On The Water 12/30/05

1. For the past few weeks, the holiday shopping fervor, snow and frigid conditions have pretty much put an end to the fishing, with the exceptions being ice fishing, winter striped bass in the Thames River and around a few warm water discharges in the region. Despite the recent heavy rain, hardcore anglers continue to fish for stripers in the Thames and venture out onto wet, potentially deadly ice. The melt down and predicted warm temperatures will probably improve conditions on the Naugatuck and Shetucket Rivers for broodstock Atlantic salmon as a side benefit.
2. I wouldn’t go on the ice until things freeze tight again. Even though it may look safe, unseen springs and in-flowing water can make for some dangerous situations. You can bet some crazies will test things out despite the potential for disaster.
3. As of last week, the Thames River was producing some very high numbers of small striped bass as it always does during the Christmas season. At that time 20-degree nights and freezing days were starting to close the harbor under a cap of ice. The heavy rains earlier this week have pretty much taken care of that situation. The problem right now and for a couple days may be from flowing chunks of ice that have been washed downstream from impoundments. With high enough river flow, some very large chunks of ice could be floating through Norwich Harbor, so keep a watchful eye to the water upstream at all times but especially just after a thawing rain.
4. Water temperatures are still fairly mild, probably in the high 30s. The stripers always seem to hit better early on in the winter, before temperatures bottom out. Very often, during warm winter rains like we just had, local anglers who fish after dark in Norwich Harbor catch some of the largest stripers of the winter. It happens every year. Jack Balint of the Fish Connection noted that the rains haven’t seemed to slow the catch rates any, saying the catch numbers he’s hearing about are among the best in years.
5. My friend Eric Covino made two trips last week and caught something like 135 fish one trip with two other people and 165 fish the second outing with just his son Jim. All the fish were taken by jigging with Fin-S Fish or Zoom Fluke teasers on barely enough of a lead head to sink the lures down to where the fish are concentrated. Eric said he caught his fish last week between the Pequot Bridge and the drawbridge at Poquetanuck Cove. However, more recently the bass action has been concentrated from the harbor on down to the oil docks and almost to the casino. The fish are small, but Eric said they were larger than the tons of dinks he and I caught three or four weeks ago down river in New London, before the bass decided to finally move up stream for the winter season. He said the fish he caught the other day were topping off at 24 to 26 inches as opposed to the 20 to 22 inches most anglers have been reporting lately.
6. There’s always a chance to hook into fish that may even weigh up to 25 or 30 pounds, but they are rare during the winter fishery. It is pretty much a large numbers of small fish game that’s great fun with light tackle. The best tactic is to start in the harbor and try to locate fish on the depth finder screen or by watching who is catching fish in the other boats. If the bass are not present in large, thick schools in Norwich Harbor, continue downstream until huge, block like masses of bass appear on the screen. Even though there may be thousands of stripers under the boat they are not all turned on by any means, so chasing single fish or small schools is usually a waste of time. We don’t even start fishing unless the stripers under the boat are marked in a band that is a minimum of five or ten feet thick off the bottom.
7. Look for schools with finger like marks from individual fish coming off the top of the school. This image is preferable to those that look like a solid block, because it means that at least the fish on the top of the school are moving around, which is usually an indication they will be hitting to some extent. The solid blocks, or “buildings” as we refer to them are most common on high pressure bluebird days, when the fish are turned off and believe it or not, it can be difficult to get a fish to bite if the schools are stacked so tightly they are gray lining.
8. If you can take the cold, fishing is always better for larger fish after the sun sets, particularly when high tide takes place well after dark. Always try to fish the top of the high tide and ebb if possible.
9. Chris Fulton of Stratford Bait and Tackle said he had a few customers who were catching broodstock Atlantic salmon below the Derby Dam on Crocodile Spoons but that was about it in his area. Joe Balint of the Fish Connection said a few of his hardcore salmon fishermen were still trying to catch them from the Shetucket River but no word on what the rains have done to water flows below the Scotland Dam. It may be running too hard to fish for a few days. However, if the temperatures remain balmy the salmon will probably be catchable once the flows drop to manageable levels. Jack Balint said that it sounded like the rains have improved salmon fishing due to the more open waters and the increase in water temperature from high run off and snow melt this relatively warm storm has produced.
10. For the time being that’s about it. There have been a couple people talking about steelhead fishing up at Salmon River in Pulaski, New York and another friend is champing at the bit to go smelt fishing at an ice camp he fished last year in Maine. Angling options will broaden once the lakes freeze safe and thick.

