On The Water 6/15/06

1. Last weekend was literally a blow out. However, there were a number of fishermen who tucked themselves in lee of land and braved the 20- to 30-mile per hour northwest winds that blew through early in the weekend. High winds and high pressure (that always follows major storm fronts) made freshwater fishing horrible and negatively affected marine activities as well. All that said, so those of you who did lousy now have an excuse. However, there were some decent catches made, though not by everyone who cast a baited hook or lure, like it has been for the past couple weeks. Pro’s, pin hookers and experienced recreational fishermen caught both big stripers and fluke throughout the eastern portion of this reporting area. The big news was the first reported 50-pound striper of the year, a catch made off Block Island.
2. Thomcat Pelletier of Quaker Lane Bait and Tackle in North Kingstown said that the fluke fishing faltered a bit off the south shore, due to weather and the gauntlet of gill nets and draggers working the beaches. He caught a 9-pounder himself on Saturday, though most of the days catch were small, the ratio was less than 10 to one short-to-keepers on that trip. One customer caught an 11-pound fluke in 90 feet of water in the channel in the more protected bay side off Newport on Saturday. She caught many shorts that day, but had only that one hit from the double-digit doormat.
3. Bass fishing has been good using live eels and hickory shad after dark along the south shore. But up inside Narragansett Bay where there’s a concentration of adult, live menhaden, the “catching,” especially for larger fish, is much better. Thom caught stripers of 22 and 24 pounds on live hickory shad earlier in the week. That night he was laughing about a striper that was only 31 inches long that hit a 14-inch hickory shad in the waters off the reef near Green Hill. He said it was comical seeing this relatively small, hickory shad-eating bass chasing and trying to eat a bait nearly half its own length! Thom said that the trick is getting the bait. Its harder locating and catching the shad than the 20-pound striped bass.
4. Kevin at King Cove Outfitters, Stonington said that despite the winds fishing was OK over the weekend and has turned back on so far this week. The shop held a had a kayak tournament over the weekend that was held primarily in Little Narragansett Bay and adjacent coves. Stripers to 22 pounds were caught by contestants.
5. As of yesterday the squid moved back onto the reefs (the Watch Hill/Fishers Island Reef Complex) so Sugar Reef and Catumb Rock turned back on Tuesday. Kevin himself said that he also saw some concentrations of squid off Fishers Island recently. This report of the reefs lighting back up was verified by a phone call from a friend of mine, who said he was heading out after he received a call from someone in the middle of a great bite Wednesday afternoon. I wasn’t able to join him, so I’ll wait for his report and tell you how he did next week.
6. Fluke catching has been slow for keepers, like everywhere else. There are plenty of shorts around but the bigger fish, that seem to presently be concentrating in 40 to 50 feet of water right now are much harder to hook into. They didn’t see any of the doormat-sized fluke that were reported from the shops further north along the south shore beaches.
7. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic told me that the winds over the weekend kept many anglers home but despite the miserable conditions there were some nice fish brought into the cleaning table and scale. They weighed their best fluke of the season to date, a huge 11-pound, 30-inch “mat” that was part of an impressive limit of keepers that included an 8-pounder and two 7-pounders that were brought into the shop on Sunday. Shaffer’s also weighed an 8-pound fluke that was caught by a customer who was on a striped bass charter trip with Bruce Meyers, who was fishing whole rigged squid for bass somewhere off Fishers Island a week ago Tuesday. She also saw a catch of four keeper fluke with two in the 8-pound range taken off Misquamicut over the weekend.
8. Just like last year, with the higher minimum lengths, even though there are many fluke out there to play with most are throw backs, with a fair percentage of nice fish in the mix. When it was a 16-inch minimum, everyone would be “fluke meisters,” but 18 inches separates the “meisters” from the rest, if they can catch limits consistently.
9. A 43-pound bass that was 51.5 inches was taken on a live bunker Saturday somewhere in the Noank area by a group of friends who call themselves, “Team Dixie,” a crew of anglers out of the Mystic area. Bluefish are starting to make a showing throughout the area wherever the bait is present.
10. Captain John Planeta owner of Franks Tackle, Marlborough said that last Monday his charter trip to the mouth of the Connecticut River yielded 19 fish, four of which were keepers. He took these fish flipping eels to the rocks off the breakwalls. One friend of his said they took some big fish to about 40 inches, in the Glastonbury area during the torrential rains last Wednesday by casting poppers and big plugs. George Gonsalves of Northeast Promotions said he hammered the fluke off Montauk Point on Friday, after the rains stopped. No word on how many keepers he “hammered” out of the days catch – maybe George is a “Meister.”
11. Rennie of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames said that he hasn’t heard much lately because he's been fishing for smallmouth bass in New Hampshire. Evidently, the Thames River is full of small bass and some “snarbor blues” those 2- to 5-pounders, but no one was talking big fish as of Wednesday. The trout fishing has been tough in streams due to high water and lake surface temps are too warm for easy near surface action, which means the easy trout fishing of spring is pretty much over. There has been some fairly good freshwater bass fishing.
12. Matt at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford didn't have “a whole lot to report” this week because of “the weekend from hell.” It was awful over the weekend. The winds that were 30 knots in his area kept many anglers at home. He said they had much better fishing activity levels when it was pouring rain. Matt said what we all know, that the fish are around but the problem has been getting out to them in boats or fishing effectively from shore. Hopefully this weekend the weather will cooperate for the Fathers Day crowd.
13. There are fluke in the bay, but not many, so anglers can expect to fish hard for the keepers. As everywhere else, due to the 18-inch limit most are short but there will be increased action as water temperatures rise. Many of the fluke being released are 17-inch-class fish, which means by the end of the season there will be some good catches coming in to the docks. Fluke grow so fast that the 17-inch fish released now will be keepers by August or September.
