Woonasquatucket River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Rhode Island

About the Woonasquatucket River

The Woonasquatucket runs about nineteen miles from its headwater ponds in North Smithfield and Glocester through Smithfield, Johnston and North Providence, then straight into downtown Providence, where it joins the Moshassuck to form the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay. The USGS gauge at Centerdale watches roughly thirty-eight square miles. It reports discharge and stage and has no active temperature series, which matters on a small New England stream whose summer trout fishing depends entirely on how warm the water gets.

This is an urban river with an industrial past that is still visible in every reach. Mill dams and their impoundments break the river into a chain of flat ponds connected by short quick runs, and the corridor carries the American Heritage River designation along with a long-running greenway restoration effort. The Allendale and Lyman mill ponds were the subject of a major federal cleanup for dioxin contamination, and Rhode Island maintains fish consumption advisories on parts of the river that anyone fishing here should read first.

Rhode Island’s Division of Fish and Wildlife stocks the Woonasquatucket with brown, rainbow and brook trout, and the stocked fishery is the reason most anglers come. In practice the river fishes as trout water in April, May and early June, then turns over to warmwater species as it heats. Largemouth bass, chain pickerel, yellow perch, bluegill and black crappie hold in the mill ponds year-round, and smallmouth turn up in the faster water.

Access is roadside, walk-in and genuinely easy, with the bike path following much of the corridor. There is no float; this is a wading and bank-fishing river, and the gauge is the tool for judging whether spring runoff has dropped enough.

Access

Centerdale gauge and dam area - the flow reference and the most-fished pool on the river.
Lyman Mill Pond, North Providence - stocked pond water with parking and shoreline access.
Allendale Mill Pond - a second impoundment on the cleanup reach; check advisories.
Woonasquatucket River Greenway bike path - continuous walk-in access through the lower valley.
Georgiaville Pond, Smithfield - headwater pond stocked with trout and holding warmwater species.
Riverside Park, Providence - urban access near the lower river.
Waterplace Park at the tidal head - where the river meets the Providence River and the bay.

Seasons

Spring: the core season, with stocking, strong flow and the best trout fishing of the year.
Summer: warms fast and drops; trout hold only in the coldest pockets and warmwater species take over.
Fall: cooling water and fall stocking in some years bring the trout fishing back through October.
Winter: low, cold and iced over on the mill ponds; limited fishing outside mild spells.