Conn Post 12/23/05

1. Ice-fishing season has finally arrived. The frigid night temperatures have thickened the ice significantly over the past week. Some ponds in the northwestern corner of the state have ice thicknesses upwards of eight inches. Many of the more southerly ponds have coatings of three to six inches. Do not attempt to ice fish on the ponds along the coast.
   Anglers must use some common sense when ice fishing during the early season. Wise anglers are avoiding the larger lakes as the safer ice is mainly found on those ponds less than 200 acres. Safe ice can be found on some of the larger lakes, but it is confined to the coves and backwater areas. Use I-84 as the safety demarcation line. Ponds north of this highway are safe to fish. Ponds south of this highway require reconnaissance. Always check on the ice thickness by conferring with other ice anglers.
2. The wind and last week's ice storm blew and flushed the snow off the ice. Any snow still on the ice may indicate a wet spot. Avoid these snow patches as they could hide weak ice. Also, because of the snow-less ice, walking across the clean pond surface can be treacherous. Add cleats or spikes to your winter boots before heading off ice fishing.
   Last fall, the state Department of Environmental Protection stocked a score of lakes and ponds with trout. Most of these stocked lakes are now frozen where ice anglers are catching both brown trout and rainbow trout. Look for the trout in Black Rock State Park Pond, Black Pond, Coventry Lake, Crystal Lake, Mohawk Pond, Mount Tom Pond, Stillwater Pond, Tyler Pond, West Hill Pond, Highland Lake and West Side Pond.
   
3. Largemouth bass enthusiasts should have good luck ice fishing at Ball Pond, Lake Kenosia, Mansfield Hollow Reservoir, Hatch Pond, Highland Lake, Congamond Lake, Silver Lake, Beseck Lake, Black Pond, North Farms Reservoir, Long Meadow Pond, Bantam Lake, Dog Pond, West Twin Lake, Mudge Pond, Park Pond, Winchester Lake and Wood Creek Pond.
   
4. Pickerel and yellow perch are always cooperative during the winter season. Both fish can be found together in Highland Lake, Tyler Pond, Waramaug Lake, West Side Pond, West Twin Lake and Winchester Lake. Northern pike, a close cousin to the pickerel, are available in Winchester Lake, Mansfield Hollow Reservoir and Bantam Lake.
   Two other noteworthy ice-fishing spots are Kettletown State Park Cove on Lake Zoar and Mamanasco Lake. Both spots are giving up large numbers of crappie, yellow perch and bluegills. Largemouth bass and few pickerel have also tripped tip-ups in Mamanasco Lake.
   
5. Many anglers travel to New Hampshire for ice-fishing weekends. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department changed several ice fishing regulations this season. Any angler using a bobhouse or ice shanty must display 12 square inches of reflective material on the outside of each wall. This rule applies to all portable shelters. Also, anglers face new daily creel limits of 25 fish for yellow perch, horned pout (bullhead), white perch, black crappie and all sunfish species, with a 50-fish aggregate daily possession limit for all these above species combined. [ FRANK MCKANE JR. ]

