Beta

GuidedFloats is in beta. The full site launches March 1, 2027. The mobile app follows.

Guides: claim before March 1, 2027 and your first full season of Premium is free. Claim your founding spot →

Log in List your guide serviceFor guides
Home › Waters › Massachusetts › Mount Hope Bay
Estuary · Southeastern Massachusetts, Bristol County, the Taunton River estuary at Fall River where the bay opens south toward Rhode Island and Narragansett Bay · Massachusetts

Mount Hope Bay Fishing Guides

The Taunton River estuary at Fall River, gauged for temperature, salinity, oxygen and pH, and a striped bass fishery that holds fish earlier and later than the open coast.

Low marsh grass and open water on a southeastern tidal river
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Mount Hope Bay

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

No guides listed yet

Guide or outfit this water? Create your profile. Listing is free, the commission is 10% or 7% with a premium profile, and premium profiles list first on this water.

About the Mount Hope Bay

Mount Hope Bay is the northeastern lobe of the Narragansett Bay system, taking the Taunton River at Fall River and opening south past Bristol into the main bay and eventually Rhode Island Sound. It straddles the Massachusetts and Rhode Island line, and the Massachusetts end at Fall River is where the river’s fresh water meets the tide. That mixing zone is what makes it interesting: the bay is shallower, warmer and less saline than the water outside it, and it behaves accordingly.

The gauge near Kennedy Park reads water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH and chlorophyll, which together describe an estuary rather than just a water level. Temperature is the number most anglers will use, because Mount Hope Bay warms earlier in spring than the open coast and that brings striped bass in ahead of the outside fishery. The dissolved oxygen series is worth a look in high summer, when a shallow warm bay with a river running into it can run low in the back reaches.

Striped bass are the main event, and the combination of the Taunton River herring run and the bay’s early warming makes spring genuinely good. Schoolies arrive first and larger fish follow, working the channel edges, the bridge structure and the river mouth. Bluefish come through in summer, tautog and scup hold on the rock and the abundant man-made structure, and white perch and winter flounder occupy the brackish upper end. Blue crabs are plentiful in the warm months.

Access is urban and easy. Fall River has ramps and shoreline parks, the Braga and Brightman street bridges concentrate fish and anglers alike, and Somerset sits across the water. The whole Narragansett Bay charter fleet is within reach, and Rhode Island regulations apply on the southern portion, so know which side of the line you are fishing.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Mount Hope Bay.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

Add a photo of this water See the badges

Pioneer badgeUnclaimed

Add a photo of this water

Landscape, not fish — the water itself. Reviewed by hand before it appears. The first one published here earns the Pioneer badge.

Never published. It is how the badge is held for you until member accounts open.

Posting to Mount Hope Bay.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. Landscape orientation looks best at the top of the page. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name printed under the photo and on your badge. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Mount Hope Bay.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Fall River - the city at the head of the bay, with ramps, shoreline parks, tackle shops and full services.
Kennedy Park - the waterfront park at the gauge, with shore access and a local landmark.
Somerset - the town across the water west, with additional shoreline and launch options.
Taunton River - the river feeding the bay, with a herring run and brackish fishing upstream.
Narragansett Bay - the larger bay system south, with the region's charter fleet and deeper water.
Bristol - the Rhode Island town on the bay's southwest shore, with marinas and services.
Battleship Cove - the Fall River waterfront attraction, the best known landmark on the bay.

Seasons

Spring: the standout season, with the bay warming early, herring running and striped bass arriving ahead of the coast.
Summer: bluefish, scup and tautog fill in, with bass best on the tides at dawn and after dark.
Fall: striped bass feed hard on outgoing bait and the bay fishes well right through the autumn run.
Winter: quiet and cold as fish leave the bay, with the occasional holdover and little consistent fishing.

From the water

No logged trips yet. Be the first to put this water on your map.

Log this water

Fished it or cleaned it? Log in or create a free account to log a trip with photos and earn the waterway badge.

Questions

What species can you catch on the Mount Hope Bay?

Anglers target American Eel, Atlantic Croaker, Atlantic Menhaden, Black Sea Bass, Blue Crab, Bluefish, Northern Puffer, Scup, Striped Bass, Summer Flounder, Tautog, Weakfish, White Perch, Winter Flounder on the Mount Hope Bay in Massachusetts.

Where can you access the Mount Hope Bay?

Fall River - the city at the head of the bay, with ramps, shoreline parks, tackle shops and full services. Kennedy Park - the waterfront park at the gauge, with shore access and a local landmark. Somerset - the town across the water west, with additional shoreline and launch options. Taunton River - the river feeding the bay, with a herring run and brackish fishing upstream. Narragansett Bay - the larger bay system south, with the region's charter fleet and deeper water. Bristol - the Rhode Island town on the bay's southwest shore, with marinas and services. Battleship Cove - the Fall River wa...

When is the best time to fish the Mount Hope Bay?

Spring: the standout season, with the bay warming early, herring running and striped bass arriving ahead of the coast. Summer: bluefish, scup and tautog fill in, with bass best on the tides at dawn and after dark. Fall: striped bass feed hard on outgoing bait and the bay fishes well right through the autumn run. Winter: quiet and cold as fish leave the bay, with the occasional holdover and little consistent fishing.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Mount Hope Bay?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Massachusetts agency site: https://www.mass.gov/freshwater-fishing-regulations