New moon springs load up SW Ledge as bonito push into Point Judith water

Last week the moon was winding down out of the last quarter, current was soft, and the water did something I've been waiting on all June — the cold wall that's been sitting between Block Island Sound and Rhode Island Sound finally gave up. That temperature differential collapsed better than ten degrees in a matter of days. For a guy who reads rips for a living, that's the single biggest story of the summer so far. It means the cold water that's been penning bait and predators against the Block Island side is spreading west, and it's opening the door for species that had been strictly a Block Island story to start showing up off Point Judith proper.

This week we're building into new moon springs — peak alignment lands the 11th through the 13th — and that matters more than people give it credit for. Bigger swings mean more water moving through SW Ledge, the North Rip, and the tide-break off Sandy Point, and more water moving means the bait gets pushed and stacked rather than just drifting lazily through. I like fishing springs at the Ledge for exactly this reason — the current builds a hard edge you can read visually, foam line and all, and predators sit right on that seam waiting for the buffet to come to them. The tradeoff is you've got a narrower window to work it before the tide gets away from you. Plan your drift around the two hours either side of the tide change, not the whole cycle.

On the striper front, the story right now is genuinely encouraging. We've had reports — and I've seen it myself on two trips — of giant class bass showing at Block Island, mixed in with a fluke run that's been building steadily on the south side. These aren't schoolie numbers. These are the kind of fish that make your drag question its life choices. The pattern has been night and dawn on the West Wall and down around the SW Ledge structure itself, working live eels on a fish-finder rig with just enough weight to hold bottom in 30 to 40 feet, current permitting. On the harder push of the springs this week, you may need up to 4 ounces to stay down. Bunker chunks fished static on the drift have also produced, especially right at the top of the tide when things go momentarily quiet before the ebb kicks in. This isn't an every-trip bite — I put two clients on fish last Thursday night and came up empty Friday with nearly identical conditions, which tells you these bass are moving with the bait, not sitting still. Find the pods of bunker or squid showing on the sounder around the Ledge and you're in business. Miss them and you're just soaking bait in current.

Fluke have made their seasonal shift, and it's right on schedule. Bay-side action has thinned out as that water's warmed into the high 70s, pushing the flatties toward the breachway at Galilee and the deeper ocean-side structure around the Harbor of Refuge and the mouth of the Great Salt Pond over at Block. The outgoing tide through the breachway is the play — a 3/4-ounce white bucktail tipped with Gulp Swimming Mullet, bounced slow along bottom in 15 to 25 feet as the water rips out toward the ocean. Fish are running mixed sizes, some solid keepers in the 20-inch class mixed with plenty of shorts, so expect to cull. The upwelled ocean water sitting around 71 degrees off both inlets is exactly the kind of clean, cooler water fluke want after baking in the bay all June.

Now for the bonito — this is the one I've been watching closely, because that cold-wall collapse I mentioned means the corridor that used to be strictly a Block Island phenomenon is widening toward Point Judith itself. We're right at the tail end of the seasonal window where the first schools typically show, and the early signs are lining up: clean water, warming trend, bait pushed tight to structure. I haven't personally connected yet this week, but I've had it confirmed that fish are starting to show off the south side of Block, working bait pods in close to North Light and down toward Southeast Light on the incoming tide. If you're rigged for it, small epoxy jigs — the half-ounce Deadly Dicks or a green machine-style tin — worked fast through diving birds is still the percentage play. Keep gear light, 20-pound fluoro leader, because these fish get particular when the water's this clean.

Bluefish have been a reliable, if unglamorous, presence off Sandy Point and along the Galilee breachway on the higher stages of tide, chopping through peanut bunker schools that got pushed by the recent current. Nothing trophy-sized, but steady action on diamond jigs and topwater poppers if you want a bent rod between bigger-game attempts.

Looking ahead, the peak of these new moon springs on the 11th through 13th is where I'd put my time at SW Ledge for bass, working the two-hour windows around tide change with eels or bunker. If the bonito corridor keeps widening the way the temperature data suggests, I'd expect Point Judith proper — not just Block Island — to start producing fish within the next week to ten days. Worth having a rod rigged and ready even if you're primarily out there for bass or fluke. The window's short, the fish are moving, and this is the time of year where showing up with options beats showing up with a single game plan.