On The Water 12/23/05

1. Ocean fishing is pretty much done on all fronts, for the time being. Snow, wind, rain and other such stuff put a premature end to what would normally have been some good late run striper fishing in Western Long Island Sound and off Block Island. Ice fishing is just getting started but we are at that point where some ponds may be safe while others may kill you, so at this early juncture, especially in coastal ponds I can’t recommend any one go out on the ice.
2. Ronnie, owner of Breachway Tackle, Charlestown, Rhode Island said that there were some mackerel off the end of the breachway recently and a few customers took advantage of these small but tasty fish. There may have been some bass under them but there weren’t any reports of stripers caught or seen feeding on these fish.
3. John Swienton, owner of Twin Maples Tackle out on Block Island told us no one was fishing due to the fact the islanders all pulled their boats a few storms ago. For this reason, the late, often great striped bass fishing was never really tested due to the nearly constant bad weather. Two weeks ago, when that blizzard-like snowstorm hit nearby areas, Block Island didn’t get any precipitation. However they were hit by a major backlash of high winds that were recorded at up to 105 mph, with sustained winds howling up around 90 mph for an hour before things blew through and began to calm down. John said the hurricane force winds blew the roof off one house and some residents had propane tanks blown across their yards. Winds of that force are much more destructive when temperatures are in the 20s and 30s than in the 60s and 70s because the cold air is much denser.
4. This major wind storm was the last in a series of nasty blows that served to shut down the late fall fishing at Block Island. John noted that the fish might have been there but no one was out on the water to prove it much of the time since late October.
5. We will resume calling Twin Maples next spring when the bass are on their return run up the coast.
6. Joe Balint of The Fish Connection in Preston, Connecticut on the Thames River told me he has been hearing about some excellent fishing in Norwich Harbor where the anglers who know what they are doing are catching over 100 fish or more per day from boats. The stripers have been reported as far down river as far as the power plant in Montville. Joe said one customer was fishing near Buoy 27 with cut bait last week and said that he couldn’t keep two rods working because the entire time he was there schoolie stripers were taking his baits. Another group of anglers was fishing from a boat near the rock pile in front of Trading Cove and kept getting hits, but missing the fish. This is always a sign the fish are small, but even tiny bass have large enough mouths to take a small jig. Eventually one of the anglers accidentally snagged a white perch, which settled this matter. There had been a big school of large white perch out there bumping the baits, but their mouths were too small so they couldn’t get hooked!
7. The stripers in the river are typically small, from 12 to 22 inches. The largest fish are in the 28- to 30-inch range and most of them are being caught after dark by the hard-fishing “river rats” who pretty much only come out after dark to fish the high and dropping tides.
8. There are still a few Atlantic salmon being caught up in the Shetucket River, despite the ice flows, with the hardcore anglers fishing hard for every fish at this time of year. Be careful because now when the river comes up it carries chunks of ice that could knock a person over.
9. Joe also said that two of his diehard bass fishermen fished Amos Lake just before the recent storms and caught a bunch of bass in the open water over the deepest hole in the pond. The top fish was a monster 8-pound plus, 24-inch largemouth.
10. Like me, Joe is not recommending any ice fishing yet. He doesn’t want to loose any of his loyal customers, though he said a few of the hard water fishing crazies who come through the shop are starting to venture out on the smaller, more protected ponds. Pick your waters very carefully.
11. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle in Madison reports not much happening in his neck of the woods. The full moon with all the rain flooded them out, turning their parking lot into a pond ,which they made into a casting pool off the front deck of the shop so customers could play with some of the stuff they were buying as Christmas gifts.
12. There are a few Atlantic herring around but no one is testing things out to see if there are any big bass feeding on them at this time. A few of his crazies are also going out ice fishing but these guys are heading to northern Connecticut and Massachusetts where things always freeze up early and it may not be quite so dangerous.
13. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait & Tackle said customers are turning to freshwater and ice fishing in his area as well. One customer who has been buying mackerel for chunk baits lately said he has not caught anything for seven or eight days, as indication that the stripers are inactive or have passed through this area.
14. Chris said the ocean is pretty much done, but river fishing up the Housey at the Derby Dam has been good for broodstock Atlantic salmon, with Crocodile spoons being the lure most successful anglers are talking about.
15. Nick Massera of Fisherman’s World in Norwalk said that there was not much to report down his way either. The herring are being jigged for and caught off the local piers in the harbor. No one is catching any bass under the bait to his knowledge, partially because anglers aren’t rigging for them and wouldn’t be able to catch them even if they were around. With Fisherman’s World located at “the end of the line” so to speak in Long Island Sound, its pretty safe to say, the bass season of 2005 is over. The only exceptions will be the warm water outflows from Boston to New York and of course the Thames River, which is red hot now and will smolder from now through February at least.
16. The best bet for fishing action now and for the next couple of months, other than that found after you drill a six-inch hole through the ice at your local pond is salmon fishing in the Shetucket or Naugatuck Rivers. This will continue for another week or so until water temps bottom out for the winter. The only other chance for relaible action is from the schoolie bass that are so abundant from Norwich Harbor to the Pequot Bridge on the upper Thames River.

