Report from Jim White on Rhode Island USA

The first striped bass has been taken at the West Wall in East Matunuck this past week. Reports are it was 22-inches long. There have also been reports of keeper size bass being taken after dark in the Sakonet River area. Reports from New Jersey and New York are pretty good for this early in the season. There are lots of fish moving, following the bunker that are heading towards Rhode Island waters. Reports suggest a lot of 20 to 30 pound fish following the menhaden schools. The menhaden are usually in this area by the first second week of May. They have been early now for three consecutive years.

White Ghost charters still have a few dates open for May and June. May 8-9-10 and 23, June 5-22-23-24-26-27. That’s only 10-days remaining in prime time for 2007.
Jim will be in Costa Rica from April 22 to the 29th filming new DVD on rigging plastic baits which should be ready for Christmas. They will try to get some big game species on soft plastics and show how soft plastics work in the super clean water of the Pacific.

It looks as if the fluke regulations for the RI Charter boats will be seven
(7) Fish per man, at 19-inches long. We’ll use more live bait when possible to target these larger fish as well as fishing deeper water.

White Ghost charters are now Pro Staffers for Ron-Z Lures from Cape Cod. Ron-Z baits and jigs have been the hot soft plastic bait for two years now. The lures come in sizes ranging from five to 10-inches long and are soaked in menhaden oil. So much so that they can’t be glued by anything we know of. They also have amazing action in the water.
We’ll also be featuring Tsunami and D.O.A. products on our boat this season.
This gives us the best line up of soft plastic lures, along with Lunker City available today to fish for stripers, bluefish, weakfish, and fluke, albacore, bonito and school tuna.

Shark Trips: Remember we’ll be offering shark trips this summer. Most of the time we’ll be within sight of Newport, RI and many times even closer. Shark trips will be $750 and will include all gear, tackle, chum, and hook bait for the day. We’ll be featuring the all new Quantum and Fin-Nor offshore stand-up gear for this fishery.

New Freshwater Offering: Next season we have the opportunity to have access to a private 80-acre pond that receives no fishing pressure what so ever. In fact, it’s been closed to public use for more than 50-years. The pond is loaded with largemouth bass up to 10-pounds and pickerel up to six pounds. The state record pickerel has been broken here three times in recent years but never turned in. A 10-pound largemouth was taken here through the ice this past winter. All fishing will be catch and release.
These trips will be for two anglers at $135 each. We have fees to pay for the privilege to fish here. This will be a unique opportunity to fish a pond that been off-limits to the general public for more than 50-years. The trips will have limited time availability to four days per month for April, May, June, September and October for a total of 20-days. It will be first come-first served.

Winter Stripers: Beginning in November 2007, and throughout the winter we will be doing winter fishing for stripers that hare holding over. We have three areas to fish (Not the Thames) where stripers are holding in good numbers and some days produce over 100 fish in just a few hours. These trips will be for two anglers at $300. We’ve already had a lot of requests so these types of trips will go very fast. Naturally each day will depend on current weather conditions but we have a lot of leeway during that time in terms of picking other dates to fish. For further details of fishing in Rhode Island or any other information e-mail Jim White at [email protected]