On the Water 1/20/06

1. Hot, cold, rain, snow, sleet, hail, freeze, thaw – that’s the cycle we’re in this year, many years, at this point. Here in New England, we are halfway between the North Pole and the equator. The 45th parallel, the exact halfway point between the frozen pole and the torrid equator, lies in northern Vermont, not too far south of Derby Center, Vermont. The spot is denoted by a large sign on the crest of a hill along Route I-91 North. This midway orientation is the reason for our fickle weather.
2. The physics of heating and cooling the atmosphere dictate global weather patterns whereby warm air masses tend to drift northward from the equator, and heavier, cold polar air tends to sink southward. It’s a constant battle between the polar air and the lighter, water-vapor-laden air from the south. Everything is pulled to the east by the spin of the planet, and it all mixes up somewhere in the vicinity of that halfway point, three hours’ drive to the north of here. Simply put, the end result is rains in the winter if the southerly flows are winning, cold clear air if Old Man Winter is on top of this timeless battle, and snow if they mix right over us.
3. In the summer it’s too warm to snow, but cold Canadian high-pressure air flows down from the north, turning the fishing off with clear, cool, windy bluebird weather after nearly every major southern storm blows through the region. It’s almost like the hurricanes and other major systems create a draft that draws the cold air down from the north after every storm. You can almost always count on high winds, dropping temperatures and a rising barometer after any major storm moves out.
4. This whole general pattern is guided to some degree by the perturbations of the high altitude winds of the jet stream. When the jet stream dips southward, it pulls the cold air down our way, and the reverse happens when it loops north, or holds to our north and runs straight across the continent over southern Canada. The location of weather below depends on where it (the jet stream) happens to be resting at any given time.
5. The most recent system to blow through the region (the one that in southern Connecticut where I live started as more than a day of heavy wind-blown rains pulling in high winds and cold air) turned into a freezing snowstorm that made a mess of the roads and kept nearly everyone home watching football playoffs and UCONN hoops. This messed up the striper fishing on the Thames River in Norwich, Connecticut, to some degree. The winter bass fishery has been nearly the only thing (fishingwise) going on.
6. I didn’t bother going out in the bitter cold and winds over the weekend, but my crazy buddy Eric has fished three days running. He said that on Sunday, surface temperatures started off around 37 or 38 degrees and by Tuesday had dropped to 33. Water temperatures always lag a day or more behind the air that blows above it. However, due to the high winds and churning effect, surface waters chilled quickly.
7. On top of that, the cold high-pressure air that blew in behind the storm drove the pressure up, presenting anglers with a double whammy by dropping water temps and raising barometric pressure. This combination almost always does a real job on the bite anywhere, even in the Thames, where there are thousands of fish stacked like cordwood.
8. And that’s exactly what happened. Eric said that on Sunday, pressure was rising, but temperatures had not yet begun to drop, and he and a friend caught 50-plus stripers.
9. Monday’s chill and winds brought poorer conditions. Eric and the same guy caught only some 20 fish.
10. By Tuesday, the bite had clammed up big time, and he only managed to get his hands on about 9 or 10 – a really poor showing for this time of year in Norwich Harbor.
11. Where the bass had been moving around in the harbor over the weekend, he noted that they had moved on downriver in dense schools to the Thermos Company stretch and below on Tuesday, but they just weren’t hitting well due to the cold, bluebird conditions.
12. The good thing was that most of the fish they caught during that period were larger bass than had been the norm to this point in the season. Most of the bass he caught over this three-day stretch were between 22 and 28 inches, where for most of the season to this point a 20-incher was a nice one.
13. In contrast, two weeks ago three of us caught 148 fish on a pick of a day; two were 27 inches, one 28 and the rest pretty much all less than 20 inches.
14. This drop-off in catches is typical. Most years, as water temperatures drop to midwinter low levels, the bite slows down progressively from this point on and will bottom out some time in mid-March. However, February is not all bad for fishing and in fact can be quite productive. There will be stretches during warm weather, warming rains, snow melts, and anytime the pressure rises when hundred-fish trips will be possible. Anytime over the winter, night-fishing will usually produce larger fish than when the sun is out and high in the sky.
15. This year, because there seems to be a large number of fish wintering in the upper river, fish of many year-classes and continued good fishing for another three to five weeks is likely, depending on which one wins the battle of the prevailing winds, the North or the South. The fact is the easiest fishing on the Thames is probably over or nearly so for the year, but at its worst, this is one of the most productive fisheries anywhere in the winter months. Where else can you go on a bad day, without pulling finger-size smelt from a six-inch hole, and catch 50 fish?
16. The recent frigid period has begun to stiffen waters up again, but there were some large sections of open water in most of the lakes in southern Connecticut, and with inflowing waters from the recent runoff, I can’t recommend ice fishing with a clear conscience.
17. Frozen water is not necessarily safe water, so always take precautions and don’t bunch up in iffy areas.
18. This is a time when sea-run trout fishing is an option in places such as Latimer Brook and the upper Niantic River, the upper portions of the Mystic River, the Hammonasset and the Saugatuck River estuaries.
19. Try live-bait fishing with Arkansas shiners, the same ones ice fishermen use, or if possible, pot some mummichogs and live-line them in these or other coastal estuaries denoted in the Connecticut Anglers Guide as being stocked with sea-run brown trout. The sea-runs are there, and if there is no ice cover, they can be reached.
20. As with any coastal, shallow-water fishing, figure on the trout being close to the shore around the top of the flood tide. If possible, fish in or near channels and nearby flats. In these upper-bay areas, look for places where the water is moving with the tides. The bridge abutment where I-95 crosses the upper Mystic River is a good place to fish for sea-run trout, as is the Golden Spur in Niantic. Try approaching the Golden Spur by boat because it’s all private property around this well-known and popular sea-run spot.
21. The DEP just stocked 500 excess broodstock Seaforellen-strain brown trout in 12 Connecticut lakes, 250 each in six lakes east of the Connecticut and the same number in six lakes west of the river.
22. Trout counts to the east are: Crystal Lake, Ellington, 42; Mashapaug Lake, Union, 41; Beach Pond, Voluntown, 41; Cedar Lake, Chester, 43; Ouonnipaug Lake, Guilford, 40; and Black Pond, Middlefield/Meriden, 43.
23. West of the big river, West Hill Pond, New Hartford, has 60; Mt. Tom Pond, Morris, 50; Tyler Lake, Goshen, 50; Stillwater Pond, Torrington, 35; Mohawk Pond, Cornwall, 35; and West Side Pond, Goshen, 20.
24. These fish will be available for ice fishing if the ice becomes safe. The DEP has not issued any ice-fishing reports due to the dangerous conditions and lack of angler effort on waters that could be lethal.