On The Water 12/16/05

1. At this time of year not much is happening in the fishing world, due to the upcoming Christmas holiday, and the fact that ocean fishing is pretty much dead and the “Fat Lady” has left the stage. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone go out on the ice, at least in this area, but there have been reports of a few crazies already testing it.
2. Fishing World, Norwalk reported that there are a few ocean herring, which are legal to keep for consumption and bait, being caught in the extreme western end of Long Island Sound. Odds are there are probably a few late-run bass chowing down on them, but no one is out there to say for sure. This year’s herring run in the Norwalk Islands was a disappointment. It was late and not up to par. Basically, even this shop’s hard-core anglers are taking a break for the season and getting out of the miserably cold weather that followed last week’s blizzard. A few of their customers are beginning to fish for steelheads on the Salmon River in Pulaski and vicinity in northern New York State.
3. Chris at Stratford Bait and Tackle said that there may be a few hard-core anglers fishing the local power plant out flows, but if they were he hadn’t heard if they caught anything. Most of the people coming into the store are Christmas shopping and rigging up for ice fishing.
4. Right now the only decent fishing to be found is in the Thames River on its overwintering stripers. As is always the case from just before Christmas till late January and mid-February, Norwich Harbor is one of the hottest spots to catch fish anywhere! When the tides are right and the bass are active, it’s possible, in fact a regular occurrence, for two anglers who know how to fish the river to catch a hundred, even two or three hundred fish between them in a tide!
5. Joe Balint of the Fish Connection, on Route 12 just south of Norwich near the Pequot Bridge, told us that the only fish in the Thames River at the present time have been caught in Norwich Harbor downriver to the Leheigh Oil Company area, which is typical for this time of year.
6. Typically, most of the bass in the river are small fish. There are tens of thousands of them piled up in massive schools the likes of which you will never see in the ocean. They stack so tightly when the barometric pressure is high and rising that the schools’ gray lines on depthfinders have fooled the uninitiated into thinking they were viewing the bottom and not a 20- to 30-foot-thick mass of striped bass. No kidding!
7. This fall, with all the heavy, flooding rains that literally washed the peanut bunker and other small bait out of the river prematurely, the normal movement upriver and its resulting blitzes never really materialized. When heavy rains occur late in the fall, and we had a number of them this year, they seem to reduce the total number of stripers that are observed overwintering. This is just speculation based on observation of school sizes and numbers over the years, but no one really knows for sure.
8. One year I used an Aqua-Vu underwater camera in an attempt to estimate how many fish there were in a typical dense school in the upper river at that time. We estimated that one school we were over was about 200 yards long, 25 to 30 yards wide and 15 to 20 feet deep, tapering to 10 feet toward the downriver end. After running over the school to get its length and width, we noted the depth readings of the fish. Then, with the camera, stripers in the viewing range were noted numerous times. Using a high figure, low figure and an average, the number of stripers was estimated by multiplying these parameters by the volume of the school.
9. The estimate came out to around 30,000 fish, using the average figure, and ranged from about 12,000 to 60,000 using the other parameters. On that day we fished three schools about that size in the upper river, so there could well be nearly a quarter of a million bass in the upper Thames River on a good year. Half or a quarter of that number of fish is a whole bunch of bass to be concentrated in such a small area.
10. So knowing these kinds of statistics, anyone can see why the fishing can be so good at times, but like fishing everywhere, there are never guarantees. We’ve had days when many hours of drifting through schools 10 to 20 feet thick only produced one or two small bass, though our jigs bumped hundreds with their mouths frozen shut. Snagging these fish is unethical and illegal, though I see bozos doing it intentionally all the time. Wait until the weight of the fish is felt, then lift gently and reel into the fish to avoid sticking hapless fish.
11. The bass are predictable, moving up and stacking thickly in Norwich Harbor with the flood tide. This is the tide that, when it occurs after dark, the shore-based anglers like best. It’s when they often catch their highest numbers and largest stripers that are normally reported every winter.
