rhode island

It’s a little after 6 a.m., and the moon is still up as the Maria Mendonsa steams west with her brood of aluminum workboats and a skiff in tow. The destination is a floating fish trap.

After five minutes crisscrossing an area of broken bottom south of Newport, Rhode Island, satisfied that he has a sufficient preliminary lay of the land, Capt. Russ Benn adjusts the throttles and rounds up for our first drift.

There’s nothing quite like fishing for striped bass as they dine on spawning cinder worms

We approached the charter boat just as the customers were saying their goodbyes to the captain and mate and dragging their coolers to their trucks. It was about 2 p.m. in the afternoon, and the temperature was in the low 90s.