Capt Morgan Madison 1/12/06

1. The mild weather has extended the season for many anglers who yearn for the quiet trout and salmon waters of Connecticut. The shoreline continues to offer good trout fishing for those wishing to wade chilly waters or attempt to straddle the sometimes firm, sometimes muddy banks of rivers or streams. Often the pools will be deep from the on-again, off-again moisture—sometimes white, other times clear. Even some trout parks have attracted anglers looking to put their 2006 licenses to early use in hopes of hooking into a trout or two.
2. Certainly, the weather along the shoreline has been by all accounts mild and will probably continue to be so until month's end when perhaps Mr. Winter will get back on track. Still, ice fishing for many will have to take a break unless traveling to the northern climes of the state is an option. The end of January will have to produce cold temperatures that continue into February in order to rejuvenate the season. Similar events occurred last year with ice-out at Lake Quonnipaug, for example, occurring on March 30.
3. Above the I-95 corridor where the warm temperatures of Long Island Sound have less of an influence, many lakes and ponds sport enough safe ice to support ice fishing activities. Ice holes have peppered those surfaces and anglers have flagged perch, bass, crappie, and the like. Larger lakes known to have healthy populations of trout, pike, walleye, pickerel, and catfish are also attracting anglers. Jigging sticks together with small jigs tipped with a tidbit of sorts has been productive especially when used in conjunction with the legal limit of tipups. Connecticut allows for an aggregate of six devices per angler—two if under 16.
4. If you're a striper buff and it already has been too long since gripping a lip or feeling that wet splash on your face as you release a fish, then take a ride to upper reaches of one of our major tidal rivers. Rig up a light setup and grab a handful of small bucktails and/or soft plastics weighing about one-half of an ounce or so and head out.
5. Cast, let sink, and vary your retrieve or jigging action. If you've timed it so those usually tightly-schooled linesiders haven't recently fed, you'll be into fish. The colder the water, the slower the digestive action thereby creating a longer interval between feeds. If such is the case, don't be surprised if all you feel is a succession of bumps as your jig glances off of fish.