12. The average striper is 12 to 22 inches, with 28- to 32-inchers being caught on a regular basis. One time I went over the catch stats for a few years on the Thames and determined that at least during that time frame, which was the mid 90s, one fish in every 50 or so was over 30 inches. Because these are schooling fish, we might catch four or five hundred under 26 inches, then catch two 20-pounders and three others in the low 30-inch range in a trip or two.
13. You never know when a bigger fish will hit. I have noticed a definite increase in larger fish when we were catching really tiny striped bass because I think the big ones eat the dinkers. We’ve had foot-long and smaller stripers grabbed by bigger fish on a few occasions over the years. The “river rats” who fish all night on the right tides catch fewer fish overall, but on average catch a much higher percentage of 28-inch-plus bass, including some top-end catches each winter that weigh over 30 pounds.
14. Tagging information from the American Littoral Society gathered and analyzed by Captain Al Anderson was quite informative in a recent issue of The Underwater Naturalist, the organization’s publication. The tagging data he analyzed from the fish he’s personally caught indicated that, as one would expect, the Thames is a nursery for immature stripers. Captain Al believes they may be genetically programmed to seek out this or possibly other similar estuarine wintering grounds rather than crowd the spawning population in the Hudson River every winter and spring.
15. Based on the comparatively small number of tags (300 to 400 with 12 returns) my science classes have added to the Thames River and about 200 Thames River returns published by the ALS, there seems to be a direct connection between the wintering of smaller bass in the Thames and summering off Cape Cod to as far north as Maine. Homing to wintering grounds of some sort is definitely not out of the question. If it is a programmed behavior, Al is right and it’s locked into the fish’s DNA, which makes sense, being that fish are basically programmed organisms with tiny brains.
16. His hypothesis is based on an old account he came across while doing research for his excellent report for the ALS. In 1729, the Thames River’s ice broke up early due to a warm rain. Fishermen pulled a large haul seine up onto Chelsea Landing, which in those days was probably about where the restaurant of the same name sits today, some 200 yards from the present water line at the town docks. Over a couple of days of fishing, they reportedly caught 20,000 striped bass, which would indicate that my wintering population estimates might not be too far from reality. These bass tend to drop downriver with the tide, often so rapidly you can temporarily lose a school with 10,000 or more fish in it between drifts.
17. The trick is staying on top of the biggest concentrations. Most of the armada that’s turned on to this productive and fun fishery drift downriver, with small soft-plastic jigs, 4.5-inch Fin-S Fish, Zoom Flukes, Slug-Gos and other narrow-profile soft plastics under 5 inches. Jigheads will need to be changed as tide and drift speeds increase, from 3/8 to as much as ¾ ounce or more, depending on the diameter of line being used. I prefer 6- or 8-pound-test Fireline on a 6-foot spinning rod for this kind of fishing because so many of the fish are “dinks.”
18. Usually we will drift down through the schools with jigs, then run back upriver trolling small 4-inch-long Bomber Deep As in chrome/blue or chrome/black back. A few anglers are trolling successfully with mini spreader rigs that absolutely slay the fish on a small wire-line rig with 20-pound-test monel or a super braid line.
19. Cold, blustery, high-pressure days when the barometric pressure is rising will be slow, even when drifting through literally a half-million fish. A bad day on the Thames for two guys is anything under 20 fish, and a good one is hundreds. Last year my buddy Eric and guys in two other boats caught over 300 fish per boat in a single tide, and they were the only crazies fishing on that day because a storm was predicted. When a storm is approaching with dropping pressures and overcast skies or after sunset, the bass come out to play. When they do, a tide in the upper Thames anytime in the next month can well be the most productive five or six hours of fishing you will ever experience.
20. Joe Balint also noted that some of his salmon fanatics are still catching a few fish from the Shetucket River from Scotland Dam to Baltic when the water flows are right. No specific catches, but the last of the fish for the year were stocked last week, bringing the total to about 1,700 adult broodstock salmon that have been released into the Shetucket and Naugatuck rivers since late October.

