On The Water 11/25/05

1. It’s getting close to the end of the fall fishing but it’s not quite done. At this point there is some serious space between the schools of bass and bluefish. When you find them though, the numbers may be impressive. There seem to be a lot of anglers in our region who are still waiting for the big fish to come through but the reality is that it may have already happened, or worse, maybe there just aren’t as many big bass around these days as people think. You’re welcome to come to your own conclusions about why that may be…
2. Joe Balint of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames has been hearing about tons and tons of bass from Ocean Beach to Pine Island. There are a some bass in the Thames, though not many of them are as far up as Norwich. They are all schoolies but fun to catch if you are interested in putting up some big numbers. Sunday my buddy Eric Covino and I landed 105 fish, all under 22 inches and one 9-pound bluefish that was either eating the three inch long bunker the bass were chasing or eating the bass themselves.
3. Richard at Hillyer’s Bait &Tackle in Waterford said blackfishing was hot but the boats were blown off the water early in the week, so no new reports have come in over the past few days. There are small bass all over Ocean Beach. These are the hordes of small stripers that will eventually be running up into the Thames for the winter. Expect them to run out of the river and along either side, which is right along Osprey and Ocean Beaches more toward the end of the ebb. Richard said the only decent fish they’ve seen in over a week was a bona fide, 16-pound bluefish that was caught over the weekend. The people who caught it were very closed mouthed and didn’t say where they caught it. Funny thing is, the way everything is on the move, the blues could be fifty miles from where that one was caught by now so it really doesn’t really matter where the hell that chopper came from!
4. “Q” over at River’s End Tackle, Saybrook said the Connecticut River is not so hot since the last flooding rains. He said that Pat Abate told him that on Monday there were schoolies on Long Sand Shoal and that’s about it in general vicinity of the lower river. Odds are, there are probably some small fish cruising the shore in widely separated schools but nothing can be counted on for very long at this point in the season.
5. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison also said the winds have kept people off the water this week so far. Anglers are into different stuff, like talking ice fishing. Blackfish to 6 pounds are being caught off Southwest Reef and Madison Reef on crabs. Bass are still around but the Sound is holding fewer migratory fish with each passing day. The good news is that herring are very abundant in his area, which are drawing and holding the fish for the time being.
6. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle, reported that things have really slowed due to the rains, winds and the holiday. There are some small schoolies and “rat” bluefish showing up but no fish have been weighed in this week. Things are slowing down, more due to the lack of angler activity than perhaps a total lack of fish.
7. Rick Mola of Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said on Wednesday there were still a ton of blues and smaller bass off 11-B. Blackfishing is still holding up but not quite as good as two weeks ago. To the west off Hempstead, Long Island, the fish are hitting pretty well. There are not any herring around yet. Remember, the bass will be moving westward following the Atlantic herring any time now, a scenario that always brings with it a burst of big bass catches in the western end of the Sound. The herring generally show up when the temps suddenly drop. These are Atlantic herring, not the protected “river herring,” which are alewives and blueback herring that run during the spring. These winter run herring are fair game to catch for use as bait, with no limits on the catch numbers at this point in time.
8. This week, the best concentration of stripers we heard of was around the mouth of the Thames River, but these are all small fish. Look for some larger bass to be caught out at Block Island any time now. Wherever there are herring, some larger bass and bluefish won’t be far away. Blackfish catches have waned lately but will still be found around the deeper reefs throughout the region.