Westport Outfitters (Norwalk) Fishing Report

• Some very hot weather this week bumped the water temp significantly while in other areas the go to bait inshore was sand eels and even they are beginning to disperse, but there distant relatives Mr./Mrs. Silver Side are moving right in behind them. Changes are on the way for this coming week and the action should begin to pick back up.
  
• We had reports of small snappers by one of our scouts last week on the LI side, but they have since moved across and have been stacked up in and around the Saugatuck River basin, offering bass and larger blues a change of diet after gorging on Sand Eels for the past two months. It may take a few more days to really heat up, but now is also a great time to get the kids into fishing. Fishing for baby blues is a blast on a light tackle rod and the constant action will keep any young angler smiling all day. We have snapper kits readily available with pre rigged rods as well, so come on down and bring the whole family!
• Depending on the tide and time of day, some good size stripers are still being taken on the reefs between Stamford and Greenwich. Water temps have risen to the 70 degree mark in most of our areas and the reef fishing will become more consistent (this will be the ideal time to start breaking out the T&W rigs). In fact we had a report of dozens of bass being caught yesterday mid day right off the shop up to 34 inches on Tubes. This crew actually went through 9 dozen fresh Westport Outfitter's worms. Way to go guys!!
  
• Bunker schools are stacking up nicely as well in the Norwalk area and it won't be long until some bigger bass find them. Migratory fish from the south will have plenty of reason to call Norwalk/Westport home during the summer doldrums with all this bait around. The bluefish have already been hitting the bunker schools off of Greenwich and Stamford and are moving east. Reports of bluefish to 16 lbs. are coming in and some local bass up to 30 lbs. Most anglers report they are doing well with fresh chunked bunker for the bass and blues (we have). Snapper blues are growing and becoming a good food source for stripers, bigger blues and fluke. Once they get to about 5 inches long use them on a 3-way rig bouncing bottom for big fluke. You couuld also use our custom rigged live lining rigs for this application as well.
  
• Even though the sand eels may be dispersing a bit, they are still a favorite Fluke bait and we now have them frozen (4-6 inches in length). Speaking of Fluke, the action has surely picked up on this side and in some unlikely places as well, with nearly a dozen keepers taken on Sunday by one of our scouts in less than three feet of water. Try a fluke bomb in the 2-4oz range and a fat frozen sand eel, your efforts will surely pay off.
• A message to the inshore crowd…time to reset those alarm clocks. As these water temps increase, you will have to loose some of that beauty sleep if you want action from shore. Bass, as we know, will normally feed at night if we follow the textbook, but with these high heat, high sun days, they may wait even longer to move back into the shallows in search of food, which means your best bet will be from 4 A.M. to first light in the usual haunts in and around Mill Pond, Fairfield and Southport. As summer progresses, fly fisherman will need to concentrate their fishing during these lower light conditions for more consistent results.
• Last week we still had some good reports from local fly fisherman fishing between Fairfield and Norwalk using sand eel imitations. Although these sand eels should still be around for a little while, the main bait source for stripers and blues is going to be baby bluefish, bunker, silversides, shrimp, crabs and worms. Try rotating in some small deceivers in the blue/white pattern or our famous snapper blue patterns. For spinning tackle, the new Stillwater plugs will do the trick as well as our go to Yozuri Crystal Minnows. Also try an old reliable as the snappers increase…the “Bounder.” I think my father first turned me onto this classic lure years back, but no other comes even close to representing a 3-5 inch snapper on the move. They can be trolled or retrieved.
• Local fly fishermen are also anxiously anticipating a worm hatch in the upcoming week. Your best shot at hitting this legendary event is to fish outflows during the night with cinder worm imitations. Sometimes this event can be very frustrating, so call the shop or stop down for some tips.