Conn Post 12/16/05

• The state Department of Environmental Protection completed its fall stockings of surplus Atlantic salmon broodstock last week. About 130 more salmon were split between the Shetucket River and Naugatuck River. This final stocking brings the total number of broodstock salmon released this fall into the two rivers to 1,780 fish. According to the DEP, the state's Kensington Salmon Hatchery produced 980 of the salmon and the other 800 salmon were obtained from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Hatchery in White River Junction, Vt.
• Those anglers braving the cold weather have enjoyed the salmon fishery. The only problems on the Naugatuck River right now are severe cold, lack of parking and freezing rod guides. Snow plows have blocked a good number of the better parking areas. Anglers fishing the river should dress for the elements and be prepared to walk some distance to access the larger pools. You can also spray your rod guides with silicone lubricant or cooking spray, like PAM. These lubricants prevent ice from sticking to your rod guides and reel. Ice fishing season has started in the northwest corner of the state. Currently the activity is confined to the smaller ponds, such as Dog Pond in Goshen, Wood Creek Pond in Norfolk, Burr Pond in Torrington, Park Pond in Winchester, Mt. Tom Pond in Litchfield and Mudge Pond in Sharon.
• Fishers need to be very careful when ice fishing right now. Remember, it is still very early in the ice fishing season. Thus the ice varies greatly in thickness. Also, the recent snow cover insulated the pond ice to slow its thickening. Anglers must check the ice thickness before leaving the shore. You can look for other anglers on the pond or tracks in the snow to indicate safe passage. Another alternative is to drill test holes as you venture away from land.
• Three inches of ice will support one ice angler. But ice that thin leads to suspect variation of thickness that could lead to an accident. Four inches of ice is much safer. Ice at five inches thick will hold two anglers as they team up for fish. Wait for six inches of ice before bringing the family out on the frozen pond.
• The DEP reported several winter lake drawdowns. When you review your lake charts, factor in the depth changes as follows: Gardner Lake, Ashland Pond, Billings Lake, Lower Bolton Lake, Middle Bolton Lake and Bashan Lake are down about three feet. Pachaug Pond is scheduled to drop down five feet. Beseck Lake will lower six feet. Lake managers are planning a 10-foot drawdown on Candlewood Lake, which should be completed by the end of the year.
• Other important reminders are that Bunnells Pond, Great Hollow Pond, Lake Saltonstall, the Maltby Lakes and all the designated "children-only" fishing ponds are closed for the season. The Saugatuck Reservoir will be closed after Dec. 31. Winter flounder and porgy seasons are also closed. Blackfish season ends Tuesday. [Connecticut Post by FRANK MCKANE JR. ]

