On The Water, 7/7/06

1. Best Bets for CT & RI: The concentration of big bass that was stagnant in the extreme western end of Long Island Sound and the bunker they were eating seem to be heading east so anything can happen over the next week or two. This weekend, look for pulses of larger bass to continue moving east along the coast, especially if the sun comes out and cooks the shallows to levels they don’t want to tolerate. If the bunker continue to move eastward as well count on the potential to catch bigger stripers any place a school is located. Block Island is probably the best spot to take a 50-pounder as always this time of year. Keep in mind that it’s the summer big bass period and it’s always fickle, good one day poor the next, no matter where you drop an eel or live bait.
2. We had so much rainy, water-cooling weather last month that some of the movement of fish has been delayed to a point. Captain Jack Balint, who runs a charter boat out of the Fish Connection, said that he doesn’t think that the bigger bass have settled into the shallower waters around Fishers Island where he does a good deal of his light-line fishing. This appears to be the case based on reports of some larger bass still lingering to the west, between Stratford and the New York border, which is late for this calendar date. But there’s still adult bunker schools that are being spread out in the areas where the 30-pound-class bass are still being caught. Bluefish are moving in and everyone is talking about porgies this week, which is a bad sign for anglers who fish shallow with tube and worms and fluke angler who have their baits ransacked by scup all summer long.
3. Fluke fishing is the same story no matter where you go. Lots of fish, mostly small.
4. Peter at Saltwater Edge, Newport reports that after a five to seven day hiatus, the bait is coming into their area once again, so the striped bass and blues are also in the area to eat them. There have been “lots of skunkings” until Wednesday of this week, according to Peter, but the action has definitely improved in the past few days. No one is catching any “epic fish” down in the Newport area lately, but there are still 20-pound-plus fish to be caught especially by fishing after dark with live bait of some sort.
5. The larger striper still seem to be holding up inside Narragansett Bay and feeding on the schools of bunker that have been in that area for a few weeks. One commercial fisherman pulled in a net for bunker and had a couple of 40-pound-class bass mixed in with the haul. This means they are still seeing pulses of fish moving through the region. Everything else I have heard of fits this scenario, fish moving rapidly along the coast as water temps warm.
6. Rob at Wildwood Outfitters has a mobile bait truck running along the fishing spots from Green River to the south shore. Check their web sight for the schedule. No one out at Block Island is even talking about fish under 20 pounds and there are some 40’s being caught off the southeast corner, with improved quality of fish showing up off the North Rips as the season progresses.
7. Wildwood’s crew has been either catching or hearing about good fluke catches that have been as high as 50/50 shorts/keepers being taken from the west gap and center walls at Point Judith. Along the beaches the best catches have been coming from 30 to 35 feet of water.
8. Justin at Breachway Tackle, Charlestown said the fishing is still good in their region of the south shore. There are still good numbers of schoolies inside the salt pond, with some much bigger bass cruising along the beaches, but mostly outside around the breachways and reefs adjacent to the salt ponds. Ronnie who owns the shop, has been catching limits of 30-pounders all week with his charter customers.
9. Everyone from Saltwater Edge, to Wildwood Outfitters, Breachway and Captain Don’s said that the blues have moved in for the summer. Most of the fish are smaller, in the 2- to 4-pound range, but there are some anglers who are reporting ten-pound-class catches.
10. The waters off Charlestown produced fluke of 7.5 pounds and 8.2 pounds over the weekend. However, the keeper to short ratio has ranged from one to three Rhode Island 17.5-inch legals for every 10 fish brought into the boat. Anglers are catching 30 fish and bringing home 2 to 4 keepers. One guy Justin heard of only caught a single keeper out of about 30 fish that he caught over the holiday weekend. I made a trip to Misquamicut a week ago and only caught a single Connecticut keeper out of the 20 I landed, but four or five would have been legal had I been a Rhody resident.
11. John of Captain Don’s, Tackle, Route 1, Charlestown, Rhode Island said fluke action is clearly picking up in the number of keepers to shorts. This is due in part to growth. Fish that were 17.5 inches a month ago are pushing legal size right now. The quantities are the same but the size has improved. Don Dinucci took fish to 8 pounds over the weekend off Charleston in 45 feet of water. Armand Mateo from Pawcatuck caught a near 5-pounder off Misquamicut early in the week.
12. There was a monster bass of 56 pounds caught off Block Island during the holidays. John said they didn’t officially weigh the fish they just saw it, the official weight was taken somewhere else, but it was a monster. Tube and worming is still productive for mostly small bass up inside Quonny Pond, for bass of medium to schoolie size. There are big stripers in the breachways but they have been difficult to catch lately. Scup are abundant all over the place and are beginning to become a negative factor for fluke fishermen and anglers trolling tube-and-worm rigs in shallow water.
