On The Water 4/20/06

1. Its schoolies, schoolies, schoolies, occasional keepers and a few flounder. Everyone along the coast has something around to play with. Western Long Island Sound has some bunker penetrating as far east as Bridgeport Harbor, with some bass into the 30-pound range feeding heavily on them. There’s a large body of menhaden still in New York waters with some larger fish feeding on them that can be expected to move eastward over the next two weeks. Winter flounder are being caught, with a few people even talking about limits, though most places it’s a slow pick at best. Schoolie stripers, some migrants, are in the Newport area and winter holdovers in the large rivers like the Thames are abundant and providing some very fast fishing action when anglers hit the tides right.
2. Freshwater fishing is also red hot. With trout season open, many angler’s are hitting the local lakes and streams with trout being their main interest, though largemouth bass are very active in the smaller, warmer shallow ponds and lakes throughout the region.
3. Bill at King Cove Outfitters in Stonington CT said they’re starting to hear about some action in the Pawcatuck River from around the cemetery on down to the mouth. Charlestown Breachway has also been active the past few evenings. The bass are small and being caught on flies and small soft plastics and plugs. He also noted that a few of his customers are fishing for winter flounder, but no one is reporting back on doing much “catching” at this point.
4. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina in Mystic, CT said they just opened up on Friday. Alan caught a small striper in the river over the weekend. Not many of their boats are in the water yet so she hasn’t heard much about winter flounder. Kids are taking a few small bass on Storm shads off the causeway bridge. Al said the lower river was 48 degrees on Saturday night but it dropped to 44 off the Pawcatuck River on Monday (which is closer to the cooler open ocean). Temps are ahead of last year at this calendar date and shaping up nicely for spring and early summer fishing throughout the region.
5. Our Thames River report comes from Captain Jack Balint of The Fish Connection in Preston, CT. The river has been seeing bass everywhere up and down the river, from Buoy 27 up to the Greenville Dam. Its been mostly schoolies but there are some nice bass up to 15 to 18 pounds being caught from lower Poquetanuck Cove. There are also some bigger bass being caught up at the dam when the tides are right. Try to fish near the top of the tide and you will catch some of these bigger, herring-chasing stripers.
6. Freshwater fishing is turning on pretty well.Low water conditions made fishing easier in the area’s rivers and streams by concentrating the fish into pools where they could be easily reached and caught. The water is almost too low in some parts of the Yantic and other smaller rivers. Jack said that the Salmon River, the Black Ledge River (which flows into the Salmon River), Shetucket and Natchaug are all producing some decent fish.
7. Mark at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle in Waterford CT said that the Niantic River, Jordan Cove vicinity, has been producing winter flounder in good numbers. Many of the fish are quality sized, with a fair number of anglers actually limiting out. He said they are anchoring up and chumming the channel for flatties up inside the inner bay near Camp Rell. Down closer to the bridges they are catching some nice blackfish, along with some flounder, near where the channel bends to flow under the drawbridge. Schoolie stripers are also present in the upper river, with the best action taking place early and late in the day.
8. Mark also heard reports that the lower Connecticut River has been producing some stripers up to 30 inches, with Great Island and Lieutenant River near the DEP dock being the hot spots. The outgoing tide has been (and always is) best in the Connecticut River, with guys using flies and soft plastics. There are reports of stripers being caught in and around the mouth of Hamburg Cove as well.
9. White perch are hitting well at Hamburg Cove, though more towards the mouth than up higher in the cove around the marinas. Reports from some hard core perch fishermen indicate that numbers are good but the size is down from past years. American shad are just starting to move here and in the Thames.
10. Pat Abate of River’s End Tackle in Saybrook CT said the striper fishing has been good in the lower Connecticut River for a week or more now, from Lieutenant River to Great Island and also up-river around South Cove at Essex. The catches, like everywhere else, are mostly small fish with occasional 30-inchers being caught around dark in and near creeks that support herring runs. Bigger fish are separated from the smaller fish and chasing these much larger baits.
11. Winter flounder are being caught in Niantic, but note there’s not much action around the lower river mouth at this point. Generally the Connecticut River flatfish bite is a tad later than the coves and bays to the east and concentrates around the outer breakwall when it happens.
12. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle in Madison CT said that it’s been all trout since opening day. The weekend brought heavy fishing on both days. Low waters helped customers catch fish in the streams.
    
13. Winter flounder are hitting coves and inlets along the shorelines of Madison and Guilford. Nothing spectacular in numbers or size are being reported, but those who know what they are doing are catching a few flatfish. Anglers who are targeting blackfish are catching some decent sized ones in close to shore around the rockpiles where they will be spawning in a few weeks. The Connecticut blackfish season closes April 30 so there’s not much time left to chase this great eating fish.
14. Plenty of schoolie bass are present and being caught in the coves and river mouths in the Madison area as well.
15. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle said Bridgeport Harbor has some bunker with fish up to 40 inches being caught under the schools. Bass are all over the river up to about 30 inches. Flounder action has been good. The best is a 2.88-pounder at this point.
16. Trout season has been productive with fish to 6 pounds from the Saugatuck Reservoir. There were tons of kids fishing with their parents over the weekend. The kids are off from school and can take advantage of the trout season.
17. Burt at Fisherman’s World in Norwalk, CT told us customers have been nailing the schoolies on a regular basis from the Calf Pasture Point Pier. A few keeper bass have also been caught from this productive springtime spot. There are still some big schools of adult bunker in the bays and inlets along the New York coastline that are producing some bigger stripers. One school of these bigger fish moved into Bridgeport Harbor where a group of customers said they caught stripers of 30 and 32 pounds using live menhaden for bait.
18. It looks like there may be some fish on the move out of the Hudson River based on these “big fish reports” which is good news. The larger concentrations of big bass and bunker are west in New York Waters but they should begin moving our way within the next week or so.
19. There are also a few winter flounder being caught off the pier. The best flatfish catches are being made in the Norwalk River by those who are chumming heavily with ground clams and setting their lines back into the chum slick. The shop has weighed flatties up to about 2 pounds. Last year fish over 3 pounds were caught a little later in the season.
20. CT Freshwater:A few trout fishermen caught some walleyes up to 23 inches from Beach Pond on opening day, which bodes well for that fishery this summer.
21. The lack of ice on area lakes probably saved the lives of many pike and walleye. Over the 35 years I’ve been writing reports like this one, summers following mild, “no ice” winters, the bass, pike and walleye fishing is always better for quality and quantity of fish.
22. This week, anyone should be able to hook into trout in area lakes or ponds, bass in the shallow lakes, and stripers pretty much anywhere along the coast. There are a few winter flounder around to catch, with Niantic Bay and the Norwalk Islands sounding like the best spots to target flatfish. Big bass are not in the area in abundance yet, but they’ll be here real soon anywhere there’s a herring run, and under the bunker schools in Western Long Island Sound. [org pub OnTheWater by Bob Samspon]