TheDay: Connecticut Fishing Reports

• Fluke fishing last week was good for some, said Red at Bob's Rod & Tackle, but for others they caught only shorts due to the higher size limits in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York.
• Biggest fish brought into the shop was a fine 14.7-pounder, presumably caught off Isabella. Find some bunkers in the Thames and you might find stripers to 42 inches under them, or you can snag some bait, keep it alive and run it someplace else in the river to live line it for bass. Mixed in with the stripers are 3 to 4-pound bluefish, just big enough to be pests when trying to fish live bait for bigger game.
• No porgies are around just yet but lots of people are buying diamond jigs for bass and blues in The Race.
• Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat reported a great hit of bass on Memorial Day with fish to 25 pounds taken. The day before they had an increase in bluefish as well as some bass mixed in. Brad summed up week saying the fishing has consistency and a steady buildup as well. They will sail on daily trips starting on June 9 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will also go fluke fishing in the evening starting on June 14, sailing from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday until Aug. 18.
• Al Golinski of Misquamicut headed over to The Race on Sunday for seven bass from the low 20s to the low 30-pound range somewhere around Valiant Shoal with live bunker weighted down to get it to bottom in tides that weren't running very fast at the time. Some of his neighbors are catching small bass from the Rhode Island beaches in the morning after the surf finally cleared up from Monday's storm.
• Capt. Don's in Charlestown is selling a 3 1/4-ounce lure called the Grim Reefer that is fooling fluke in 20 to 40 feet of water off Quonny when bounced slowly up and down along the bottom after it's been dressed with a strip of squid. On Wednesday people along the rip-rap at Quonny Breachway caught the first porgies of the season.
• Don at King Cove Outfitters took time swapping fishing stories with retired commercial fishermen Capt. Joe Renderio of Stonington, to tell me he's seen steady fluke catches from the backside of Fishers from South Beach to Isabella. They are sand eels in Little Narragansett Bay drawing bass to about 35 inches around the tip of Sandy Point and the lower part of the Pawcatuck River. No one has brought in any sea bass yet, not even one caught by accident while drifting for fluke east of Watch Hill.
• Cheryl at Shaffers Marina offered the view that 40 to 60 feet of water on the backside of Fishers Island was best for fluke since last report. Blues are around in that depth, grabbing the fluke baits from time to time. You can plug up schoolie stripers in the Mystic River on small poppers or plastic baits. Others landed larger bass at Valiant Shoal trolling lures on wire line when the tide wasn't running that hard.
• Over at the Fish Connection in Preston, Joe Balint told me all the rain from the Monday storm washed the bunkers that were up in Norwich Harbor down around Trading Cove where some bass to 25 pounds were chasing them around. Mixed in were some large blues of the size normally not seen in the river until much later in the season. John Robbins landed the first fluke of the season in the river, a 22-incher caught on a sandworm meant for schoolie bass across from Montville.
• Schoolie bass are along the beaches or just offshore from Millstone down to Ocean Beach along with a chance now for a keeper fluke. Capt. Jack Balint saw a big school of blues off the golf course on Fishers Island on Wednesday along with seeing people catching bass in The Race on diamond jigs during his charters.
• Please keep in mind conservation officers are out checking the minimum length for fluke. You must observe the legal limits when in other state's waters regardless of where the fish will eventually be landed. In New York, it's 19.8 inches; in Connecticut, 18 inches and in Rhode Island, 19 inches, confusing to be sure but it's the law of the land.
• Stephanie Cramer had an active week, fishing one evening before the Monday storm in the North Rip of Block Island with Captain Al Anderson. They arrived to find the rip roaring, birds working over bait and the place alive with bass. Their total on a Capt. Murphy squid fly was 28 stripers to 37 inches. On Saturday, Steph fished with Capt. Anderson again, this time in the Point Judith Salt Pond for 48 stripers to 26 inches and one bluefish, all released. Her third trip was to the upper Thames where she landed five small bass, wading along the shore and casting with her fly rod.
• Capt. Joey Devine of the Mijoy sent in his first e-mail of the year saying the first two weeks of the season saw some very good fishing and also some very slow trips. They landed a couple stripers over 30 pounds along with others between 28 and 42 inches plus blues “that looked more like the kind you see in the fall.”
• Hillyers Tackle said all the local charter boats had good bass trips in The Race plus blues on some days. Blackfish are around and that season will open in state waters on June 15. One fellow dropped a diamond jig for bass and to his surprise had a blackfish take it instead. Bill Kohl landed a 35-pound bass at Bartletts on an eel and Paul Fagan came in with a 42-inch striper he fooled with a tube and worm, the latter fish landed a week ago.
• River's End Tackle in Old Saybrook was busy putting in more bait for the coming weekend but took a short time to say the striper fishing in the lower river is getting slower and slower after a spring peak about two weeks back. However, the bass were replaced somewhat by blues, anywhere from 2 to 3-pounders to a few that weighed 8 to 10 pounds, roaming the lower Connecticut River, hitting poppers at times or chunk bait on the bottom. (by Tim Coleman orginally published on TheDay.com).