13. I took a run to the south side of Fishers Island on Monday to do some tube and worming with a couple friends and the action fit the description of many areas to the west. We didn’t catch any larger fish, even after dark on eels. All we managed was a dozen bass, top end about 28 inches, a half-dozen bluefish to about 4 pounds and a whopping big 15.5-inch scup. One charter captain I talk to frequently gave me exactly the same report for Sunday in the shallows along the south side of Fishers, not many fish and all small, but he caught more blues than we did. I skipped areas once we caught a bluefish, he didn’t.
14. Captain Jack Balint of The Fish Connection, Preston said the ratio of fluke off the beaches is still off kilter. His dad Joe and another angler made a run that touched the south side of Fishers Island and the beaches from Misquamicut to the west and had a tough time, taking a keeper for every 10 fish they boated. One thing anglers can do to reduce the handling of smaller fluke is to use larger hooks and larger baits. Rather than using a four-inch strip of squid, use a whole squid or a fillet of big fish like a mackerel, hickory shad or bunker rather than a small frozen smelt or silversides.
15. It appears that the hordes of larger stripers that have been concentrated in the western end of Long Island sound are at least beginning to trickle to the east. Howard at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle, Waterford told me they have been hearing of a few more 20-pound-plus stripers being caught in along the shore, rather than from the Race and other deepwater reef areas over the past few days. Local fluking good has continued to improve over the past week. Still mostly shorts but they saw fish up to 8 pounds at the scales. Blackfishing is still holding up very well in the Niantic area. Some nice fish, but nothing like the 10- to 14-pounders reported just after the season opened, have been caught over the past week in the Niantic area. The interesting fact is many fish over 4 pounds have been caught from shore, right from the pilings and docks between the bridges in Niantic as well as off Harkness Park.
16. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said the big news this week has been the influx of bluefish. The reports of larger stripers seem to have faded for the time being, maybe because the blues are getting in the way like they tend to do when both species are competing for food or to strike a lure. Fluke action in this area remains about the same, but no reports of doormats this week. The Captain heard of decent summer flounder being caught off Long Sand Shoal, off the mouth of the Connecticut River and in the shoals just south of Falkner Island. He didn’t weigh in any stripers over 20 pounds or so this week, but there are reports of bunker moving through the area. To me this is probably some of the bait that had been west of New Haven for the past few weeks. If there are some adult bunker in an area you can count on the jumbo bass to be right on their tails.
17. To the west, from Stratford to the New York border it looks like the big bass and bunker that they had been eating are on the move. There are still some nice stripers being caught, but the rate has slowed a great deal since last week’s report.
18. Chris Fulton owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle Stratford said the big striped bass that his customers had been catching in 40 to 60 feet of water off the mouth of the Housatonic River and in the deeper waters of the Sound have moved. Some apparently have moved east, but some of these larger fish have simply moved inshore, which has created some decent plug fishing in the lower Housey and areas around Bridgeport. For the past three weeks anglers fishing the surf with artificials have not done well, but things finally changed for the better this week as the “after work crew” finally began to connect with some decent, keeper-class stripers. As the blues have come inshore, they out compete the bass for lures and baits, a typical summertime scenario. Bluefish are moving into the area, but the bass action continues to hold up despite their presence, at least for the time being. There are some bluefish in the area that are pushing 10 pounds, but the average fish are in the 5- to 8-pound range, a good deal larger than the dinks anglers are dealing with to the east and along the Rhody coast.
19. The fluke action has improved. The smaller 17.5-inchers are finally growing into keeper size, because Chris said anglers are doing better than the ten-to-one, short-to-keeper ratio we’ve been seeing elsewhere. One lucky angler caught some decent black sea bass of 5.2 pounds and just over 4 pounds while fluking off Charles Island, in the channel leading out from Milford Harbor. The fact that the sun has finally shined for a few days has helped the fishing reports by allowing many anglers the opportunity to finally get out on the water and see what’s happening.
20. Nick at Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said that there are still a few bigger bass up to about 30 pounds left in their area, but most are being caught in deeper waters due to increasing water temperatures this time of year. The larger bass are still coming from Budds Reef, Buoys 11-B, and 28 -C from anglers who are catching their fish on bunker chunks and three-way worm rigs. There are still some bunker in the area but they are hard to find. Chris had the sense the bunker are being pushed through the area at the present time. There are bunker in Blackrock Harbor but that’s the only place they can be counted on. The deepwater reefs are the places to look for larger stripers right now as inshore shallow waters begin to get too warm for their liking.
21. Blues are in the middle of the Sound and feeding on top, where fishermen are catching them on poppers. Look for diving birds or swirls and you’ve probably found bluefish in western Long Island Sound.
22. Fluke fishing is remains good off Eatons Neck and off the Golf Course. A few anglers are saving gas and catching them locally, in the Norwalk Islands off Middle Package, Pecks Ledge and out in the waters in front of Sherwood Island State Park. No monsters are coming in from these areas, but it is not unusual for people to come into the shop with fish of five or six pounds. One angler caught an 8-pound doormat off Cockenoe Island over the weekend. Porgies are hitting now, with the best catches coming in from Can #1, Buoy 28, around all the high spots off Middle Passage and along the outer edges of the islands.