Norwich Bulletin 4/22/06

• This time of year, some of the fastest fishing action to be experienced is in the Thames River and other coastal estuaries that are harboring large schools of hungry, active striped bass.
• Most of the fish being caught in the Connecticut, Pawcatuck, Mystic, Niantic and Thames rivers are small schoolies averaging 14 to 22 inches. However, in the upper reaches of the Thames and other places with spawning runs of alewives, there will be some very large stripers to catch, particularly after dark or early in the day.
• Alewives tend to move up river to spawn with an incoming tide after dark and stripers are nocturnal. So, the combination can make for some pretty exciting big-fish action, if you're in the right place at the right tide.
• Stripers are all over the Thames River's shallow flats and coves right now and will be present in large numbers for at least a few more weeks. The runs of bigger bass are temperature-dependent and tend to have a much shorter duration in the herring spawning areas.[org pub Norwich Bulletin by Bob Sampson, Jr]