The Fish Wrap Writer Blog
For more than 20 years, we have been learning from and writing about outdoorsmen and women who fish, hunt, hike, pause, and sometimes just look around. Fish Wrap has been published over 480 times. Here you will find articles, interviews, reports, laughs, a few stretched truths (that’s true), and an unfortunate number of obituaries from good folks we have lost.
Please search, enjoy, and let me know if you know someone who we should meet.
Low trout waters means it’s time to fish the beach not the banks
This post originally appeared in the Southern RI Newspapers two weeks ago. As is known to happen, we fell a bit behind here and should have posted this sooner. Air and water are cooler now but the pressure is definitely not off the fish. So it's still pretty...
It was downhill right from the ramp
Darkness casually faded into the summer excitement of unloading boats for a day chasing albies and striped bass. Galilee’s new boat ramp, designed to launch three boats at once with sturdy docks for coming and going, was bustling. Overhead were stars and stripes of...
Captain Ray Stachelek finds the fish
“I’m tight!” Ray Stachelek yelled from the stern of his Everglades 230 center console. After an hour searching for fish in foggy Galilee, Captain Ray had moved west, along the beach, staying in thirty feet of water, waiting for what he hoped would happen. Now,...
Reconnecting With Local Rivers
Reconnecting With Local Rivers means getting wet, paddling hard and coasting in full sun to appreciate our lovely and local rivers. Let's go!
Time to stop idling and start paddling our Wild and Scenic Rivers
Sitting, idling, cursing perhaps, many of us have sat there impatiently, waiting for one car to turn right to Sosnowski’s farm stand and another to cross left for a cup of TLC coffee. Countless URI students zip daily over a small bridge at South Kingstown's Taylor...
Let Greg Vespe take the helm in Narragansett Bay
This month we have long days and warm nights to fish but by month’s end, we should take a night off from the beach and learn to catch more fish in Narragansett Bay. The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association will present seasoned and generous fisherman, Greg...
Stripers are up, fluke are down, scup are strangely attractive
After a tepid start, the summer flounder season has warmed but it sure does not look like a banner year. “The fluke have been a challenge. I have been getting some but it’s been work,” said East Bay fisherman Greg Vespe. Water temps have largely peaked and bait is...
Clearly, navigating a kayak in fog is easy
Anyone who was in Boy Scouts before that deal imploded or had parents drag them around the country in an old summer vacation van should know how to use a compass. Understanding direction is key to navigating, especially in zero visibility. Most of us have a compass...
Surrounded by fishes, dog days heat up a Hex hatch.
We are surrounded by fishes as the dog days approach. It's all here in Fish Wrap!
Aidan Kelley catches ‘em up as fishing just gets better
Over the last few years, it seems like the better saltwater fishing has edged its way into July when historically we might have switched to some largemouth chasing or just caught up on some sleep after a busy salty Spring. This week, striped bass are feeding hard...
Casting through Covid with Peter Jenkins and without sausage and peppers
RIDEM does it. Town Council’s do it. School Committees do it. Wine clubs, I mean book clubs, do it. Now the RI Saltwater Anglers Association is doing it. Replacing regular monthly Elks Lodge meetings famous for helpful speakers and plates of sausage and peppers...
Dominic Saves The Day
Morning could not have arrived more peacefully, laying down her winds to greet a full sun rising behind wisps of light cloud cover keeping fish daring in shallow waters. Kayak fishermen came from Massachusetts, Connecticut and all over Rhode Island. Hobie’s Fishing...
Fish are in but access might keep us from them
Once again, we are surrounded by fishes. With a subtle uptick in seawater temperatures, gates opened and fish have flooded local waters. Finding them and getting to them is ever the challenge. Capt. Rene Letourneau is guiding through a steady pick of good sized...
Sea bass, Kingfish, Big Stripers and memories with your daughter
Some of our favorite Fish Wrap stories involve parents being outdoors with their children, carrying on traditions or teaching their next-generation how amazing Nature and water can be. This week we are reminded how supremely fortunate to live where we live and...
Here come the big bass and why is Water St.’s access closed?
We need big fish and open access!
Cinder Worms & Keep Out Signs
Cinder worms move in and a KEEP OUT sign appears to keep people out over in Potter Pond
Captain Rene Letourneau is the 2020 Orvis Saltwater Guide of the Year, finally
The Captain's story is long overdue for its subject but also for its timing. This Fish Wrap piece should have been posted a few weeks ago to celebrate this award from a local fishing guide but events of our crazy new world delayed our work. That said, cheers to...
These are uncharted waters on both sides of the border
Social distancing used to be what fishermen regularly practiced when they went fishing, often quite voluntarily. Now the term is repeated ad nauseam on virtually every broadcast and talk show, having morphed into a repetitive reminder that our inside and outside...
Fishing Rods For Social Distancing
The salt pond was unusually crowded with boats this past weekend. Not enough to require a “Knock It Off!” visit but far busier than expected. The physical and emotional lockdown we’re experiencing requires us to still have some outlet like hiking or fishing or even...
That Lawrence Thompson is a seriously strong man
“The guy came so close, he hit me with his mirror and knocked me off of my balance.” Lawrence Thompson is a seriously strong man. “It looked like he was slowing down a little bit, then he just kept going.” He fishes from a kayak, boats he built and the shore when...