On The Water 12/8/05

1. Although a few hard-core anglers are still at it in a few locations along the coast. Conditions are now prime in the Thames River for anyone who needs a striper fix, but the fish are dinky, under 20 inches for the most part. Western Long Island Sound has the herring coming in, which usually means some big bass are on their tails, yet there haven’t been the big bass catches that should be occurring. This is due partly to the holiday season, partly to weather conditions and maybe the fact that the fish don’t seem to be where they have been in past years.
2. Don at King Cove Outfitters, Stonington heard from one angler who was on the beach for a few hours over the weekend and didn’t catch anything.
3. Rennie of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames said the stripers suddenly seemed to move up into Norwich Harbor and have apparently done so since the cold snap. Most of the fish are typical winter fish, averaging 14 to 20 inches, but there are always fish ranging from 28 inches to maybe even 30 pounds mixed in and probably eating the small stripers. Rennie said the “river rats” have been doing well after dark on small, narrow-profile, soft plastics, but from a small boat with a fishfinder, you can catch them all day long as well.
4. Atlantic salmon fishing for the excess breeders is still going on in the Shetucket River, but there’s been no word of anglers actually doing any catching. Rennie said the salmon fans were reporting regular catches and hookups about two weeks ago, but some of the recent hard rains and other storms have slowed things down. Plus, the action always slows down a great deal once water temperatures start getting down into the low 40s, which is where they are now, or maybe even lower, after the snow and a couple of 20 degree nights. Shallow water in rivers cools more quickly than the deep water of lakes and in the Sound.
5. Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford is open Friday 9 to 3, Sat 9 to 4 and Sunday 9 to 3 for the winter. Another indication the Fat Lady has sung.
6. Mark Lewchik of River’s End, Saybrook said he’s been hearing of a few small pike being caught up the Connecticut River in the Haddam area. These fish are apparently on the move, with the dropping water temperatures, and at least one or two of the folks he’s talked to have reported catching some fish on a regular basis. Over the weekend a few blackfish were caught from the local rock piles, but no one has been out since. Mark also heard about the improved striper catches at night up in Norwich Harbor.
7. For a different “fish story,” Mark said that a friend stopped by the shop one day after fishing in a local marina basin for schoolie bass. The basin had some skim ice on it, and apparently the bass were pushing a school of silversides up toward the surface, beneath the ice. A striper blasted into the school, crashed through thin ice with its tail and left a few unlucky silversides stranded and flipping around on top of the ice for the seagulls to pick up. A sign of the times, because this was the best fish story we heard this week.
8. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said there are a bunch of seals and plenty of herring around but no anglers going out to play with them. The captain, who always has a humorous slant on things, said the seals are catching most of the fish at the present time. And, I might add, they obviously aren’t telling him where.
9. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle, Stratford said nothing much is happening other than a few schoolie stripers and some drop-down Atlantic salmon caught at the Derby Dam on the Housatonic. Excess broodstock Atlantic salmon are commonly caught in the pool below the dam after being stocked in the Naugatuck River. Anglers are catching them on some of the smaller lures they are tossing for schoolie bass such as soft plastics and smaller spoons.
10. Nick Mola, at Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said that angler activity levels have slowed a good deal in his neck of the woods, mainly because of the bad weather. The herring are moving in, which usually means a week or so of “big bass” catching. But it hasn’t happened yet to his knowledge, and it’s getting late. Nick said that his partner in the store, Rick, went to City Island last week, jigged up some herring and had a big bass on but lost it. Later on he caught a 30-incher, and that was it. A disappointment. Nick speculated that because there are still some fish being caught at Montauk Point and his contacts in New Jersey haven’t had their usual run of big stripers either, the big bass may not be here yet. The other scenario that Nick suggested is what some of the folks at Montauk Point are saying, and that is that the bigger bass for some reason are moving past the Sound and the point, about 12 miles out to sea. Who knows? The fish passing outside of Montauk Point are Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River fish. However, the fish that pass through Norwalk and the Sound are headed for the Hudson River and would not take a route outside and around Montauk Point, so there may be some truth to both of these ideas.
11. The various runs this season have been late for the most part by two or three weeks in many cases, generally messed up this year, so anything is possible. Nick and the crew at Fisherman’s World are still hoping for their annual, mid-December run of herring, complete with 30-pound-plus stripers that they are looking forward to catching for a week or so.
12. Temperatures are around 42 in the western end of the Sound, which is getting to the point where the fish will physically begin to shut down, so who knows what will happen over the next week or so?
13. Best bet this week for action is mackerel off The Causeway at Newport or schoolie stripers in the Thames River. Fish small soft plastics such as Fin-S Fish, Salt Shakers, small twister tails or Slug-Gos on enough of a jighead to reach the bottom. Best action will take place after dark from shore or boat. But from a small boat that can be launched in Norwich, simply find the schools and drift through them with jigs or troll them up with small deep-diving swimmers or small multiple-hook spreader rigs.
14. Freshwater anglers may want to look for broodstock Atlantic salmon in the Shetucket or Naugatuck rivers, or pike in the Connecticut River in the Haddam area and around any of the larger backwaters and inlets.

