TheDay 5/13/05

• After two weeks of dismal reports of winter flounder, we finally have some good news to write about. Jack at the Fish Connection saw a catch of 24 fish to 3.8 pounds made by Ed Cubanksi and friends, location unknown, but Jack surmised they might have been caught off Jupiter Point.
• Small bass are spread out along the edges of the Thames River channel, and mixing in of late are a few 2-3-pound bluefish. Jack got a phone report on Thursday morning about a good catch of stripers made Wednesday night at Greenville Dam on eels and a plug by Gapen that looks exactly like a river herring. Squid are moving into both Niantic Bay and Stonington Harbor in good numbers and can be jigged at night with squid jigs; chumming helps.
• Richard at Hillyers Tackle also had some flounder limits to talk about. From Monday through Wednesday he saw three catches of eight flounder per person, one of them by a local named Frenchy, from the Niantic River above the roadway bridge.
  
• The pound net in Niantic Bay owned by Brian Sullivan is full of squid being sold to area tackle shops. Some people are out catching them on their own. In the last seven days the shop sold 50 squid jigs, plastic lures around two to three inches long with metal spikes sticking out of the bottom at a 45-degree angle. You lower one of these weighted lures down to the feeding squid that grab hold and get their tentacles caught in the spikes. Some people rig the jigs in tandem, getting multiple squid in one drop. Millstone started pumping again and as soon as the hot water started flowing out into the Sound it attracted schoolie stripers and the first small blues of the 2005 season.
• Down along the Rhode Island shore, Jack at Ocean House Marina said one of their slip customers had a great day in Ninigret Pond last Sunday. Using light conventional tackle with top water plugs and white bucktails he landed 34 stripers, five of them keepers. Fluke fishing remains very slow but shad are showing up in the pond and out along the surf line.
• Capt. Al Anderson of Snug Harbor has been splitting his time, catching school bass along the middle part of the Thames River and in the Narrows of Point Judith Pond. With all the cooler weather, the water temperature in the latter spotted dropped from the high 50s to high 40s in only a few days.
• King Cove Tackle in Stonington said people are having a ball catching schoolie bass in Stonington Harbor and in the coves above the railroad bridges plus both sides of the Pawcatuck River from The Ditch down past the Barn Island launch ramp. Those braving some of our cooler, windy days caught a few winter flounder at the mouth of the Mystic River. There are squid on the Watch Hill reefs but only a few sporadic stripers so far, and those were on the small fish.
• Cheryl at Shaffers in Mystic said the season is moving along, slow but sure, in spite of plenty of cold, windy days. Bob Lamphere fished with worms from the shore in the upper Mystic River around the I-95 Bridge for five stripers to 23 inches and one winter flounder. Allen Fee and Bill tried off the West Mystic rock pile on Monday for one lone schoolie. The next day they hit spots in Fishers Island Sound but caught only one more bass, a 27-incher off Seal Rock. Jim Meacham used a diamond jig around Valiant on the flood tide for a 35-inch bass and another went over to the south side of Fishers, returning with one keeper fluke. Bruce and Chuck made a run over to Montauk for six keeper fluke to 22 inches on Wednesday.
• Stephanie Cramer sent in her regular report saying she and a friend picked up 66 tiny bass from opposite Stoddard Park down to Horton Cove on her last trip in small boat to the Thames. The wind and cold kept her from wading and casting around buoy 27.
• Over at J&B Tackle in Niantic, Kyle Douton said we should see at least the start of bass catches in The Race by the 15th of this month. Fluking has started at Montauk but it's a slow pick as of press time. The Millstone outflow holds schoolies and small blues or you can try in Niantic Bay, anchored up and chumming, jigging for squid, either for food, or bait for bass or fluke.
• Sherwood Lincoln said the fluking over in Peconic Bay remains pretty slow as of Wednesday. With warmer weather and rising water temperatures this is expected to improve markedly. The lower Connecticut River is loaded with schoolies from the DEP Dock down to the Black Hall River.
• Mark at River's End said two of his customers saw a school of fish chasing bait on the surface off Harkness Park but couldn't tell just what they were. A third trolled umbrella rigs at Hatchetts Reef for his first two bass of the new season. You just might get a flounder or two, anchored up and chumming along some of the outside beaches with sandy bottom from Westbrook through Old Lyme.