Connecticut Post - Mild weather has Bluefish hopping

• Bluefish—Plenty of medium to large choppers around, and the action is picking up thanks to the mild weather. The mouth of the Housatonic produced a huge school of blues this week. Waders and boat anglers were taking the very feisty fish on virtually every cast of the popper or swimmer. Milford Harbor has seen some great bluefish action as well. To the East, the Race, Plum Gut, Thames River, Pigeon Rip, Bartlett Reef, Hatchett Reef, Connecticut River from the Baldwin (I-95) Bridge to the breakwaters, Falkner Island area to the reefs off Branford, and the New Haven Harbor all have seen terrific action.
• Striped bass —The big bass are still hanging out in the deeper, colder water. Some schoolie action was reported in the Housatonic at Smith's Point across from Knapp's Landing restaurant. DEP reports indicate the usual spots, the reefs off Watch Hill, south side of Fishers Island, Ram Island Reef, the Race, the Sluiceway, Plum Gut, Pigeon Rip (just north of Plum Island), Bartlett Reef, Black Point, Hatchett Reef, Long Sand Shoal, Southwest Reef, Sixmile Reef, Falkner Island area and the reefs off Branford are still yielding cow bass.
• Blue crabs—The fantastic crab season is showing no sign of tapering off. Crabs measuring six inches point to point are not uncommon these days. Tackle shops are doing great business selling pole nets.
• Bonito—Eric Johnson at Norwalk Outfitters reports the action that nearly everyone has been into is still hot albeit a bit slower than weeks past. Flase albacore have started to move in and will traditionally push the other speedsters out of town. Have no fear though, L-Jack Jigs and Crystal Minnows will work just fine for the falsies.
  
• Snapper blues- Plenty of good-sized baby blues are at places like Milford's Town dock and Bond's Dock in Stratford. Small Castmasters or shiners are among the best choices.
• FRESHWATER Trout—The DEP's annual fall stocking is under way with 49,000 trout scheduled to go into ponds and rivers before it is over. Water levels in streams and rivers remain unusually low due to the lack of rain.
  
• Largemouth bass— Fishing is reported as good in many areas. Places to try include Lake Hayward, Upper Moodus Reservoir, Highland, Bashan, Columbia, Waramaug, Crystal and Red Cedar Lakes, Quaddick Reservoir, Pachaug Pond and Bicentennial Pond. Anglers are having to work for their bass at Candlewood Lake, and tough fishing has been reported from Billings Lake and Amos Lake.
  
• Smallmouth bass —Good fishing reported at Highland Lake, Squantz Pond, Mashapaug Lake, and fair Bashan Lake, Coventry Lake and Candlewood Lake. Anglers can still find good smallie fishing on the Housatonic (especially on warmer days, and this weekend should be warm).
  
• Northern pike—Fish are showing up in the shallows with the cooler temperatures in Lake Lillinonah, Winchester Lake, Bantam Lake, Hopeville Pond (several 30-inch-plus pike recently caught) and Pachaug Pond. A 17-pound pike was recently caught at Ashland Pond.
  
• Walleye—Some action reported at Coventry Lake, Lake Saltonstall (a 24-incher among the catches) and Squantz Pond (8.6-pound walleye).
  
• Black crappie—Anglers at Lake Saltonstall, Saugatuck Reservoir, Silver Lake (Berlin) and Park Pond have been getting them on small shiners.

TheDay Blackfish Opener A Mixed Bag

• The best spots for small boaters were Seaflower Reef and Black Rock; for shore anglers, the Gold Star and RR Bridges, Seaside jetties and New London Light. Blackfish season opened with mixed results said Joe Balint at the Fish Connection. He had reports of limit catches for some but others returned saying they caught little or only large porgies.
• Joe's son Jack is catching false albacore consistently on his charters over to Montauk but sometimes got a very rough ride home in the afternoon winds. Bonito popped in and out of Pleasure Beach, sport for those there at the right time.
• We also had fishing news from the Thames River from Red at Bob's Rod & Tackle who said there are blues of all sizes in the river chasing bunkers or caught in ones and twos by shore anglers using chunks of frozen bait on the bottom. Most of the blackfish reports talked about the average fish between 18 and 19 inches. Current regulations allow you to keep four fish per day from state waters with a 14-inch minimum size.
• Porgies are also in the river along with some jumbos to 15 inches on the rockpiles just in and around the river mouth. Bass were caught at night drifting with live eels or trolling the tube and worm during the day.
  
• Al Golinski of Misquamicut and his wife Emme have been enjoying good to excellent catches of sea bass off the rockpiles from Misquamicut to Weekapaug, fishing during the slower part of the tide, avoiding the heavy current during the recent full moon. Al hasn't seen many blues in his travels nor has he been bothered by them biting off his sea bass rigs. This is in keeping with the slowdown in blue fishing experienced by Connecticut residents visiting the Rhode Island beaches.
• Capt. Don's in Charlestown said the beach fishing from Charlestown over to Watch Hill is a lot slower than the last full moon. People are finding some bass in a very crowded Quonny Breachway or here and there from the Blue Shutters to Napatree Point. One Florida visitor caught three bass from 18 to 32 inches at Watch Hill on Tuesday evening but others had little to show for their time.
  
• Capt. Allen Fee at Shaffers reported good blackfishing over the past weekend with perhaps the best catch made by Bob Bellerose and wife from Chaplin with nine tautog to 9 pounds at Ellis and Ram Island Reefs. Please keep in mind the blackfish season is still closed in New York waters until Monday (Oct. 1).
  
