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.