On The Water 5/5/06

1. As is nearly always the problem, weather got in the way of our fishing activities. I know there have been a number of days over the past week or ten days when I had planned to go fishing and didn’t, simply because I didn’t feel like fighting the winds, even though they were predominately from the northeast or west. The problem with cold northerly winds is on top of the winds, which drains trolling motor batteries and makes everything “tippy,” the barometric pressure is almost always high and rising, which is a “double whammy.”
2. The anglers who put up with these negative factors did well. Across the board, every tackle shop from Narragansett Bay to Norwalk reported some excellent catches of blackfish coming in during the last few days of the season. Striper action remains good and improving as far as the number of low- to mid-30-inch class, “keeper fish” is concerned. No one is talking about jumbos quite yet, despite the presence of menhaden in the Sound from New York to Niantic Bay. The average fish are out of the same mold, 13 to 20 inches on average, but they are literally everywhere and easy to catch on soft plastics and flies. Winter flounder fishing is spotty, with a few local’s producing minimal catches and every place else either not talking about them or complaining about the lousy fishing.
3. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic said that they saw lots of blackfish during that big flurry of activity that took place during the last few days of the season. Her brother, Captain Al Fee, who runs a charter business out of the marina, is catching stripers every night on Creek Chub Poppers in the river. Other than that, she didn’t have much to report noting that many of their customers are still doing yard work and getting their boats set up for the season, with many planning to launch their craft this week. One odd thing is the fact that to date Cheryl has not heard anything about anyone catching winter flounder to date from the river or other local flounder fishing areas.
4. When I called the Fish Connection, in Preston this week, my fishing buddy Eric Covino was handed the phone. He said that on Saturday, despite the bluebird conditions and high winds in about three or four hours of schoolie fishing he and his son caught 117 bass in the Montville area of the river. He said all the fish were 13 to 22 inches average with the largest of the day a 26-incher.
5. He went pike fishing at Pachaug Pond late last week and had a couple follows, one from a high 30 inch fish the other from a smaller fish. His partner caught a 26-incher. It was tough, bluebird conditions that day and he said that he got “deskunked” by catching a few calico bass along the shoreline. There was no weed to fish and the water had regressed to only 57 degrees F. Two weeks ago I was getting temps up into the mid-60s in a small pond that tends to warm about the same rate as the much larger, but shallow and easily heated Pachaug.
6. Things are a replay of the last few seasons, with an early taste of heat, followed by cold nights, heavy rains and temperatures that go in reverse instead of forward, which should be happening at this time of year. Last year my small pond had water temperatures go backwards by 12 or 13 degrees during a three week period in May.
7. Rennie said Salmon River was stocked with some great big breeders mid-week. The Norwich Trout Unlimited Chapter helped stock both the Yantic and Shetucket Rivers with some quality trout on Wednesday. So at least these three rivers will be productive for the weekend. The cool temps lately have been very helpful in maintaining excellent trout fishing conditions in both lakes and rivers throughout the state.
8. Horton Cove is red hot on the Thames River at the present time. The Thames River Striped Bass Challenge Tournament will be a couple weeks later this year, and an overnight event from May 19-20. Call 860-464-7373 or check out www.chamberect.com/fishing2006.asp for more information regarding this popular event.
9. Largemouth bass fishing has been slow lately. It looks like in some of the shallower lakes they are on the nests, which usually makes for some slow action, especially from the larger mature bass.
10. Richard, at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford said they weighed in a 19 inch, 3.17-pound winter flounder that was caught from the upper Niantic River this week. That is a trophy class fish! Like everywhere else, Hillyer’s had a mess of big blackfish brought in just before the season closed last week. Richard said that many of the nice fish they weighed were caught by shore based anglers who were fishing between the bridges.
11. Striper fishing hasn’t changed much since last week. They are hearing the same reports about hot action from schoolies in the Thames and a few fish up inside Niantic River and over in the lower Connecticut River.
12. Squid are in thick right now and right up inside the Niantic Bay. There are also some adult bunker swimming around in the outer bay that were seen over the past week. No one has mentioned anything about seeing or catching any big bass from these schools, but if the bunker are around you can bet the jumbo stripers won’t be far behind!
13. Pat Abate of River’s End Tackle, Saybrook said things haven’t changed much on the river since last week’s report. He noted that the fishing action is inching up a bit but still is coming mainly from schoolies. There is the occasional 30 inch or better bass being reported from the lower river and more often up river where the herring are abundant, below the Enfield Dam, but this fishery has not quite shaped up for the season at this point.
