Wood River Fishing Report

Although trout have been hit hard during this past weekend’s opener caddis seem to dominant insects hatching. False Gray Drakes are fluttering around with Black Quills in the mix. Mid-day and afternoons are best for surface feeding trout. Don't be afraid to meander away from heavily stocked areas as the Wood has plenty of holdover settled fish. Mahogany Compara Duns, Dark Caddis, and various nymphs are working best. Size 12 across the board.

Farmington River

Winter on the Farmington River can be phenomenal. This tail-water fishery expands it's catch & release area to roughly 21 miles during the normally closed season. Expect winter caddis, little black stones, midge & blue winged olives. I personally like this river best with flows below 500cfs. Longer rods in the 9ft range and nymphing rods up to 10ft. If your seeking rising trout areas such as Church Pool offer hot spots of heavily oxygenated water which lead to slow very deep pond like shelter were fish move up to the edge of the fast water to feed on massive amounts of aquatic insects. There are many other areas which offer these attributes where rising fish can be found. The Farmington River is truly a great place with a diverse range of water anatomy. With 21 miles of catch & release water the winter months can make this river and epic fishery to visit.

Central Riffle 

Inspect ~ Clean ~ Dry

Peoples State Forest

Hogback Dam

The Tail-water

Wild & Scenic



TMA No TMA

Sorry I have not posted here in a bit. Its been a crazy winter. Two weeks ago a few of us hit Merrick Brook in CT. With just a few fish caught the area was prestine and appeared to be loaded with with insect life. Over turning stones we found various mayflies and caddis meandering about. This area was catch & release dedicated to both wild brook & brown trout. Maybe Rhode Island should consider adopting similar policies set by CT in  effort to preserve some precious waters which may hold both wild brook and brown trout.

What do you think?

Salmon River Steelhead

It has been a week since we've returned from upstate New York. The first two days were spent on the Salmon River. Crowds were heavy on Sunday and things got better as we hit the new week. The river has been running quite low all fall and is in dire need of water. 335 cfs just doesn't trigger fresh runs a fish. None the less there are plenty of fish in the river and I found black stones to be some of the best bets. I concentrated on seams, quarter up stream with just a few size B shot, mend then swing and Steelies would hit it on the swing. Keep you drag lose as this will give the fish some running slack. Adjust the drag and put the meats to him. On Tuesday we headed over to Sandy Creek in Rochester to find mostly big Browns and few nice Steelhead. Here big Male Browns were behind the females. Large attractor flies worked, for those of us fortunate to find some steehead here trout beads worked very well as they were on the female brown trout reds. These Steelhead were very aggressive. We hope you enjoy the photos below. If you have any questions about Steelhead fishing just give us a call at the shop. 401-392-1919

Shark Fishing Turns Mahi

Hit the Fairway Buoy today with super flat calm seas. Our quest was the might Mako. One huge Blue Shark on Mackerel and then some big Mahi is the slick. As we raced to gather fly rods a big Mahi hit the bait and I was on. The fillets were wonderful. Water temps were 75 degrees and and there was a lot of bait. The majority we had seen was bullet Mackerel. Taking a break to do some charters, back at shortly.

Its has been some time since we've posted on our Blog. We'll do our best to continue to share whats going on in the fly fishing world at River & Riptide Anglers. Over the past several months we have been planning our new web site. We did it. All products are not loaded however we'll get there. The new site offers some many great options, its exciting. We also celebrated 4 years this Sunday. We did so by heading to the Easy Grounds to shark fish. What a blast. Got to repsect the Blue Sharks. Non the less stay tuned as we come into one of our favorite times of the fishing season, more sharks, Albies, Fall Stripers & Steelhead. Bets to all.

Wood River May Fly Hatches

After some recent trips on the Wood I was amazed at the prolific May Fly Hatches. March Brown, Mahoganies & Lt Cahills. Brook, Browns & Rainbow Trout were sipping both Duns & Spinners. Many anglers were concerned after last years floods the Wood River would never be the same. They were wrong. Weather has a way of fixing things and the Wood River is in the best shape its been in over 10 years. This week were heading the West Branch of the Delaware River for some big wild Trout. We'll be back on the Wood River next week.