The Day, New London

Take two parts sunshine, add one part warming water, stir lightly and you have the makings of improved conditions since the big nor'easter of last week. More people are out and about, catching more fish.

1. Capt. Joey Devine didn't get a chance to head north for cod but instead took his small boat up the Niantic River off Camp Rell on Monday and Tuesday, limiting out on flounder on the first day and coming close on the second. Included in the catch were a few small bass, those and the flats caught on worms on the bottom. Joey said he knew he was going to have a good trip when the first drop of the first day produced a double-header flounder.
2. Joey also said small boaters are catching small bass on small plastic lures in the Millstone outflow and have seen a school of bunker in Niantic Bay in travels to and from the plant.
3. Capt. Al Anderson fished the Thames River on Tuesday in sunny but windy conditions. His party landed 72 stripers from 11 to 20 inches trolling small umbrella rigs or flies on lead core line. They started in Norwich Basin then moved down to Dow Chemical and Horton's Cove by the end of the ebb tide. On the flood tide, they moved back upriver, catching fish from Easter to Massapeag Points then finished the trip around the dike at Trading Cove to market 41.
4. Over the weekend, Al fished in his big boat on the northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank, landing 230 codfish and five haddock in two days. They kept their legal limits of the tasty cod and tagged and released the rest. All the fishing was with bait, anchored up, chumming with cracked clam shells.
5. People are starting to get out more now, said Don at King's Cove, catching striped bass in small boats along the Pawcatuck River and some flounder from time to time off Bluff Point. Shore anglers finally caught stripers at Cemetery Cove, that spot getting a very late start this year. Del Barber of Westerly got the first fish, a 26-incher on a popper on the Wednesday afternoon high tide.
6. Shaffer's Marina has opened back up for the year said Allen Fee who was working on redoing some of his docks. After work he tried for schoolies along the middle part of the Mystic River but has yet to get the first hit. He surmised their may be some bass available in the river but further up around the I-95 Bridge.
7. Striper fishing in the Thames is pretty steady right now said Capt. Jack Balint at the Fish Connection. People caught schoolies on worms at the mouth of Poquetanuck Cove and underneath Route 12. Up inside the cove they caught more small bass and also some keepers on cut bait and plugs. One fellow showed Jack what was left of a jointed plug after a presumably larger bass pulled the back end right off it and mangled the front set of treble hooks.
8. Jack also had reports of smaller keepers caught around Indian Leap Falls and the Greeneville Dam. Remember, you need a Connecticut freshwater fishing license to fish for stripers in those areas. In response to an e-mail from Jim Murphy, Jack said there were some white perch caught on Tuesday inside Poquetanuck Cove and seen in the water around Gales Ferry Marina.
9. Sandworms are the thing for small bass along the Thames River said the people at Bob's Rod & Tackle. You can also catch some flounders in the Niantic River and maybe some at Bluff Point. A few blackfish were caught along the lower part of the Thames but please keep in mind the season for them closes on Monday.
10. Stephanie Cramer is back, supplying her regular reports. She said this winter and spring they tagged lots of small bass in the Thames on charter trips with Capt. Al Anderson. On one of those days Al tagged and released his 45,000th fish, that one in Winthrop Cove. Steph's largest bass during those days was a fine 38-incher on her fly rod.
11. Richard at Hillyer's Tackle said the flounder fishing was fair to steady in the Niantic River with people taking advantage of the nice weather during the week plus catching something for dinner. That fishery and schoolies at the Millstone outflow are about the best bets just now.
12. Capt. Kyle Douton at J&B Tackle said some of the local kids in small boats had schoolies out of the Millstone outflow on small bucktails and plastic baits. Prior to last week's long storm, there were a couple blackfish caught up the Niantic River but they hadn't heard any more since the blow.
13. John Jenks sent me an e-mail asking about shad yet in the Connecticut River so I put that question to the people at River's End in Old Saybrook. The answer was no, but in their place are plenty of schoolie bass from the Baldwin Bridge down to the river mouth hitting small plastic lures and poppers. Most of the fish are undersized but every once in a while somebody gets a keeper up to about 30 inches. Flounder fishing around the Spindle looks like another bust; that in line with several years of very poor results. (Tim Coleman, The Day),