On The Water, Bob Sampson, Jr.

• Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic said that her brother Al caught a half-dozen small stripers in the lower Mystic River the other day on poppers. An improvement of five fish over the previous report, but things are still a tad slow in the Mystic area. Give it a week or so and the lower river will light up with school and larger stripers. She noted that in the case of her marina, the action was slow, due primarily to the lack of boats in the water. You need to have people out fishing to generate reports, and so far it’s been only her brother Al taking a few casts before and after work when the winds allow.
• Joe Balint of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames has mostly been hearing stories of the large numbers of small schoolie striped bass that are being caught and released all over the river from beyond the Sub Base to Greenville Dam, including the coves. No real big fish were brought in to the shop or reported this week or over the weekend, but the high winds and rains were definitely a factor in keeping anglers inside. There have been a few decent fish up at the dam, which is becoming a battle zone with people fishing heavily in the restricted areas west of the island. The “red rocks” which denote the closed area are not red, the paint has worn off as it always does during the winter. However, for the record, note that that rock-pile island with the few bushes at the mouth of the Greenville Pool is the southeastern corner of the closed area. As state law calls for, there is a closed area near every fish-way to protect the fish that may want to continue upstream. For some reason, anglers have ignored or forgotten this important rule. There is no fishing from an imaginary line that runs from the tip of the island to the dam and across the mouth of the pool to the west waterfall and fish lift. No one should even be standing in that area, but it’s been loaded with lawbreakers each of the five times I fished the dam last week. The increased water flows, which made fishing tougher initially, will subside and ultimately draw more fish to the dam in the process. Conditions are good in the upper river between Norwich and the dam and should be for at least two more weeks.
• Saturday, I had guests down from Ontario, Canada. Three of us with boats took them out in the dropping barometric pressure and rains, perfect striper-fishing conditions. Using Salt Shakers, Slug-Go’s and Fin-S Fish, we landed and released between 350 and 400 stripers that averaged only 12 to 22 inches and topped off somewhere around 26 inches. Great action but nothing of size to brag about. The fishing was fast and furious as it always is during the middle of April in the middle portions of the Thames from a boat. That day we hit fish everywhere along the river channel.
• Freshwater fishing is improving, with more reports of decent bass coming in each day. The trout fishing will remain good because the local areas have recently been restocked, and the trout are, as the DEP said, decent, average-size fish, with reports of many measuring 13 to 15 inches or better. Josh Worst, a budding 8-year-old bass angler from Ledyard, caught a 5.25-pound largemouth bass on Sunday from Pachaug Pond while fishing with his dad.
• Joe reminded people that the fluke season opens in New York this week, and his source out at Montauk Point said there will be plenty of fluke to be caught by those who make the run across the sound to take advantage. The fluke have not made it to Connecticut or the south shore of Rhode Island yet. I guess by next week we will see the first fluke coming in from Point Judith, with the fish penetrating the eastern end of Long Island Sound as far as Niantic a week or 10 days after that. Joe also noted there has been “nothing to speak of in the winter flounder department this week.” It looks like the sparse bite that began at Bluff Point in mid-March is over, and other potential winter flounder spots in the eastern end of the sound are either not producing or no one is trying for them.
• There have been scattered reports of a few white perch just showing up in Poquetanuck Cove, Preston. The run typically starts this time of the season, a week or two after Hamburg Cove, which has not been a factor in producing white perch so far this spring.
• Richard at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford told us that there have been some fluke off Montauk Point that were commercially caught, and that everyone in the shop is champing at the bit to get at them this weekend. There have been a few schoolies caught in the Niantic River and a whole mess of little guys in the mouth of the Connecticut River lately, though I’d guess the increased flows and dirty water may have shut that bite off temporarily until the waters clear a tad. Richard also said that the first porgy of the season has been caught, but he didn’t know from where. That’s a bad or good sign, depending if one fishes for these pesky fish or not. Usually, early showings of any species are precursors of large and strong runs.
• I find it ironic, even stupid, that scup (porgies) are so abundant, yet the management plan calls for continued cutbacks in harvest by recreational anglers because the quotas have been exceeded. Quotas that were set during a time when this species had bottomed out as a result of what else, commercial over-harvest. Eventually the statistics will catch up with the plan, but that may not be for another year or two, so porgy fans bear with it.
