On The Water 11/4/05

1. This is the time of year when the “fat lady” is clearing her voice for the season finale – but it’s not over yet. As always, our sport is totally weather-dependent. At this point, with moderate water temps reported in the mid- to high 50s throughout this reporting area, there could be two to maybe three or more weeks of fishing remaining. If Indian summer comes, action will last; if winter crashes in from the north, it won’t. Remember that last year we had a snowstorm on November 13 or 14 that ended the fishing like a kill switch. Right now it’s up to the weather as to just how long we have left in the surf and around the reefs. After it’s all over in the ocean, start looking to the Thames River for the best early winter fishing anywhere, beginning in late November or early December.
2. With more high winds and rain than sun for the past two weeks, things have changed in the ocean. Most of the shop personnel we talked to this week east of Madison reported a scarcity of bait in the water, although there is hickory shad in a few estuaries and in most major rivers, but the swarms of bait that were around all summer have either moved offshore or out of the area. Those who find the concentrations of bait, any sort of bait, will also find bass and bluefish.
3. Right now the fish are schooled up and moving, with a good deal of space between the schools, so expect fishing trips to begin as a search-and-destroy mission. As the migrations progress, later this month in the ocean those “holes” in-between the schools will grow till it’s pretty much all hole. The exception is western Long Island Sound, where some of the bass returning to the Hudson River seem to slow down and stack up to feed on Atlantic herring that show up in early December for two or three weeks.
4. After a season of incredible fishing for huge humpbacked porgies throughout the region, the season closed in Connecticut on November 1. This means that these fish must be returned to the water and can’t be possessed in Connecticut waters, even if they were caught elsewhere, until the season opens next year.
5. Al Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic said he hasn’t fished lately but has been weighing decent blackfish and hearing talk of interesting adventures from his customers. There has been a lot of excellent blackfish action in the entire Mystic/Stonington area. There was even a fairly intense topwater blitz from a big school of small stripers between Gates and Ram islands, complete with frenzied working birds, but nothing was big enough to keep.
6. A week ago Friday, they weighed in a 59-pounder that was caught on the south side of Fishers Island on an eel by Jamie Matthews of Southington, Connecticut.
7. One angler, who comes in from Noank Shipyard, has been going out with eels and tube-and-worm rigs and has done very well out front and around Fishers Island whenever he’s been able to fish properly. Two people he talked to said they have been catching over 40 fish per trip on average, in-between the storms. The fishing is good when boats can hit the water. Unfortunately, there is not much shore-fishing access in the Mystic area, so nearly all the reports from Shaffer’s are from boat fishermen at the marina.
8. Blackfish action has been excellent throughout the area. The south side of Fishers Island has been producing well, without much competition.
9. Every time there has been hard rains, hickory shad have gone bonkers in the harbor. I told Al to stick a hook in one and see if he doesn’t catch a 50-pounder for himself.
10. Joe Balint of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames has been seeing a few more striped bass showing up in the lower river. Nothing big, but improving numbers, which is typical this time of year as fish begin to enter this unique river where they will spend the winter. Bluefish are abundant on the south side of Fishers Island. There is a mix of bass and bluefish off the Mystic River area. Albacore are slowing and nearly gone. The areas of dirty water from all the high winds have slowed the fishing down dramatically.
11. Latimer Reef, Stonington Breakwater, the Clumps and Horseshoe Reef are all hot spots for blackfish. By Fishers Island around Silver Eel Cove there’s a reef that’s also produced a few good catches lately. Joe wanted to remind customers that the porgy season closed on November 1.
12. Richard at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford said the blackfish has been all they have been seeing and hearing about for the past week. They weighed a 13.7 over the weekend and a 13.75 monster two weeks ago. These fish are coming in from boat anglers who are finding them in shallow waters around White Rock, Black Rock, Three Foot Rock in Niantic Bay and around the typical spots at Sara’s Ledge and Goshen Reef closer to the mouth of the Thames River.
13. Hickory shad are still in-between the bridges at Niantic, but no peanut bunker or silversides are showing. Count on shad to have the potential to draw some of the big, late-run bass in tight when they pass through over the next couple of weeks.
14. Mark Lewchik at River’s End Tackle, Saybrook said they are taking bluefish on chunks off the town beach and off Long Sand Shoal on chunks and by trolling. There have been a few bass off the Old Lyme beaches, where Mark caught schoolies up to 24 inches when casting from shore. Plum Gut produced good bluefish action over the weekend, but there’s been no word on what’s happening out there or in The Race since then. The albies are fairly well shot in the immediate area. Blackfishing is good on every reef and rock pile in the area. Mark heard of an 11-pounder recently but gave no details on the catch other than that it came from a reliable source.
15. There are a few hickory shad and some schoolies in the lower Connecticut River, although there seem to be more shad than bass. Again if the shad hang around until the big bass migration reaches this area, they could be a great live bait for the few anglers who still have their boats in the water.
16. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison told us he’s been seeing excellent bass fishing exploding all over the place in the Madison area. The tidal rivers, including East River and West River to Clinton Harbor, are flushing bait with each tide, and the bass, nice ones that run up over 20 pounds, are all over the place, chowing down. He said it looks like you are fishing on the flats, with these bigger bass in these places in good numbers. The captain was fishing black and orange plugs on Halloween evening. He caught fish on an orange plug in honor of the occasion, but Slug-Gos and other jerkbaits seemed to be the key. I like to throw a four-inch Fin-S Fish on a small jighead under that sort of fishing condition.
17. The captain says between now and the third week of November he suspects the big bass will be moving through his area and improve an already excellent fishing situation. Huge bluefish are still hanging around all of the reefs in the area. Blackfish are red-hot off Madison Reef and Kimberly Reef, as well as the other rock piles and reefs.
18. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle in Stratford, didn’t pick up when we called this week.
19. Scott from Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said the deeper-water jigging outside the islands with diamond jigs has been hot at 11-B and the Obstruction Buoy, with bass more numerous than bluefish, for a change. Nothing big has been reported. The fish are abundant but only averaging 18 to 24 inches, with occasional 30-inchers in the mix. Bass are beginning to outnumber bluefish, whereas most of the summer it’s been pretty much all blues out there to do battle with. Steve Ehrens, a regular at the shop, was fishing at the “BH” Buoy on Friday and said he experienced nonstop bluefish action on big average-size fish that ranged on up to 12 pounds. He was fishing with mackerel chunks.
20. The blackfishing action is red-hot. Cockenoe Reef, Copps Rocks and Budds Reef are all producing blackfish, but the really big tiderunners are not being caught at this time. Inshore along the beaches and river mouths, fishing is hot and cold. Saturday he fished the Saugatuck River, which had good numbers of bass cruising around its mouth. He returned Sunday and couldn’t raise a fish. They are coming and going with the baby bunker and the tides, as Captain Morgan, located an hour to the east, was describing. Find the bait and you’ve probably found some fish to catch. NO bait, and it may be a long wait.
21. Water temperatures are still in the high 50s and chilling fast here in the extreme western end of Long Island Sound, where shallower waters tend to warm up higher and faster in the summer and also chill down a bit more quickly in the fall.
22. This is the week to go blackfishing around the top of the tide, then after catching whatever you need, go to the nearest reef or river mouth and look for a jumbo striped bass, with a great big Slug-Go or Fin-S Fish.