RHODE ISLAND & MASSACHUSETTS FISHING MAP
Fishing Hot Spots
From Watch Hill and the Rhode Island breachways to Point Judith, Block Island and Cox Ledge, through Narragansett and Buzzards bays, Cuttyhunk and the Cape Cod Canal, out to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Monomoy, and up to Stellwagen Bank, Boston Harbor and Cape Ann. Tap any star or dot to see what it is and what to fish there.
📅 Rhode Island Fishing Calendar — best months, closed seasons, bait & rigs →
📅 Massachusetts Fishing Calendar — best months, closed seasons, bait & rigs →
More map layers
Fishing & access
Marine chart layers
Parks & rules
Safety: these are planning references. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts and proper safety equipment before heading out.
Lake guides for this map
Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:
Fishing Hot Spots by area
Rips, points, ledges, breachways, jetties and offshore banks. Tap one to fly to it on the map.
Striped bass on the rips, bluefin tuna on Stellwagen and fall albies on the Vineyard
Southern New England is some of the best striped bass water in the world. The rips off Block Island, Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands, Wasque and Great Point, Monomoy and the Cape Cod Canal all hold big bass from late spring into the fall, with bluefish mixed in. In September and October, false albacore and bonito run the Rhode Island beaches, the Vineyard and Nantucket.
Bottom fishing is just as good: scup (porgy), black sea bass, fluke and tautog fill Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay and the ledges, and Cox Ledge and the Southwest Ledge off Block Island have cod and big sea bass. North of the Cape, Stellwagen Bank, Tillies Bank and Jeffreys Ledge are famous for giant bluefin tuna, haddock, cod and pollock, with whales feeding right beside you.
Rhode Island needs a free saltwater license and Massachusetts a saltwater fishing permit; bluefin tuna need a federal HMS permit. Cod and haddock rules in the Gulf of Maine and southern New England are strict and change often. Check RI DEM, Massachusetts DMF and NOAA Fisheries before you go.
BigJoe’s gear for Rhode Island & Massachusetts
What BigJoe would bring to fish these waters.
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Map sources & checks
- Coverage
- Rhode Island & Massachusetts. Mapped features come from public datasets and can be incomplete or out of date: a missing reef, ramp or wreck does not mean it is not there.
- Map data
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) — retrieved October 7, 2026
- World Database on Protected Areas (UNEP-WCMC & IUCN), Protected Planet — retrieved October 7, 2026 (license: Protected Planet terms)
- Hot spots
- 67 hot spots, each with its own source (tap any star to see it): OpenStreetMap mapped feature (46), Marine Regions gazetteer (11), USGS Open-File Report 00-410, Stellwagen Bank region feature names (8), The Fisherman magazine Hot Spot article (2).
- Protected areas
- 54 protected areas from the official list above, drawn in dashed red. Fishing rules inside them are set by the managing agency; check with them before you fish.
- Chart layers (Charts button)
- GEBCO ocean depth and OpenSeaMap buoys, lights and markers, plus official NOAA nautical charts in U.S. waters. GEBCO and OpenSeaMap are useful references, not official navigation charts.
- Weather & tides
- See Weather & Tides for this area: NOAA/NWS forecasts, NOAA buoys and NOAA Tides & Currents, with Open-Meteo models where NOAA has no station.
- Dates
- This page last updated October 15, 2026. Each dataset keeps its own retrieval date, shown above.
⚠️ Planning reference only, not for navigation. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts, and proper safety gear before heading out.
See something wrong or missing? Tell us and we will check it against the source.