On The Water 5/18/06

Best Bet for Connecticut and Rhode Island: This weekend, look for bass to be slurping squid where ever this bait is concentrated. In the salt ponds, expect the worms to come out and draw the attention of all the mid-sized and small bass that are moving through the region. Big stripers will be in The Race and deep waters throughout the region feeding on those squid. Along the beaches from Point Judith to Milford its time to start drifting for fluke, but don’t be surprised if a small bluefish cuts off your bait, especially across the Sound on the New York side of the pond.

1. The story this week has been flooding rains throughout the region. All the rivers and estuaries are dealing with huge water flows that have pushed some fish out into the saltwater. Most shop owners reported that those anglers who have braved the weather to fish are catching the stripers and fluke they are seeking.
2. Some larger bass are moving into the region in good numbers since the last report, with small schoolies still abundant everywhere. The story on fluke appears to be good numbers of mostly smaller fish. Keeper to short ratios have ranged from 2 out of 6 to 6 out of 30. At least there appears to be a fair number of fluke moving into the region at the present time.
3. Bill at King Cove Outfitters in Stonington said the fluke action has been picking up a bit this week. On Wednesday one angler caught 8 keepers out of 20 total fish caught. Another angler went out on Tuesday and caught 3 big ones out of 4. Both boats were fishing south of Fishers Island. There’s a tremendous amount of squid around this year in the Stonington area, just like every place else. One other angler said he and a friend had been doing well in The Race on some larger stripers. Evidently they limited out on keeper bass in the 40-inch range during a trip or two over the past week. Most years The Race turns on with big bass around May 20, so it’s happening a tad early this year, probably because of the mild winter, higher water temperatures and all the squid in the area. The Pawcatuck River is still alive with schoolies, despite all the runoff.
4. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina in Mystic said that they weighed in a 4½-pound black sea bass caught by Larry Strickland and Sean Ross, both of Mystic, that they caught along with a keeper winter flounder and tons of skate. One group who ventured to the Rhody beaches over the weekend caught three keeper fluke out of about 30 fish total on Sunday. Another group fished from a boat in the same area on Monday and didn’t do anything. Everyone is having loads of fun in the Mystic River on the schoolies that are whacking soft plastics all over the place.
5. Captain John Planeta, owner of Franks Tackle in Marlborough, said the Connecticut River is flooding big time and everything has slowed until it settles back down. Not much to report this week because no one is hitting the river due to high water and junk floating downriver.
6. Joe Balint of The Fish Connection in Preston on the Thames has been seeing lots of little fish lately coming out of the river. Not much in the way of larger fish, until the weekend. There were some big fish, up into the 20- and 30-pound range, chasing shad and alewives up at the Greenville Dam over the weekend. The water was running two feet over the dam making it tough and dangerous to land the fish that were hooked. These big bass are hitting some of the larger saltwater lures such as Gibbs swimmers and reverse Atom Poppers. There were some menhaden in the river earlier in the week. Anglers were snagging them in the upper river to Norwich and using them for bait. There were also a few little bluefish caught in the lower Thames over the weekend as well. It seems these small blues, probably from that huge batch of fish that were around last year, are back again but slightly larger.
7. Misquamicut and the other south shore beaches have been producing some fluke, mostly smaller fish. Shelter Island, New York, in the area way up inside towards Peconic Bay, has been producing some larger fluke. One customer reported that there’s tons of bluefish and some very big searobins on every rip line up inside Peconic Bay at the present time. The Sunbeam is making daily fluke fishing runs to this area at the present time at a price of $64 per day.
8. Amos Lake and Long Pond have had some nice catches of trout taken from them lately, due to the cool, favorable water temperatures. Joe figures that the big calicos should be moving pretty soon. The fish are there, but the people haven’t been fishing much lately due to the weather. However, those who are getting out on the water, for pretty much everything, are catching fish. The exception would be perhaps trout fishing in flooding rivers.
