Westport Outfitters (Norwalk) Fishing Report

• It’s not over just yet folks…despite the hoards of boats not showing up in some of our local inshore haunts like the Mill Pond, Weed Beach and Southport Harbor, there is still fish to be had for the wading and inshore angler. It seems as if the buzz about the Mill Pond dissipated without any real evidence that the fish had moved to deeper water. This is supported by our scouts including Patrick and Pete Viviano still taking many fish over the weekend at first light up to 30 inches, on no other than the new pattern we recently developed (hand tied by Peter Viviano, Jr,.) the “Emerging Sand Eel.” If you have not tried these, you are surely missing the boat (no pun intended). Sand Eels are definitely dispersing some but the silver sides are right behind them, so don’t give up on the inshore seen just yet. Focus on low light conditions. As the water temps increase, the traditional night bass feeding may be postponed until the A.M., so go to bed early to prepare for the even earlier rise...
• Our charters on Saturday and Sunday also did very well. We took Bill Sullivan and family out on Saturday with some blues in the 14 lb class on tubes as well as a few stripers just shy of keeper length. All fish were taken in and around the Norwalk Islands. The fluke bite continues to be strong off of Copp’s Rocks outside of the islands on the traditional rigs tipped with sand eels and/or sandworms. Also try the Atom Fluke Bombs we started carrying recently for that keeper fluke.
• Tuesday night we had an evening charter that fished in and around Captain's Island with blues up to 10lbs on light tackle. Finally the bunker that have been living the good life are starting to get pushed, so hold on for what seems to be shaping up as another stellar blufish season.
• With rain scheduled towards the end of this week and several fronts pushing through, the water clarity will surely suffer, so try switching up your tactics and filter in some poppers on the fly rod or some of the new bone color Stillwater poppers. At times like these, you will normally have better luck with an agitator type approach to trigger a strike, versus going sub surface. This also may be a good time to try out some of our custom hand tied crease flies by local captain Ian Devlin.
• Sunday Captain Chris ventured East fishing the mouth of the Housatonic with more keeper bass on chunks than he could count, fishing in only 8 feet of water. Great day out on the water with the whole family!
• Monday we were back at it with a good customer and friend Sgt. Colonies for an outing before he shipped out overseas on a deployment. Although we worked hard, we failed to manage the keeper bass we were hoping to get him into before his departure. Nothing on the fly rods and light tackle, but we did manage a few blues and bass up to 25 inches on the go to T-Man tubes tipped with the imitation Gulp sand worm patterns during the high mid day sun. The T&W technigue is definately starting to pick up as some resident fish begin to stack up on local reefs. Another great technique to keep the boat moving (and the kids happy).
• The pier over the weekend was also hot producing a few large bass up to 34 inches on mackerel chunks and fresh bunker with some higher tides on the dropping sun. The snappers continue to infiltrate our local waters accomplishing two things, a secondary bait source for bass and larger blues as well as hours of enjoyment for the kids. We are still starting any outing with plastics, but be sure to have a stock of hard baits such as the new Rattle Traps in various colors for the chompers. These powerful little fish are a blast on light tackle, so come on down and Take The Family Fishing ™! For the fly guys and gals, mix in a few snapper like patterns, blue/white deceivers and some specific hand tied flies by Peter Viviano. Speaking of Peter Viviano, he has now come on board as another addition to our growing shore guiding and kayak staff. Be sure to check out his credentials under the “Chartering” section of our website.
• Montauk Report: Captain Dean of the "TEASER," located in Montauk N.Y., reports many bass to 40 lb. in the rips with live porgies being the bait of choice. The fluke fishing has moved from the South side to north in the sound. Offshore has been strong with some amazing shark catch's as well. There was a 557 Thresher weighed in at Montauk Marine Basin last Saturday. Sharking has been excellent and the blue fins are also showing up in strong numbers with lots of fish in the 50# to 100# range.