14. Blackfish season reopens in Connecticut waters on June 15 (remember they are closed in Rhode Island) and Hillyer's will have green crabs available for anglers who want to go out to give it a try. Striped bass fishing has been hot off Bartlett Reef, Valiant Rock and other local areas. Problem is, it’s been so hard to fish these areas which are normally pretty rough, due to the high winds lately. So fishermen simply haven’t gone out just to be beat up, especially with the high price of gas. Because of this there have not been many anglers on the fish. This weekend Matt expects lots of activity, if the weather cooperates.
15. Pat Abate of River’s End Tackle, Saybrook said lots of the bass have dropped out of the river, due to the freshwater flows and increasing water temps. The morning bite is slowing as fish move out along the local beaches. There was a slow period over the weekend, but early in the week it began to pick up off Hatchet Reef, by mid-week there were birds working over feeding blues and bass. Bartlett has also been producing fish when people can get out and get their lines down deep where the bigger fish are holding. The fluke fishing is slow in the lower river due to freshwater flows. Elsewhere there are tons of shorts and a few doormats being caught, but not much in-between. Misquamicut and the south side of Fishers Island are the most consistent spots he’s heard of lately.
16. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said fluke are still running in the mid-Sound area, but here like every place else the catch is composed mostly of shorts. A few fish just over 20 inches are being caught, but they are rare. The bigger fluke that have been reported to the east this week, apparently have not yet penetrated this far into the Sound. However, with increase in temps Captain Morgan believes the fluking should improve. Tuesday customers who ran across the Sound to Mattituck did poorly.
17. Captain Morgan is expecting a few locals to go for blackfish when the season reopens on Thursday. Bass fishing is hot right now. He’s seeing fish of all sizes, though not many real big cows yet. Fish to about 40 inches are being caught on a regular basis. The other night after the winds died there was some good topwater action from stripers along the shore. The fish were mostly small but up into the mid-30-inch range, which are stripers that weigh into the teens if they are fat. Apparently the bait was driven in along the shore where the bass and some blues have discovered them in pockets and sheltered spots along the rocks and up inside creeks and river mouths. The East River has been hot lately despite the rains. It has a tidal flow, but not the large freshwater drainage area like the Connecticut or Housatonic Rivers, so heavy rains are not such a major negative factor as they could be.
18. Porgy action is hot in the Madison area, but not many fishermen are targeting this species yet. Sea bass are not really going yet, probably due to the winds. Matt of Stratford Bait and Tackle in Stratford said it’s been “fishing” but not much “catching” lately in the Stratford, Milford, Bridgeport area. There is still some bigger bait around in the form of menhaden. Wherever these schools can be found anglers are catching some decent stripers either on live whole baits or chunks of fresh cut bait. There are Bass in the 10- to 20-pound range still being caught at the Derby Dam. Fluke fishing has been slow locally, with a ton of shorts in the river. One angler caught 30 fish with only two keepers off the mouth of the river. There are some bluefish in the 2- to 4-pound range lately, that have been showing up along the beaches in the area, but otherwise, not much to speak of. The weekend was tough due to the wind.
19. Burt at Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said both fluke and bass fishing has been pretty good close to home. Customers report a few fluke in the Middle Passage, with a few fish out in deeper waters outside the islands, but the better numbers seem to be across the Sound off the golf course. There are a few anglers taking keepers up to six pounds, at a rate of about 2 keepers for every ten short fish. The guys who are supplying the “local reports” are fishing out of a 14-foot aluminum boat, so Burt knows they aren’t going very far to drift. Burt, who runs some charters in the area, told me they are seeing more big bunker in the area every day. At one spot inside the islands, a customer said he caught three stripers from 34 to 42 inches in a half-hour on chunks of fresh cut bunker. The night before that trip the same guy landed three other fish between 32 and 36 inches using the same method.
20. The key is finding the menhaden. When you do, he said the stripers are abundant enough that when people snag a bunker, very often they are being eaten before it can be reeled in and stashed for cut bait. (I personally haven’t seen fishing like this in the eastern end of the Sound for more than a decade.) Carlos Dranado caught three bass that were 30 to 32 inches and plenty of smaller fish in the high 20’s on chunks around the islands earlier this week. Burt said there are schools of bunker with decent-sized stripers feeding on them spread out from Stamford to Greenwich at the present time. There are also some harbor bluefish in the 5- to 8-pound range mixed in with the striper catches associated with these schools of bunker. So things are looking good at the western end of Long Island Sound. As temperatures rise, some bunker will settle into those areas and stay, hopefully, if there is enough some will filter east. Either way, eventually rising water temperatures will drive these big bass to the north. How fast they move depends on water temperatures and the availability of bait along the way.
21. Its almost like the old days when striped bass would follow bunker schools all the way up the coast creating some incredible fishing every summer. The reappearance of adult bunker for the past few years that is also being reported as far east as Narragansett Bay is a great sign for the possible recovery of these fish. Mark my words. If the bunker come back to take the feeding pressure off shad, herring, and other spring spawning herring species, we will see recoveries of these populations as well. Bunker in abundance is the key.
22. Best Bets for Connecticut and Rhode Island :For Fathers Day, if “Mother Luck” is listening and takes pity on a slob like me, depending on where I decide to launch the boat to fish with my kids a 50-pound striper or a 10-pound fluke would do me just fine! For that big striper, I’d recommend checking out the “squid bite” on the reefs, or the hot fishing around bunker schools from Stamford to Greenwich and up inside Narragansett Bay. Nebraska Shoal and the waters off Charlestown, fluking waters around Mystic, and the west gap at Point Judith are good bets if you want to increase your chances of catching keeper fluke and not just shorts