9. Matt, owner of Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle in Waterford, said there are some bass in The Race, off Bartlett's Reef, as well as up in the rivers. Basically, they are all over the place at the present time. Problem has been few anglers are out after them, due to the weather. Top end fish in The Race are in the 40-inch range. The numbers are good, but the real big fish are not here quite yet. The first fluke were taken from Niantic Bay this week. A couple of Hillyer’s hard core “fluke meisters” fished the tide and caught a bunch of shorts and 8 keepers in the bay. There have also been a few fluke caught off Isabella on the south side of Fishers Island.
10. Matt said there are more squid around in Niantic Bay than he has seen in perhaps fifteen years or more. He noted that the bass and fluke are here (in the bay) a couple weeks earlier this year, due to warm water temps and loads of bait, primarily in the form of squid, but there are some menhaden around as well. Montauk Point has, as always this time of year, been producing good numbers of fluke. Many are shorts, but fishing is good out there, which bodes well for this side of the Sound as the season progresses and gas prices increase. The winter flounder are not up inside the Niantic River any more but they are still near by, out in the Sound and bay off the local beaches. Matt said it has been the best winter flounder season they’ve had in more than a decade. Matt figures the fishing will break loose any time now. All we need are a few nice days to get the anglers out.
11. ”Q” of River’s End Tackle in Saybrook said the Connecticut River has been difficult to fish due to high flows. It will take a few days to a week for it to settle back down. Remember, this river is draining the waters that fell all the way up to Northern Vermont. “Q” also heard about anglers catching fish up to 20 pounds in The Race. There have been a few caught off Hatchet Reef, but he speculated that these may be fish that have been pushed out of the lower Connecticut River from the floods. There are fish along the Old Lyme Beaches, but watch out for the logs flowing out of the river if you are running around in a boat, especially under low light conditions.
12. Rivers End also weighed in a 4½-pound seabass. Being this is an unusual catch for this time of year he and I were speculating as to whether or not this was the same fish that Shaffer’s weighed in. However, he said this one was caught over in Greenport, Long Island during a fluking trip. There were a few bluefish showing in the lower river before the floods. He heard of blues harassing fluke fishermen across the Sound, which means it will be like last year in a week or two with bluefish, small ones, just about everywhere. They heard of some fluke off the south side of Fishers, mostly shorts but a few keepers. Montauk Point is the same deal – many shorts. Greenport appears to hold fewer fluke but they are on average a larger size. They haven’t seen any local fluke yet.
13. We missed Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle in Madison this week.
14. Stratford Bait and Tackle, located in Stratford on the Housatonic River, reported that angler levels have been very low lately. A few fishermen went out on Wednesday but no returns yet. The only decent catches they have heard of since the monsoons began have been (like in the Thames River) a few big 25- to 30-pound bass being caught at the base of the Derby Dam on big jointed plugs and large Soft Plastics. In freshwater, the water has been so high the rivers are slow and not many lake fishermen have been going out lately. Even the reports from the Saugatuck Reservoir, which was red hot before the storms, has slowed to nothing over the last few days. A few anglers caught two keeper fluke out of about a half dozen total that they caught out around at Charles Island on Wednesday. The biggest fish was about 3 pounds. There’s also tons of bait, much of it squid, around to attract and hold the predators, so things are looking good in the Stratford/Milford area of the Sound once the fishermen get back out to play.
15. Nick at Fisherman’s World of Norwalk said there’s been a little angler activity down his way, despite the rains and miserable weather lately. On May 10, Dixon Downey caught a 33-inch bass off Westport on a tube and worm. Tom Nestico was fishing from shore at Burial Hill Beach, near Sherwood Island, and said he caught bass steadily for two hours on small shad swim jigs on Tuesday. Tom said the fish were passing by in waves. Captain Blake Smith reported catching 35 schoolies to 26 inches at the mouth of the Saugatuck River over the weekend. Jessie Hammerman caught three stripers 33 to 36 inches and a bunch of bluefish to six pounds, on chunks in Manhassett Bay on Wednesday.
16. Nick noted that the live menhaden and chunk fishery that had been developing nicely prior to the storms to the west in New York waters has slowed due to the rain. The schools of bunker that the bass were pushing up against the harbors and shorelines moved out into the Sound as the salinity has dropped from all the freshwater. He expects things to pick back up shortly as things stabilize after all the inflowing fresh water has a chance to dissipate.

[Bob Sampson]