Stamford Advocate: Fishing Ernest-ly seeking an answer to the declining fish population

• The 25th Annual WICC 600 Greatest Bluefish Contest on Earth is only two weeks away and fishing for bluefish is improving. There are lots of bluefish around and, as expected, they are hungry. Anglers are also catching striped bass, fluke, porgies and migrating bonito.
• As I write this there are at least two schools of bonito feeding in our area. One school can be found off Tod's Point and the other is feeding at the Middle Passage. Nick at Fisherman's World reported Louis Milazzo picked up a couple of bonito while fishing at the Middle Passage. His largest weighed 5 pounds. He was using Deadly Dicks and Hopkins lures. Also doing well at the Middle Passage and Goose Island was Rob Pitman. Using flies, Rob caught several bonito in the 5 to 6 pound range.
• Frank Tellicione caught the largest striped bass reported last week. He reeled in a 41-inch linesider while fishing off Tod's Point using sandworms for bait. Frank also caught and released 15 other stripers and a large sandshark. Hector Rivera also caught a very large striped bass. While fishing inside Stamford Harbor Hector hooked a healthy 40-inch linesider. The cow was taken on a chunk of fresh bunker.
• Dave Rich and Gary Feighery spent some time fishing in Stamford Harbor. But luck was not really with them. Dave caught the only fish taken, a 34-inch, 18.5-pound striped bass taken on a bunker chunk.
• Rich Dombrowski and Pete Miller fished at Sound Reef and using bunker they caught three stripers measuring up to 30 inches and 10 bluefish.
• Capt. Mike Black of My Love Charters took his family fishing off Norwalk. The Black family boated 25 fluke weighing up to 5.5 pounds. Mike always uses a variety of bait.
• Bill Kovac caught his limit of porgies while fishing at the Stamford Cows. His largest fish measured 18 inches and was taken using clam strips.
• Kevin at Sportsman's Den says Hank Weiss of Sparky Charters did some bottom fishing in Greenwich waters last week and was rewarded with several nice fluke. His largest fish weighed 7 pounds and measured 21 inches.
• Tuna fishing is the Canyon is going strong. Capt. Matt and the crew of the "Amanda Lee" hooked up nine yellowfin tuna weighing up to 130 pounds, a 140-pound mako shark, 25 dorado, two albacore and lost a huge wahoo while fishing in the Canyon. The crew was using chunk bait and chum. The crew of "Covered Up" also did well in the Canyon. They trolled up 15 yellowfin, 4 mahi mahi and 2 albacore. Their largest yellowfin weighed 85 pounds. The fish were taken by trolling and chunking.
• Pete Miller and Tom Flynn went trout fishing at the Kensico Reservoir. Using stick baits Pete reeled in a 4-pound brown trout while Tom caught a 5-pound brown. Tom returned to the reservoir a couple of times and he tallied a total of 17 more brown trout weighing up to 9 pounds. (Martin Armstrong)