On The Water

1. Bet Bets for Connecticut and Rhode Island: This week look for improved fluke fishing throughout the region, with some worm spawns and continued squid action around the major reefs. Menhaden appear to be showing up throughout the region in which means there will surely be big bass to catch by live-lining somewhere near the schools. All we need is a little decent weather to enable the army of anglers that are ready and waiting to go out and explore their favorite spots.
2. More heavy rains and wind – the return of the monsoons has been a factor in keeping anglers home again this week. However, those who ventured out into the storms have been catching fish pretty much anywhere they are casting a lure or bait, with the exception of in the raging waters of some local rivers.
3. Don at King Cove Outfitters, Stonington said fluke fishing is the same, 10 to one, keepers to shorts Captain Don noted. Customers are reporting catching tons of shorts to catch a limit or near limit of keeper fluke. Top end fish are in the 5-pound range but there are a few larger fish beginning to show up in daily catches. The squid are still producing some hot bites off the reefs. Stripers are much larger on average and have been showing up all over the place on the Fishers Island /Watch Hill Reefs, during either the flood or ebb tides. Sugar Reef has been the spot most mentioned in the reports I’ve heard this week. There are a few blues around this area, but they are not quite as abundant as they are off the northern end of the south shore beaches.
4. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic said that over the weekend her customers were all talking fluke. On Tuesday they weighed in an 8-pound fluke along with six keeper stripers a charter boat from the docks brought in to the fillet tables. The fluke was taken on a rigged squid that was intended for bass. The captain said he saw a second fluke rise up behind a rigged squid as it was being retrieved back to the boat, but it sunk out of sight before it took the bait. No word on the Mystic River worm spawn at this point in the season. Could be it’s over and anglers missed it. In my experience this event is a short one and has generally occurred a day or so either side of May 25, but with all the temperature drops and rains this season it may still be in the offing. Nothing great reported from the Race this weekend but activity levels in this nasty spot were low due to the winds.
5. The weekend angler activity was slow due to the rains. Anglers are slaying bass off Sugar Reef using plugs, bait and squid rigs on decent sized bass, with some blues mixed in around the edges. Captain Eric Covino, my long time fishing partner turned charter captain (ericcovino@adelphia.net) said they caught 80 bass between the reefs and the lower Pawcatuck River on Sunday. He said the reefs were slower this trip than a week earlier but there were plenty of schoolies to play around with in the river to take up the slack. Their top fish was 34 inches.
6. Fluke fishing has been a mix of reports, depending on who you ask. There are high numbers of fish present in the area, but keepers are hard to catch. Not much inside fluke action around Mystic and Stonington but I’d bet the fish are there. It seems like most of the boats from Shaffer’s are making the run to the beaches or the south side of Fishers Island. Captain Al Fee had a charter for fluking over the weekend and took only one keeper out of their catch of 10 or 11 fish total. The temps were 53 degrees in the Sound, which is still a tad cool, but warmer than last year at this time. On June 8, 2005 (last year) a friend reported 49 degrees mid-Sound temperatures.
7. Captain John Planeta owner of Frank’s Tackle, Marlborough said he was fishing the mouth of the Connecticut River a week ago on Monday and caught a dozen fish up to 34 inches before the rains, but only one fish of 14 inches this past Monday, after the river cranked up after these most recent heavy rains. We need a few days of no rain for things to stabilize once again. Chappy, one of his regulars, said he caught fish to about 40 inches while fishing in Glastonbury, where there are some big fish present in the river, between Rocky Hill and Hartford at the moment.
8. Joe Balint of The Fish Connection, Preston on the Thames has been seeing continued schoolie action in the river from Trading Cove to Horton Cove and in the flats and channels, around the Harvard and Yale boat houses in the Gales Ferry stretch of the river and along the east shore, below the Nautilus Memorial south of the sub base. There are a few “snarbor blues” around in the river, but no heavy concentrations yet. There is the same sort of spotty bluefish activity over at the Millstone Point outflow as well.
9. Larger blues, in the 9- to 10-pound range came in from the Race over the weekend and there was reportedly a pretty decent concentration of bluefish, with some of these larger fish mixed in around the outside the Connecticut River as well since the weekend. The better bass action has been in the Race, where some larger fish are being caught on jigs down deep. Trolling umbrella rigs is also effective. Captain Jack Balint, who runs his light-line charters out of the shop has been fishing the reefs with flies and light spinning tackle with excellent results for three weeks now.
10. Joe had a 12-pound fluke brought to the scales on Monday that was caught off Misquamicut Beach by a customer. There were some decent fluke in the 6- to 8-pound range taken off Fishers Island along with the usual “tons” of short fish. Some anglers are fishing deep, some shallow, it’s a guessing game and about everyone is taking some fluke. Dennis from the shop caught three keepers out of 30 fish total for a day spent fishing the waters from Watch Hill to Misquamicut Beach. Joe noted that Peconic Bay is wall to wall boats, and also full of small fluke and loads of “slammer searobins,” which are wreaking havoc already.
11. In the freshwater calicos turned on at Avery Pond, Glasgo Pond, and Pachaug Pond. Not much word on pike lately. The bass fishing fraternity should be seeing improved fishing now that most of the bass are done spawning for the spring. The best bass action has been from Hopeville and Pachaug Ponds. Joe said, “forget the streams for a while” due to flooding conditions throughout the region.
