Projo Fishing: HotBytes

Rick Rivers of Coventry fishes near the Providence Street bridge over the Pawtuxet River in West Warwick on a historic day when the river was stocked with trout for the first time in many years. Photo by John Freidah

"The upper reaches of the north and south branches of the Pawtuxet River hold bass, carp, pickerel, pike, trout, and crayfish," said David Henault of Ocean State Tackle, "and it's a totally under-fished resource."

The north branch of the river rises at the Scituate Reservoir, and the south branch flows from the Flat River Reservoir, also called Johnson's Pond, in Coventry. The north and south branches meet at Riverpoint in West Warwick, and the river flows 11.7 miles to Pawtuxet Cove on Narragansett Bay.

Since the late 18th century, factory owners had dammed the river for power and dumped their waste into it, often with the permission of the state. Towns dumped so much waste into the river, that The Providence Journal in 1981 reported "that on some late-summer days, half of the lower river is sewage."

The river had become so foul and fetid, that "many people had given it up for dead," said Robert Nero, chairman of the Pawtuxet River Authority. "No one thought the river would come back."

In 1972, Congress approved the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, and the Pawtuxet River Authority was established. States received more power to stop polluters in 1977 when amendments strengthened the 1972 law that would become known as the Clean Water Act.

The Pawtuxet River Authority's goal, said Nero, was to make the river clean enough for fishing and swimming.

The river has arrived. It is so clean that the state Division of Fish and Wildlife stocked trout in the West Warwick stretch this spring.

Fishermen can launch a canoe or kayak on the North Branch at the Hope Dam Fishing Area on Rte. 116 in the illage of Hope.

There are several places to launch on the South Branch. One of the easiest spots for a stretch of great fishing is on Sandy Bottom Road in Coventry.

 Tags  bass carp fishing freshwater Pawtuxet River pickerel Rhode Island trout

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