14. A few winter flounder are being caught locally around the lower Connecticut River, but he wouldn’t say anything more specific than that. This time of year look for the armada of boats set up around the east Breakwall and in the main channel and you’ve probably found the flounder. Blackfish ended with a bang here like very place else. It was the best spring blackfish season in a long time!
15. The schoolie action has been good off the DEP pier, the causeway and along Great Island for the boat anglers, for a couple of weeks now. The bigger stripers are at the Salmon River and upriver at the present time, but the lower river is full of schoolies. Nothing much up river but second hand reports, as relayed by Earl in Newport, “earlier” in this report, indicate that there are higher numbers of herring in the Connecticut River than in recent years. This is a good thing if it’s true. I know the fish life reports of the alewife runs in the Thames River were 1,800 last week, as compared to only 535 during the entire 2005 season. Things may be looking up for this beleaguered fishery.
16. Pat said that he heard of some squid and fluke being caught by the local draggers. He said there were also a few anglers bouncing bucktails off New York waters, which don’t open for fluke fishing until this Saturday, who were catching and releasing fluke off Montauk and Peconic Bay while schoolie bass fishing recently.
17. For those who may want to run to New York waters this weekend, the minimum length for fluke in NY is 18 inches, like Connecticut, but the creel limit is only 4 fish so don’t stock up with a 6 fish Connecticut limit. If you get stopped you get busted! This year, Rhody’s fluke regs call for 7 fish of 17.5 inches. This means if like myself you cruise between the three border lines you must carry the lowest common denominator which would be a NY limit of 4 18-inchers or risk a bust.
18. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said that the blackfishing came alive just as the season closed this spring. It seems like there was more interest in this species this spring, the weather though not perfect was better than last, and apparently this species is in pretty good shape population-wise. He noted that a few weakfish are running south of the Falkner Island and Kimberly Reef, heading towards the West Haven area. Its not a “run” like there has been at times, but there are some fish around that may take a lure intended for schoolie bass, so don’t be surprised. He said there will probably also be some weakfish to catch in Peconic Bay, which is historically a great weakfish hot spot this time of year. There are lots of bass, small in the tidal rivers, with a few fish in the 36 to 38 inch range, though most are under 20 inches. The larger stripers seem to be appearing as the herring runs build up in coastal streams and rivers.
19. Menhaden numbers are limited in the Madison area, though he’s heard of fish to the west. West Haven and Milford have more bunker than Branford and Madison, but there are not great numbers anywhere east of New Haven at this point. Signs of them elsewhere are favorable. The Captain said “If they are in the New Haven area there will be some bunker in Branford and Madison within a week.” Captain Morgan anticipates that within the next week to ten days the overall fishing action will greatly improve for larger striped bass with the appearance of adult menhaden in the area. There are a few winter flounder around but nothing earth shattering. More anglers on the water and trying for different stuff lately so overall the volume of fishing reports have increased.
20. School bass are all over in the Housatonic and Connecticut Rivers. People all over the area are talking about 100 fish (schoolie bass) days. There doesn’t appear to be the high numbers of squid in the Madison / Guilford area yet, but with so many to the east there should be some in the area very shortly, which equates to the presence of some decent sized striped bass this time of the year.
21. Chris Fulton owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle in Stratford said that the blackfish spring season was unbelievable this year. One angler told Chris that he caught bass up to 25 inches from the Housatonic River Tuesday, but the numbers weren’t as good as they could be due to high pressure and high water flows.
22. Burt at Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said the fishing for school stripers was still excellent off Long Neck Point, Long Beach and the Calf Pasture Pier. All the stripers are small fish, averaging 15 to 22 inchers like very place. No big fish yet! Winter flounder are being caught by anchoring and chumming heavy from boats out in front of the pier. No monsters, but fish to 2 pounds are common. There’s still tons of bunker, with bigger stripers feeding on them to the west in New York waters. Burt said anglers who have made the run are reporting catching stripers in the 28 to 32 pound range. These fish haven’t moved into Norwalk quite yet but are expected to move east any time now.
23. This weekend, depending on winds, may be the time to begin looking for fluke off the South Shore Beaches of Rhode Island anywhere from Point Judith to Weekapaug. The other option is to run across “the pond” to Montauk Point or Peconic Bay for fluke and in the bay possibly a weakfish. Otherwise look for schoolie stripers everywhere with increasing odds of hooking into keeper fish, especially if the sun comes out and “cooks” the worms out of the mud some of Rhody’s salt ponds in the near future.