• Over the weekend, a big mess of blackfish was caught from between the bridges by one angler, according to a customer who was casting for school stripers. The customer said that most of the fish were average keeper blackfish but some much bigger fish were lost when the angler grabbed his line in an attempt to lift the fish onto the rocks like the smaller fish. Naturally the line broke. A rookie move that was even more bush-league being that the guy had a net with him.
• Not much in the way of winter flounder, even at Jordan Cove this week. Richard felt that it was due more to lack of interest because these fish are so hard to find these days. “If you put your time in, a few can be caught, but not many anglers are willing to invest the time and effort required to catch a flounder or two.”
• Mark Lewchik of River’s End, Saybrook said he hasn’t heard much from the river due to the rain, which always turns it to coffee, drops temperatures and raises the water to unmanageable levels. He has heard rumors of keeper stripers being caught as far upriver as Enfield, with a smattering of other reports of smaller fish coming in from Rocky Hill and points downstream. The action that had been pretty good in the lower portion of Hamburg Cove apparently has cooled down this week, probably as a result of the flooding from the rains.
• Nothing coming in from the flounder fishermen. Not even Dock and Dine or the Causeway has produced any flatfish so far this spring. There has been a bunch of anglers who are gearing up to run across to Montauk to open the fluke season in New York. Mark noted that the regs are 5 fish 17.5 inches in length. I am not sure, but I think that for the first time, all three states – NY, CT and RI – will have the same length limit, though creel limits and seasons may differ.
• Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison reported that there are some fluke “across the pond,” according to his sources. The winter flounder reports have dried up, but there are a few small bass running up and down the beaches and up inside local river mouths to provide some fun light-tackle action. The smaller 8-inch Polish Perch glide-and-jerk bait lures have been producing those schoolie stripers in his area.
• This year, there have been a number of shops that have picked up some fine-looking herring-imitation lures from two companies, both from Poland. One is Galpen Lures, which makes the Polish Perch brand lures, and the other is a more difficult one to find called Salmo Lures at HYPERLINK http://www.salmofishing.com www.salmofishing.com, which are worth investigating and maybe trying to get your local tackle dealer to stock. I have experimented with Salmo lures for pike and muskie for four or five years now and just got some colors to use in the rivers for herring-feeding bass. The lures look great, but I have yet to land the 30-pounder I expected to hook on the first cast. Check them out – these lures may well open some doors to new fish-catching opportunities, both in the ocean and local ponds, for bass, pike, pickerel and walleyes.
• This week a few more blackfish were caught off the New Haven breakwalls, but the season closes Saturday till mid-June, so any incidental blackfish that may be hooked while fluke or flounder fishing cannot be kept, regardless of size. The captain also said that due to the late spring and poor weather, there are not many boats in the water in his area.
• Trout fishermen have been doing well since the season opened April 16 with many 2- pound-class fish being reported. Some big largemouth bass have been coming in from local farm ponds and Quonnipaug. These fish are being caught on spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and small shad-body swim baits.
• Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford B&T, Stratford said there have been some big bunker coming into Bridgeport Harbor. Anglers are snagging and live-lining them and have been taking fish 36 to 37 inches on worms but not the bunker so far. One customer brought in three nice blackfish that weighed between 5 and 6.5 pounds from the Housatonic River. In addition, there have been a few smaller blackfish, under four pounds, that he heard were caught over the weekend off the New Haven breakwalls. Chris saw about 30 anglers doing well taking schoolies on flies near the sanctuary.
• Trout stocking is going on again this week in the put-and-take rivers and lakes.
• Nick at Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said the schoolies at the mouth of the Housey are a tad bigger than they were last week. There are some small bass and the occasional winter flounder being caught by anglers who are fishing the outer edges of the harbor, off the pier, Can 9 and off the power plant. Temperatures are up to 50 degrees F, so what we thought might have been the beginnings of fish moving out of the Hudson could have been the area’s overwintering fish coming to life, with perhaps a few early runners from the Hudson River stock mixed in.
• This weekend, the best bet is still stripers in all the area’s rivers and bays, with the Thames, Connecticut and Housatonic topping the list of bass producers. However, if you have a boat and the wind gods cooperate, a run to the shallows off Montauk Point and Peconic Bay are apparently holding some fluke to chase.