Noreast.com Western Connecticut

• It is the time of the year where the water is getting warmer and anglers look forward to the arrival of weakfish, bluefish, and yes, bigger striped bass. For the past several weeks, most of western Connecticut has been basking in the onslaught of schoolie stripers and an unexpected run of winter flounder. However, as finicky as anglers are, they have grown bored with catching baby bass and are now pining for the cows to show up.
  
• Now, the question is just where are these big bass? Well, Pete Miller of Pete's Place in Stamford has an idea because his customers have been bringing them through the door pretty regular of late. Gary Feighery is using a 10-inch Fin-S to fish Greenwich waters in the early morning hours and coming up with 32 bass over three days, with the biggest fish measuring 35 inches. Randy Sala has been equally as successful in the morning and has taken eight stripers to 31 inches, using a 6-inch rubber shad, while Alex Mazzolla nabbed 10 bass to 30 inches with a 10-inch Fin-S. Guy Esposito has been fishing his usual haunt at IBM, and his efforts with clams yielded six bass to 35 inches.
• At Fisherman's World in Norwalk, Nick Massaro tells of John Scott who has found not only the keeper stripers, but some bluefish as well. Scott fished Rowayton Beach with sandworms and came away with two bass at 28 and 31 inches, respectively, and several bluefish. Jason Valicky did not chase down the bass but did come up with 30 flounder to 2 pounds while fishing with sandworms at Cockonoe Island.
• Eric Johnson of Westport Outfitters in Norwalk said the western Sound continues to warm up with temperatures hitting up to 56 degrees inside the harbors, which means that they should be seeing a drastic increase in striped bass. Johnson said that schools of bunker near Cold Spring Harbor, Greens Ledge and the Saugatuck River have been spotted, so the bait is there for big fish. Olive/White clousers and sand eel imitations have been producing decent results, as well as the new Gulp imitation scented sand eels. The smaller striped bass have showed up deep inside the Saugatuck River this week, with stripers up to 18 inches, with an occasional larger fish caught as well.
• Flounder fishing remains steady in and around the Norwalk Islands with spotty action near the mouth of the Housatonic River. The pier has been on fire for shore anglers inside the park as well.
• Jason Jadach of Bobby J's in Milford had some news of bass being caught by Dan Carroll who used sandworms to catch seven stripers while fishing from the Housatonic River. Carroll's biggest fish was 28.5 inches. Jadach tried his hand in the Housatonic River as well and came away with 13 bass. Ken Surfer landed the biggest bass of the week, hooking a 36-inch bass from the Housatonic River while using sandworms for bait. Jim Zimmerman had a monster two-day outing flounder fishing at Westport Beach. While fishing on the drift with sandworms, Zimmerman caught 24 flounder the first day, and then came back the second day to reel in 37 flatties. Now that's catching fish!
• The kids took over the fishing duties at Stratford B&T in Stratford with Chris Fulton reporting that 5-year-old Tyler Horlik nailed four brown trout. Then 8-year-old Gabby Camarero caught an 18-inch striper with a Tsunami swim shad, and 10-year-old Mike Weller snared a 3.18-pound golden trout from the Wappalog River with a mealworm.
• Jimmy Orefice at Jimmy O's in Stratford had some award winners among his anglers this week with Carly Polnay earning a state qualifying pin for her catch of a 2.61-pound brook trout, which was taken with a live shiner while fishing from the Housatonic River. Jimmy Izzo and Dick Ritter teamed up to win the South Norwalk Flounder Tournament for the second year in a row. The duo locked up first place with a catch of 12 flounder, which were all caught while drift fishing with sandworms at Calf Pasture Beach.
• At Some Things Fishy in West Haven, Mike D'Errico had some anglers on the bass, with Mike Billani cleaning the dust off his fly rod just in time to use a yellow surf candy to catch a 32-inch striper while fishing in the West River. Rob Derion tried his luck at West Haven Beach where he fished the sandbar with a sandworm that netted him a 29-inch bass, while his brother, Tom Derion, bested him by two inches with the catch of a 31-inch striper at the same location with the same bait. (Rob Caluori, Nor'east Saltwater, week of May 7 through May 13)