment for bluefish. Tons of small bait around but very few bluefish. Grade for Bluefish- C-
Pelagics, albies and bonito,were around in good numbersand attracted loads of fishermen.Pelagics- The albies came back after a no-show in 2024. In addition, the bonito were also back in good numbers. On some days, the albies touched off a frenzy in certain spots with loads of fishermen shoulder to shoulder, and ethics non existent. Crossed lines, boaters and kayakers squeezing shore fishermen, shore fishermen trying to hit boaters with lures, shore fishermen claiming spots and arguments all over the place. Welcome to pelagic fishing, 2025, here in RI. Most of the time I stayed away from the mayhem and chased stripers in some of my quiet locations. I did manage to catch some albies and bones. I got my first bonito of the year on Sept. 8 on a silver Clarkspoon, a very hot lure this year. My first albie came on Sept. 9. I got more pelagics as the year progressed catching some on Albie Snax and the float and fly while trying for stripers. Often they were feeding together. Grade for Pelagics- A-
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