12. Matt at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford said the rains have been the big story. It has made fishing tough for many anglers. A couple his customers said they went out Monday for fluke, one group went across to fish Montauk Point and did well, with many fish caught and released but only a few keepers. The other group fished Niantic Bay and caught some fish as well. There appears to be plenty of fluke around, but with the 18-inch-minimum limit it’s difficult to cull out a limit of keepers. Plus, Matt noted due to the bad weather every weekend, the lack of boats means reports are down. There are many 16-inch-plus fish around. Striped bass fishing has been good all along, but there have been many lost days and evenings to the weather. Porgy season opened, but no one has been targeting them yet as it’s a tad early for that fishery to be cranking. Blackfish will reopen in mid-June and with cooler temps there should still be some fish inshore to catch. Matt noted that; “There’s so much bait around, more than recent years, which means there will be some great fishing developing once the weather stabilizes.”
13. Mark Lewchik of River’s End Tackle, Saybrook said that despite the rains, a few anglers are doing ok in the lower Connecticut River. On Sunday one regular caught a 40-inch fish on a big fly. Tuesday evening anglers took fish in the low 30s on poppers, despite a raging river flow. Mark also reported that there were a few bigger bluefish are mixed in with the bass in the lower Connecticut River and vicinity. Fluke are spotty, with many shorts. A few are just starting up around the edges of the river, but most successful anglers are running across the Sound to fish Montauk and the Peconic /Shelter Island area.
14. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison reports that the weekend brought some “so-so action,” but Monday and Tuesday things seemed to light up. There were some decent fish on top along the Madison to Guilford Shorelines, during the breaks between storms and blows. Sand worms have been working well in tidal areas. The Captain has been playing around with the new sand worm scents from Seabait of Maine and had some interesting results. He said that these scents work very well on artificial worms and tubes. Said the blood worm scent is even better than the sand worm flavor because it has a much stronger more powerful odor to attract fish. There are schools of big bunker around the mid-Sound area, all with some larger bass chasing them. The weather and fronts have kept many anglers home, so overall angler activity has been hampered. Like every place else, the fishermen who sacrifice their bodies to fish are experiencing success. Porgies and a few sea bass came alive with the opening of this season. There are some bigger scup around to catch, but most anglers are not targeting them for any reason other than to obtain hook baits for jumbo stripers. Captain Morgan has seen fluke in the 10- to 12-pound range, but the vast majority of fluke are shorts. Fluke catches are improving, with catch rates ranging from 6 to 10 shorts for every one keeper. Fuel cost is keeping some of the bigger boats at home, but the smaller boats are running out to fish when they get the opportunity.
15. Chris Fulton owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle in Stratford said there is a bunch of anglers running across the Sound and taking fluke up to 7 and 8 pounds, with a few local fish being reported in the mix. The spots along the north shore of Long Island are definitely the better fishing at this point in time as they usually are. Like every place else the vast majority of the catch is smaller fish. Not much word on local stripers, but he’s heard of bass to 20 pounds that were caught by his buddies from the Connecticut River on flies recently. Decent bass are being caught from time to time in the Housatonic River on plastics during the breaks in the weather but nothing consistent in the way of reports recently. The problem has been the bad weather conditions and lack of angler activity at times, more so than any lack of fish to be caught.
16. There was a decent weakfish of about 6 pounds caught off the West Haven sandbar on a crocodile spoon over the weekend, but that has been it in the weakfish department recently. “When people get out they are catching fish, but it’s been difficult lately.” Freshwater action has been up and down as well. Chris himself has been fishing for carp with good results. Earlier in the week the Saugatuck Reservoir produced a beautiful 8-pound seeforellen brown trout on a live shiner for one of his regulars who has been trying for a trophy trout of this caliber since they were first stocked in this lake back in the early 1990s.
17. Nick at Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said the fishing is still holding up well in his area. Good fishing is reported in the waters between Greenwich and Stamford. Bunker schools moved in off Greens Ledge (like they did last season) with some decent bass feeding on them. Hempstead Harbor to Rye New York continues to generate the best big bass reports with fish into the 30-pound range being caught consistently on live bunker or chunks. The good news is the fact that these fish appear to finally be moving west. There was a decent fish of 32 pounds caught locally last week. There are still some nice stripers to about 20 pounds being taken at the Derby Dam when the anglers get out to fish. This week, the big news is the fact that those big schools of decent-sized stripers are finally moving through in along the western Connecticut coastline. The problem is that the weather is not allowing anglers to get out and fish like they should be this time of year. A few fluke have been caught around the Norwalk Islands.
18. Bruce Scolofiani caught a 12-pound fluke off Greens Ledge on a chunk that was being fished for bass. There are other reports of fluke being caught around Pecks Ledge and Middle Passage where there have been some fish caught up to about 5 pounds or so by anglers actually targeting fluke. As temperatures increase, fluking will improve rapidly over the next couple of weeks. A few anglers caught a bunch of scup in the waters off the golf course across the sound in 25 to 28 feet. No jumbos, but fish to 12 or 13 inches are not out of the question. Here like else where more anglers are chasing bass and fluke than scup.
19. Nick himself caught some trout in the Farmington River earlier in the week. There were multiple hatches going on and they caught fish on both green and black caddis and sulfurs. He said that flood control gates kept the Farmington fishable while other streams in the region were raging much too fast to fish effectively.