On The Water

1. Best Bets for Connecticut and Rhode Island: The best bet this week may be to fish farther east, off the Madison and Connecticut River area, and to look for bunker if big bass is the target species. Expect the fish that are in western Long Island sound to move east rapidly as temperatures begin to rise. Fluke fishing is still a good bet, but all you can do is play the numbers game and cull through the shorts to catch those rare few keepers that are out there. Porgies may be a great way to bring home fillets for the table if there are not enough keepers in a given day’s catch. They will become more of a factor with every changing tide.
   
2. The big picture is, everything is on the move. Big stripers continue to move eastward from Long Island Sound and points to the south, with a slug of big fish in the Newport area and a body of 20- to 40-pound bass still up inside Narragansett Bay chowing down on adult menhaden. South of Point Judith to Madison, partially as a result of reduced angler participation due to the inclement weather and partly due to an apparent lack of fish, catches of bigger bass have declined. There are still plenty of 30- to 40-inchers, but 30- to 40-pounders are not so abundant as they were a week or two ago throughout the region. The big fish seem to be stalled temporarily in 60 to 80 feet of water in the Stratford/Milford area and will hit readily on “fresh” bunker chunks or live bunker when they can be maintained. To the west as far as Norwalk and Greenwich there are still fish in the 20- to 25-pound range being caught but the 30’s that were so prevalent for the past month seem to have passed through and are the fish that the anglers fishing out of the Stratford/Bridgeport area are having fun with for the time being.
3. Fluke continue to move in from offshore with reports indicating at least limited improvement in the size ratio of shorts to keeper fish, with a slug of keepers in western Long Island Sound. There are plenty of fluke out there to catch, the trick is finding fish over 18 inches to bring back to Connecticut or 17.5 inches if you are a Rhode Island angler. Remember, the law is a “possession limit” so you can’t catch 17.5’s, bring them in to a Rhody launch, and legally possess them in Connecticut – even in your vehicle.
4. Thomcat Pelletier of Quaker Lane Outfitters didn’t even get out fluking over the weekend. He said that Wickford Harbor was producing 20-inch weakfish prior to the recent bout of storms, but he hasn’t heard anything about these fish still being in that area so far this week.
5. Earl at Saltwater Edge, Newport said there’s been some action around Newport. Bay anchovies are in Jamestown as a primary bait source. A week earlier it was sand eels off Fort Adams so there’s various kinds of bait around the area, which is a good thing. He said that Point Judith was fishing well from the beaches last week, but those fish apparently ran through the area and settled into the Newport area over the past few days. Ocean Avenue has been holding some decent fish since the weekend. The surf fishing slowed down in Narragansett and Point Judith at the same time. Anglers who are fishing from boats farther offshore continue to catch some fish in the 20-pound range, with some “scary big” monsters coming up behind baits and plugs from time to time. No one reported actually catching these monsters lately. There are still some big stripers up in the Bay around Prudence Island feeding on large menhaden.
6. Earl ran up on a school of fish off Ocean Drive that were feeding on tiny krill earlier this week. This large source of tiny food made fishing difficult. They managed to find a rip line where the microscopic feed was scattered by currents, and they drew strikes from some 30-inch-plus fish that swam up top to whack large poppers. Earl, Pete and the crew from Saltwater Edge like to throw those jumbo Poe’s walk-the-dog-type lures that are essentially huge Zara Spooks. Last year they discovered these musky baits were excellent big bass catchers. Earl says that at least for the moment, and it could be only for a moment in my guesstimate, Newport and vicinity is the place to fish for big bass.
