The Narragansett Bay, RI marine forecast covers live wind speed and gusts, tide predictions, wave conditions, and major and minor solunar feeding times, updated continuously from NOAA and Open-Meteo. The strongest fishing windows usually line up with the moving tide and the solunar periods shown below — check current conditions before you head out.
By Steve Wilson, lifelong angler & founder of My Marine Forecast
Last updated: Aug 25, 2026, 8:00 AM
On Tuesday, August 25, Narragansett Bay, RI sees high tide at 6:37 AM (3.1 ft) and 7:00 PM (3.5 ft), low tide at 12:20 AM (0.6 ft) and 12:05 PM (0.5 ft). Winds 3–11 mph from the W gusting to 16 mph. Air temperatures 61–78°F. Current water temperature is about 72°F. The strongest fishing windows line up with the moving water around each tide change, roughly an hour on either side.
Today's Tides · Station 8452660
| Low tide | 12:20 AM | 0.6 ft |
| High tide | 6:37 AM | 3.1 ft |
| Low tide | 12:05 PM | 0.5 ft |
| High tide | 7:00 PM | 3.5 ft |
Wind
3–11 mph W
Gusts
16 mph
Air Temp
61–78°F
Water Temp
72°F
Tides from NOAA Station 8452660 · wind & temperature from Open-Meteo. Open the live forecast for hourly charts and the 7-day outlook.
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Tide data sourced from NOAA Station 8452660
Narragansett Bay is the centerpiece of Rhode Island fishing, a sprawling estuary split into the East Passage and West Passage around Conanicut and Prudence Islands and reaching all the way up the Providence River. Striped bass and bluefish drive the season, but the bay also gives up scup, tautog, fluke, and black sea bass over its reefs, ledges, and channel edges. The mix of deep channels, shallow coves, and hard structure means there is almost always a piece of water fishing well somewhere in the bay.
The bay mouth around Newport and Jamestown holds the biggest fish. The rocks off Beavertail, the Newport Bridge pilings, and the ledges along the Jamestown shoreline all stack bass and blues on moving water. Up in the East Passage, the rips off Prudence Island and the channel edges near the Mount Hope Bridge produce consistently through Summer and into the Fall run.
The upper bay and Providence River fish best in Spring and again in late Fall when bass push schoolie-sized fish far up into the warmer brackish water. Worm hatches in May light up the upper coves with surface-feeding bass, one of the most exciting and frustrating bites of the New England year. Tautog fishing over the bay's rock piles and bridge structure is a fall tradition once water temps drop.
Reading the bay comes down to tide and wind. The two passages funnel current hard around the islands and bridges, and the strongest bite usually lines up with moving water — especially the dropping tide pulling bait out of the coves and rivers. Use the live wind, tide, and bite-window forecast above to time your run before you leave the dock.
Spring: The bay wakes up with tautog in April, spawning fish moving onto shallow rockpiles from Colt State Park to the bridge abutments. Squid push into the lower bay in May, drawing the first waves of stripers, while schoolies that wintered in the Providence River spread down the shorelines. Scup arrive in force by late May.
Summer: Menhaden schools drive summer in the bay, with stripers and big bluefish pinning them against the bridges and points from Newport to Providence. Live-lining pogies at the Pell and Mount Hope bridges is the standard play. Fluke hold in the deeper channels and off Dutch Island, and scup fishing off docks and rocks is nonstop.
Fall: False albacore push into the lower bay in September, sometimes running as far north as Prudence Island in strong bait years. Stripers feed heavily on peanut bunker leaving the coves through October. Tautog fishing peaks on every rockpile and bridge base in the bay, holding up well into December for boats.
Winter: The upper bay keeps a genuine winter fishery: holdover striped bass stack in the Providence and Seekonk rivers, caught on soft plastics through the coldest months by a devoted shore crowd. Elsewhere the bay is quiet, with tog gone deep and the bridges bare until the April warmup.
The Newport Pell Bridge and Mount Hope Bridge are the bay's signature structure, holding stripers, tog and scup around their bases. Colt State Park in Bristol offers open shoreline with reliable spring tautog and summer scup. Rocky Point State Park in Warwick, on the site of the old amusement park, has become one of the upper bay's favorite shore spots. India Point Park in Providence puts anglers on the holdover striper fishery, and Prudence Island's shores in mid bay see bass, blues and the occasional fall albie blitz.