On The Water 11/18/05

1. The hot spots are in the Madison/Guilford area in Connecticut waters. Wherever there are herring, hickory shad or bunker of any size, there will be some stripers and bluefish.
2. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic said they have been seeing lots of blackfish. They are out of rigs, sold all their crabs and are closing up for the winter this week. Her group of anglers is having fun with the tautog at Ram Island Reef, Ellis Reef and North Hill. Shaffer’s will reopen in April. They always do a great job letting us know what’s happening around Fishers Island Sound. Thanks for all your help with this report Cheryl and Al! Talk to you in the spring.
3. Rennie, of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames in Connecticut, told us the Thames River has been slow in the upper reaches. A friend said there are good numbers of stripers at the mouth of the river around I-95 and New London Harbor, and spread out on either side of the river mouth from Pine Island and Bluff Point to Ocean Beach. They are mostly smaller schoolies with bluefish mixed in, but the numbers of fish are pretty high.
4. My friend Eric Covino fished Millstone Outflow last week and caught small stripers and huge bluefish up to about 15 pounds on Fin-S Fish and a jighead. He noted that the blues were apparently feeding on the stripers because he had a couple of small fish chopped up and had to reel the smaller fish in quickly to avoid them being cut up by giant choppers.
5. Salmon fishing in the Shetucket River has been slow due to the high water.
6. Richard at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford said he’d heard the blackfish are still around in good numbers, so are the bass.
7. Mark Lewchik of River’s End, Saybrook said nothing much is happening down their way. A few schoolies have been caught off the causeway and Lyme beaches. Mark said that Long Sand Shoal seems to have dried up over the past few days. Blackfish action has been good in this area when people are able to launch their boats. Water temperatures are still warm at around 55, but the river is cooler in the mid-40s because it drains colder areas to the north in Vermont. Mark has heard there are still stripers to the north at the Vineyard, so it (striper fishing) may not be over quite yet. We are in that period when the fish are moving in pulses, with ever-increasing “spaces” between schools. A few hickory shad have been caught off the state fishing pier at the DEP headquarters and off the causeway.
8. I’d try looking in the warmwater discharge at Millstone for albies, but it may be hard hooking up, even if they are hiding there, due to all the bluefish. Warm falls like this one usually trap a few albies and bluefish well into December. They survive as long as there is food and the plant doesn’t shut down.
9. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said that green crabs and blackfish are about all he’s been seeing coming into and going out of the shop. The blackfish bite is always excellent in this part of the Sound, and this year it’s been as good or better than normal. Menunketesuck Island, south of Falkner, and its north rips, Southwest Reef and all the local rock piles are holding fish. Of the lot, Southwest Reef is the best place for blackfish. Bluefish are still around in good numbers and some are big, 14 or 15 pounds, off Kimberly Reef. Sachem Head has been producing good ones when the tides are right. He’s seeing a few 30- to 40-pound fish feeding on herring like crazy, although, like elsewhere, most of the stripers being caught are small. Captain Morgan has been seeing bunker, herring and shad. He said there are no signs of it ending quite yet and that it will take a real cold snap to shut things down quickly. He suspects there will be striped bass around in December. Eels, tube and worms, and plugs in the surf are all working.
10. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle in Stratford, had a customer report a good blitz of bluefish up to 10 pounds off Seaside Park in Bridgeport on Tuesday evening that responded to casting poppers from the beach. Good blackfish are still being caught in the area. The best last week was an 8.5-pounder. Brian Thornill caught a 20-pound striper off Bond’s dock on a mackerel chunk over the weekend.
11. Nick Mola from Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said they are still seeing a strong run of blackfish off Buoys 28-B and 11-C, with top-end fish averaging from five to seven pounds. Diamond jigs fished deeper, off the Obstruction Buoy have yielded blues up to 15 pounds, along with small stripers of 30 inches. Fishing is improving and will begin yielding much larger bass in December when those herring that are now off the south shore beaches push their way into the western end of the Sound.
12. Best bet this week will probably once again be blackfish, around pretty much any rock pile or reef. Stripers and bluefish will be where the bait is, so some searching will likely be required. However, once located, the effort will be worthwhile. The waters from Quonny Breachway to Charlestown Breachway, around the mouth of the Thames River, and around the reefs and rip lines in the Madison and Guilford areas were holding the most stripers as of midweek. Chunks, eels, and tube and worms are best if you can get the sand worms. If not, use Berkley Power Sandworms instead. For the blackfish, fiddler crabs will work magic, otherwise the greenies will take their share of fish.