7. Phil at Breachway Tackle, Charlestown said Ronnie is still doing well on big fish in the morning using live eels. There was a 40-pounder caught on a live eel off the Charlestown Beach this weekend. Eels at night and worms during the day are the ticket for bigger bass at the present time. The salt pond is producing mostly schoolies since the worm spawns died out. The big stuff is outside along the beaches and around the area’s reefs. Scup are beginning to hit pretty well. Fluke action remains good from Point Judith to Nebraska Shoal and Charlestown Beach, with most of the fish being caught in 30 to 60 feet of water. The short to keeper ratio remains at about to 10 to 1 for most anglers. Bluefish are moving in now. Most are less than 8 pounds, but there have been a few big choppers caught recently. There was a supposed “20-pound chopper” caught on Tuesday night off the Breachway. A bona fide 20-pound bluefish is a giant any time any place, especially this time of year when the adults are post spawn and tend to be racy. This giant blue was not weighed officially on any scales, so 20 pounds was an estimated weight by the guy who caught it, which in my experience means the fish was probably closer to 14 pounds in reality. Bluefish always look larger than they really are. Any time I catch a blue that is over 10 pounds, to get an estimated weight, I make a guess at its weight then subtract four pounds. Most of the time this is pretty close to the “real weight” when the fish is put on a Boga Grip.
8. Weather probably helped the fishing, but killed reports on fishing due to reduced angler activity out at Block Island this week.
9. Farther down the coast King Cove, Stonington and Captain Don’s Tackle, Charlestown, Rhode Island reported that fishing is good, but few anglers have been out to take advantage. Scup have shown up and fishing for them has been pretty good, though most fishermen are targeting fluke and stripers. At daybreak anglers are taking smaller bluefish off the Quonny Breachway on a regular basis but the bass action has slowed since last report.
10. Al Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic said that last week he was doing combo bass and fluke fishing prior to the recent bout of storms and doing pretty well on both species until last Wednesday. Since then the fluke have held up pretty good along the south side of Fishers with a short to keeper ratio better than the 10 to 1 most areas are reporting. But as of Thursday jigging and casting to stripers in The Race around Valiant Rock and around the reefs and the island has slowed down some.
11. Anglers fishing out of Shaffer’s Marina have not been going much, though on Tuesday one customer caught bass to 36 inches by drifting with live eels over Ram Island Reef.
12. Captain John Planeta owner of Frank’s Tackle, Marlborough said the Connecticut River has once again turned brown and dirty. Saturday he caught some short fish, but nothing of any size. This week has been poor for info due to the rains. This same sentiment was echoed by the guys at River’s End, Saybrook and Fish Connection, Norwich.
13. Richard at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford said the same thing, but noted that blackfishing in their area has been excellent. They had an 11.75-pounder taken from shore off Harkness Park on Monday. The docks around the Black Hawk head boat and under the bridges are consistently producing blackfish that are 5 to 8 pounds for the crew that fishes from shore. Any and all of the area rock piles seem to be holding blackfish. Remember last week there was a 14.75 and 14.25 weighed in at Hillyer's. Fluke fishing locally is spotty and slightly better off Fishers Island and across the Sound off Montauk Point, with the large minimum lengths being the main problem. There’s plenty of fluke out there to catch. Ed Morelli caught a 9.5-pound fluke from parts unknown, but Richard suspected that this fish was taken locally due to the weather conditions on the day the fish was brought to the scales.
14. Bass fishing has been fair to good. One of my friends easily caught bass up to 30 pounds off Bartlett Reef earlier in the week using live bunker and hickory shad he found somewhere he’d rather not talk about. They are still taking some stripers from Bartlett Reef and in The Race. Another friend caught fish to 40 pounds from Plum Island and the Sluiceway late last week, but remember any report more than a day or two old may not hold true at the present time when bass are on the move. A few 40-inch-plus fish have been caught by anglers fishing at the mouth of the Niantic River and out along the beaches near by on chunks in Niantic.
15. There are some big porgies to be caught out off Black Point and a few other spots in the Niantic area, but most anglers are chasing fluke, blackfish and stripers. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said there are loads of bluefish in the area, but they have been struggling to catch bigger striped bass lately. There are some big bunker around which means some of the fish to the west are filtering to the east. Where there’s bunker count on big stripers (and now bluefish) to be down below chowing down on them. The stripers that are being caught are big fat fish, but nothing of any notable size came into the shop since last week.
