Fly Fishing in Rhode Island

Rhode Island is small; its fishing is not. Narragansett Bay, Block Island Sound, and a string of barrier beaches give the state more productive salt water per square mile than almost anywhere on the East Coast. Out of Newport and Galilee, and from quieter launches along the Sakonnet River, guides chase striped bass, bluefish, tautog, and flounder inshore, then run out into Block Island Sound for tuna, shark, and mahi-mahi. Rocky reefs, sand flats, deep channels, and thick schools of bait keep all of it fed.

The fresh water gets less press but earns its keep. Ponds, lakes, and rivers dot the western and central parts of the state (Worden Pond, Watchaug Pond, the Wood-Pawcatuck system), holding largemouth and smallmouth bass, rainbow, brown, and brook trout, pickerel, and panfish. A guided freshwater day here is a quieter proposition: fly rods or conventional tackle, still mornings, water you could wade across. It makes a fine counterweight to the surf.

The real advantage is the geography. Nowhere in Rhode Island is far from anywhere else, so a trout stream at dawn and a bay boat by afternoon is a plan, not a fantasy. Guides work out of Westerly, Narragansett, Newport, Bristol, and towns between, taking everyone from first-timers to obsessives. They know which rock the bass are holding on this week, and that knowledge travels fast in a state this size.