The Fishing Line, Eastern CT

• Bluefish - The first bluefish was caught yesterday by the powerplant at Millstone. Don't expect many more for about 10 days.
• Fluke - Although the season is open now, we do not have any reports of fluke catches yet.
• Old Saybrook, Connecticut River Area: Striped Bass- The Connecticut River now pretty clear in color, but watch for large logs and other debris still floating down. The river has a lot of schoolies, mostly concentrated below the RR Bridge. The outgoing tide has been best with some limited action on the flood tide. This next week should be approaching the peak of the schoolie run in terms of numbers. Most of the bass are between 15 and 20 inches, every day a few more larger bass are being caught. The DEP Piers are doing well for anglers using sandworms, the Causeway has schoolies on leadhead jigs. There has been a lot of bunker around both locally and across the pond.
  
• Flounder: No reports of catches have come in over the last week, although a few fellows tried, but no one came back with a positive word.
• Thames River, Striped Bass: Capt. Jack at the Fish Connection, where they weighed in a 28 pound striper yesterday, reports one large school of adult bunker are in the Thames as far up as Norwich. The Thames River is still loaded with schoolies, but a lot of keepers are now being reported as they chase herring up as far as the Shetucket River.
• Poquetanuck Cove, in particular, is loaded with school bass, with an occasional larger fish mixed in and guys are catching them from shore or in kayaks. He suggested that if you are looking for larger fish, go out either very early or very late in the day, or even at night, especially when the tide is high. Anglers using those tactics are picking up larger fish.
• Niantic Bay: Matt at Hillyer's Tackle reports that a large school of bunker has been off the South Shore between New London and Niantic for the last couple of weeks. He reports that anglers are having success snagging and live lining these bunkers, although the large stripers are still a couple of weeks away when they move into the Race with the squid that are now up in RI.
• Flounder: Matt also reports that winter flounder catches continue in the Niantic River, but it is up and down by day. Some days none are caught, while the past Thursday several guys limited out and left them biting. One of his customers brought in a 17 inch catch. He says the best time to catch them is at the end of the flood tide (2-3 hours before high tide). Fellows who develop a good chum slick and use sandworms are doing the best.
• Fluke: He does not expect to get reports of fluke until the middle of May, when the squid - which are now reported in RI come westward.
• Mystic to Watch Hill: Striped Bass: Capt. Jack also reported schoolie bass are being caught at Napatree Point near Watch Hill, RI.
• Flounder - Dottie at Ken's Tackle in Groton reports good catches of winter flounder at Bluff Point near Stonington. (thefishingline.com written by Vince Hough).