On The Water 4/6/06

1. Over the past week temperatures ranged from 68 degrees, about this time last week, to a chilly snowfall on Wednesday. A minor set back. At the present time it looks like things are beginning to “wake up” on all fronts. Anglers caught a few winter flounder along the coast from New London to Norwalk, with a few fishermen in the east end of that range actually limiting out. Stripers began moving in all rivers and bays, with reports of catches coming from just about anywhere spring schoolie stripers are likely to be swimming.
2. Don at King Cove Outfitters in Stonington, Connecticut told me that despite the opening of winter flounder season Connecticut no one reported catching anything down their way. People are just starting to fish as some of the freshwater options materialize and water temps rise.
3. Joe Balint of The Fish Connection, Preston said his customers are once again talking big numbers of schoolie bass all over the Thames. One of my fishing buddies caught a couple hundred fish with another guy over the weekend and they hit them on one of the shallow flats down river from the harbor. This means the bass have moved down river and can probably be caught about anywhere about now. No big fish reported at Greenville Dam yet, but they will be there as soon as the alewives make it to the dam.
4. Joe said that his customers reported catching winter flounder at Bluff Point, Harkness Park, Seaside, and probably Jordan Cove in Waterford. The action was better than expected, noting that a few customers actually limited out with top end flatties hitting the two-pound mark
5. With an “opening day” pulse of anglers and high interest last Saturday when the Connecticut winter flounder season opened up, pressure was high so the reports may make it look like fishing is better than it really is. If anglers continue to catch fish and limits of fish for a few weeks then a better assessment of this years run can be made. At least people are targeting and catching these fish in more than just one area, which is a good sign.
6. Joe also heard that the Moosup TMA was stocked, but a long stretch of the Yantic TMA was lost due to a landowner who posted his property because some fishermen drove on his property and then gave the landowner some lip.
7. Richard at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle Waterford said a he heard of only a few flatfish taken over the weekend and they came in from Bluff Point. It’s been nasty enough to keep many anglers at home over the past few days. Rob Hughes, who works at the shop said the alewives showed up off Rocky Neck, which means within a week they will be up at Greenville and other spawning streams in the area. One customer said he’d heard of some schoolie bass being caught in the Connecticut River as far north as Hartford, but the action that had been red hot in the lower end of Hamburg Cove had slowed. This is probably due to the same thing that is happening in the Thames. The winter concentration is spreading out and looking for forage. As a result of this phenomenon taking place throughout the region from here until the southern and Hudson River migrations reaches us, schoolie bass are likely to be caught anywhere at this time of year.
8. Pat Abate of River’s End Tackle, Saybrook said they had customers who came in with some good reports of catching winter flounder from the Bluff Point area. He said that fish were being caught both from shore and the fleet of boats that constantly collects around the deep hole near the dike. Pat Renna, maker of T-man Tubes will be giving a free seminar at River’s End Tackle, at 11 a.m. this Saturday and everyone is invited to attend.
9. The white perch action picked up a little in Hamburg Cove over the weekend. I fished there Sunday for a few hours on low and incoming tide and under bluebird, windy, cold, high pressure skies and there was nothing there to catch. I only managed to jig up a few red breasted sunfish the size of potato chips. The yellow perch are apparently past prime, because we couldn’t buy one. We ended up heading up river to another spot where the yellow perch were also not around but it was full of bluegills and calico bass, so we had fun culling out a batch of panfish for supper.
10. We missed Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison this week.
11. Chris Fulton owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle said there are a bunch of 18- to 22-inch stripers over at the Devon Power Plant Outflow. One angler said he caught about 40 over the weekend, but was kicked out by plainclothes police on Wednesday because the President was in town.
12. They had a few anglers go out to try for winter flounder over the weekend, but no one reported back about catching any.
13. Derby Dam is temporarily closed due to the recent oil spill.
14. Nick of Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said his customers caught a few winter flounder out in Norwalk Harbor but no limits. Dave Redford caught five keepers with his son Dave Jr. and a few other groups of anglers caught three or four fish per boat. Not stellar action but it’s early for this area. Last year the Norwalk Islands and vicinity had a pretty decent run of winter flounder starting up in late April, lasting for nearly a month. Hopefully the best is yet to come in this area.
15. The Housatonic River also woke up with school bass providing consistent action over the weekend. Jorgan Ostensen caught ten schoolies on Clouser Minnows from the Devon Bridge area.
16. The fishing action will do nothing but improve, especially if the sun comes back out and nighttime temperatures don’t get below freezing. The Thames will be red hot from top to bottom for the next month. The Connecticut, Pawcatuck, Housatonic and other rivers will light up for the season at any time now.