Our annual cinder worm emergence seems like ancient history now that we are in the middle of summer and chasing stripers and bluefish in our near shore waters. This spring's cinder worm fishing got off to a slow start as it has for the past several years. This was due to a very cold winter that kept our ocean waters very cold for the longest time. I continue to monitor water temps at several key weather buoys positioned in Long Island Sound, Montauk, Block Island and Newport. Water temps were painfully slow to rise out of the high 30's and into the high 40's as we approached May. Typically we see our first stripers in mid-April at several perennial spots principally the Pawcatuck River in Westerly and the West Wall in Matunuck. When we start hearing reports of anglers scoring the first arriving  school size bass, I know that it's time to start monitoring water temps inside several of our south coast salt ponds. My first foray into those waters was during the first week in May. This was a recon jaunt to check water temps, look for any signs of emerging cinder worms and of course the first run of small bass that turn into these ponds as they make their way north along our coast. What I found during that first week much to my surprise was particularly strong emergences of worms. Not surprisingly, there were no bass rising to these early emergences. I sat in a very shallow and protected cove one day surrounded by a massive emergence of worms and was convinced the bass would show any minute. Such was not the case.

This is the second year in a row that I purposely did not book any charters in the first week of May, suspecting the arrival of bass would be later than historical norms. I crept into several salt ponds during the week of May 10 and found some activity but nothing to write home about. My first charter was the 15th of May and by then we had lots of worms and bass on them...game on.

Through the balance of May we continued to have strong worm emergences and good bass fishing interrupted by several days when due to cold weather and rain, the emergences slowed then stopped. Several charters were rebooked to later days in May and early June.

The average size fish we were consistently catching were in the mid to high 20's (inches) with very few large bass (30+ inches). This remained the case until the last week in May when the big fish finally arrived in good numbers. Interestingly enough we had excellent fishing to bigger bass into the second week of June and in some areas even longer.

How would I recap the 2015 worm hatch fishing?  Late starting, smaller fish for longer than normal, gradually by end of May bigger and more aggressive fish with strong worm hatches, then a finish with spectacular late May to mid-June fishing to big bass.

Fun stuff- all of it.

Ben Ramos

Heidi Flagg

Pat Ross Watson

"Nothing Complicated"