Capt Morgan Madison 12/8/05

1. If holiday preparations and tree lighting ceremonies aren't getting in the way, there are still some bass to be caught and togs to be pulled from the Sound. Typically though, this time of year is predictably unpredictable. The winds and the weather seem to be dictating what fishermen are doing more than the fishery. So except for those few bonus December days, it might be time to yield and let the seals and herring have their snowy wintry playground all to themselves.
2. Smaller stripers have begun to move into their holdover pattern and into the rivers, most likely those that spawned them. Colder water temperatures are certainly further inducing them to get a move on. A soft plastic or jig, slowly retrieved near the bottom, could easily bring a river strike. Also, deep trolling a small tube or scaled down umbrella rig could do the trick. Slow down the retrieve or troll.
3. The Shetucket and Naugatuck rivers continue to draw salmon anglers to their banks. Fishing has been good and even though one fish may be kept per day, the majority caught are being released. Freshwater licenses as well as combos for the 2006 season are now available at the shop.
4. Check out the Connecticut River for northern pike. A small live shiner baited on a number-six hook and fished on light line can yield surprising results. There have also been a number of largemouth bass caught from area lakes as well as trout from local rivers. Can ice fishing be far off?
5. In spite of the recent rainfall, several clamming beds in both Madison and Guilford have remained open. Many folks find this time of year particularly rewarding in that clams generally taste better and the crowds have dissipated. It is a good idea to check with the local towns before venturing out for a day of gathering round clams and/or steamers since this activity is weather-dependent. [the day written by capt morgan]

Capt Morgan Madison 12/1/05

1. Pick your days and you'll still hook into a striped bass, bluefish, and/or tautog. With some warm days left ahead (in spite of the recent blast of cold), the fishery in the Sound is refusing to totally yield. There is an emotional clash going on between fishermen that hunt and hunters that fish. Certainly, there are very few plausible excuses for empty space in the freezer this year as fish fillets are readily being packaged, fowl dressed, and venison processed.
2. No doubt, the weather will continue toward a wintry trend and dipping water temperatures will eventually bring this fishing season to a somewhat dormant state. I say "somewhat dormant," because there will still be activity in the Sound although limited. Moreso, of course, in the upper reaches of the tidal rivers where stripers can be coaxed into taking a lure or two once the contents of their stomachs have undergone a much slower digestive process.
3. For now, eels, chunks, and/or diamond jigs are working on any given bass or blue outing, weather conditions being the key. Successful eel and plug casting from shore depends also on the elements with smaller bass being caught at the base of the main tidal rivers. Look for striper fishing to continue into December or until such time as the water temperature dips below the mid-forties.
4. Fish for tautog, on the other hand, until Dec. 13 when the 2005 season officially closes for the year. Madison and Southwest Reefs have been the hot spots locally with fish in the four- to six-pound range now being caught. Hatchett's, as well as the walls in New Haven, have also been producing togs with many rock piles in-between holding fish.
5. Broodstock salmon fishing in the Shetucket continues to be good and, as mentioned earlier, is worth a trip or two. Some sizeable fish have been introduced into that waterway and it is the hope of most anglers who fish it that many will be returned so fishing for them will be prolonged. The largest caught to date has been 25.75 pounds.
6. Both the Naugatuck and Shetucket Rivers should have approximately 1,800 broodstock Atlantic salmon stocked this fall. Fish for them with only one free-swinging hook or single fly without additional weight added to the line. The limit is one salmon per day per angler from Dec. 1 through March 31—through Nov. 30, catch and release is the only game in town [The Day, Captain Morgan]