16. The Fluke Mania Tournament is starting to gear up. There is a new twist this year. Organizers have a separate side pot of $5000 for biggest fluke caught west of New Haven. Otherwise the biggest fluke taken anyplace during the event wins $10,000. Captain Morgan’s is also the local weigh-in location in this part of Connecticut for On the Water’s Striper Cup Tournament.
17. Porgies are huge and abundant in the Madison area, for those who target them. The biggest so far this year was a monster 17.5-inch humpback. Expect the smaller fish to move in as the summer progresses. Based on the 2005 season porgy fishing will be pretty much a “gimme” throughout the region again this year. They will be abundant and of good quality for anyone who wishes to go out to a reef or channel marker and drop a baited hook. Problem is, they were so abundant last year and will probably be about the same this year that it becomes difficult to impossible to drift for fluke or troll tube and worms without having baits stripped by scup. Sand sharks to 3 and 4 feet long are being caught off the Thimbles and in the Madison and Guilford area by fluke fishermen along with loads of skates.
18. To the west, Chris Fulton owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle in Stratford said he did a special boat-fishing trip to Saugatuck Reservoir and caught a bunch of Seeforellen brown trout. John Posh, previous owner of the shop, had his personal best trout fishing day with seven big brown trout that weighed between 5 and 7 pounds. The biggest brown was 30 inches and well over 7 pounds. These fish were caught by trolling lures on leadcore line to get down to the cool water where these big fish were suspended. All Chris’s trout were in the 13- to 14-inch range.
19. Chris said they weighed in a 10-pound fluke over the weekend that had been gorging itself on the huge schools of sand eels that are presently in the Port Jefferson, Long Island area.
20. A few anglers are catching smaller bass to just over keeper size by casting Red Fins and Bombers along the local beaches. The best striper fishing is to be found by fishing in deep water, 60 to 80 feet, with fresh bunker chunks. These boat fishermen are consistently catching bass between 30 and 40 pounds along the area’s drop-offs and humps. These big bass are part of that huge body of fish that had been stalled and feeding on adult bunker in the Hempstead, Long Island to Norwalk area a few weeks ago.
21. Bert of Fisherman’s World, Norwalk told us that they are still taking big, quality striped bass off buoys 28-C and 11-B on chunks, but the top-end size was about 25 pounds this week. Their fish moved east to Stratford and the waters off the Housatonic River mouth, which still has schools of bunker around, but they are smaller and broken up for the moment as the stripers have begun to drive them out of the area. Westport, Cockenoe Island and around Greens Ledge, by the light, are the best spots to find bunker and hence big bass. Fish to 25 pounds are being caught underneath these schools when they can be located. Dave Krouser caught a 30-pound striper on the south side of 28-C on fresh bunker chunks from bait they snagged themselves. But this week the size of the average “decent bass” has diminished as these fish push eastward with the bait.
22. From shore, anglers were catching harbor blues and stripers to 36 inches off Calf Pasture Point Pier like crazy on Tuesday using chunks of bunker and mackerel. More evidence that fish are on the move in this area as water temperatures rise.
23. Burt, who runs a charter fishing business, has been catching bass at Cockenoe and 11-B by drifting in 60 to 80 feet of water using those three-way rigs baited with a whole sand worm, the bigger the better. Three-way fishing in deep water with whole sand worms rather than eels, like they do throughout most of the state, is a technique that I have not tried here in the east. There seems to be too many scup around for it to work effectively. However, Burt said that the key to success is fishing in deep water where you catch mostly bigger stripers. The next time I fish The Race I will give this technique a try.
24. Anglers are catching fluke locally out in the Middle Passage and around Pecks Ledge, in the Norwalk Islands. As always, the very best fluking is to be found across the Sound along the north shore of Long Island.
25. Jason Ulicky caught 40 fluke between 3 and 6 pounds in the waters off the east side of the golf course across the Sound in North Port. All the fish were keepers. The next day they caught the usual bunch of small fish for every keeper.