• During the heavy, full-moon tides during mid-week people needed much bigger sinkers to hold bottom trying either for blackfish or large porgies. Bunkers were sighted in both the Mystic River and Stonington Harbor, sometimes with bluefish chasing them around. Bonito were around from Groton Airport to Watch Hill, zooming this way and that, gone some days before people could rig a rod for them. It pays to have a light spinning rod rigged and ready with a Deadly Dick or other productive lure on the boat if bonito show up on the surface.
• Capt. Tom Clapsadle of M&M Sportfishing sent in an e-mail saying his wife Bobbette landed her personal best striper, a 51-pounder, trolling a tube and worm slowly on the ebb tide off the south side of the west end of Fishers Island.
  
• Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat reported he had to move around this past week to “play the spots” to come up with a good catch of blues with stripers mixed in. On one day everyone on the boat caught a keeper bass as well as some bluefish. Over the weekend the tides picked back up, making it easier to locate fish. Big fish of the week goes to Tom Fix of Valatie, N.Y. with a 19-pound striped bass.
• Over at J&B Tackle, Roger told me their charter boat had good striper fishing at night on Monday and Tuesday thanks to pickup in the tides. Bonito were sighted and caught on Wednesday by three boats around Bartletts Reef. One of the anglers used a very small Crippled Herring while others stuck with the standard Deadly Dick or Needle Eel.
  
• Blackfishing was fair to good in 10 to 12 feet of water over the weekend past and 40 to 50-pound bluefin were trolled or chunked in the Mud Hole on the east side of Block Island
• Jeff Frechette sent in an e-mail about his latest offshore fishing. They left Niantic for the Block Island Mud Hole around 5 in the morning and landed a small bluefin on a cedar plug after 10 minutes of trolling. That fish was followed by another small tuna and three bonitos in the next hour.
• Their next move was out to the Suffolk wreck where they landed two blue sharks, lost a legal mako at the gaff and boated another mako that measured 7-feet, 3-inches from the tip of the nose to the fork of the tail.
• Richard at Hillyers Tackle said they weighed a 4.45-pound triggerfish caught by Christine Small of Shelton on a green crab in Niantic Bay. It's been submitted to the Connecticut DEP as a new, pending state record for that species.
  
• As of Thursday there were both bunker and hickory shad around the Niantic Bridges for bait for striper fishing or sport on a light rod.
• Down at River's End, Mark talked about bluefish blitzes at the mouth of the Connecticut River and good catches also at times on the flood tide in Plum Gut. Chunkers caught blues from shore in the lower river along with a few smaller bass. Kayakers and small boaters also caught schoolies and blues casting around Great Island early in the day.
• Porgies remain on all reefs and bonito come and go without any consistency, certainly nothing to plan a day around at this point. Crabbing remains good in the Oyster River plus North and South Coves.
• We close with another note about continued good to excellent cod and haddock fishing out of Gloucester, Mass. This writer and three others fished with my friend Capt. Jerry Hill, a fellow with 60 years experience, on Tuesday in some stiff southwest winds, filling up a large cooler with 7 bags of haddock fillets, three bags of tasty cod fillets along with cusk and one pollock, mostly caught on bait in 240 to 290 feet of water about 25 miles offshore.

CT DEP Weekly Fishing Report #23

• 2007 FALL TROUT STOCKING UPDATE: Fall trout stocking continues to be affected by extremely dry conditions/very low flows. For the second consecutive week, DEP has cancelled trout stocking in western CT due to very low flows.
• In eastern CT, no more rivers and streams will be stocked this fall, and those trout originally scheduled for rivers/streams will instead be stocked into lakes, ponds and Trout Park ponds. Coventry Lake (Wangumbaug Lake), Horse Pond, Beach Pond, Crystal Lake and the Mohegan Park Pond, Day Pond and Valley Falls Park Pond Trout Parks are the areas in eastern CT that were stocked this week.
• With flows in many areas well below typical levels and significant amounts of precipitation required to improve flow conditions statewide. Should these drought-like conditions continue, there will be numerous additional changes to DEP’s fall stocking schedules, possibly including the broodstock Atlantic salmon releases.
• Rivers & streams - Very low flows continue to plague the state. Northeastern CT is especially hard hit, with extremely low flows on many rivers and streams including the Willimantic, Natchaug, Fenton, Yantic and Quinebaug Rivers. Generally, matching the hatch is not as important at this time of the year.
  
• Streamers and nymphing are the way to go and often dominate the early morning and late evening. For streamers try white, yellow and brown colors. Patterns to try include White Wooly Buggers, Muddlers, Micky Finn and Grey or Black Ghosts (#4-10). For nymphs, bottom-bounce with Caddis pupa (#16-26), Serendipity (#14-16), Pheasant Tail (#12-20), Prince (#6-18) and Hare’s ear (#8-20). Light line and leaders should work best in the current low flow, clear water conditions. Good reports from the West Branch Farmington (many large browns), Farmington and Housatonic Rivers.
• Farmington River – Trout fishing continues to be good. West Branch flows continue to be clear and have been reduced, currently only about 75 cfs at Riverton, with an additional 7 cfs from the Still River.
• Farther downstream, the East Branch is currently providing an additional 150 cfs (Lake McDonough release). Current hatches/patterns consist of Isonychia (#12-14, fast water, evening), Blue Wing Olives (#20-28, mid-late afternoon), Caddis (tan #14-18, all day; green #22-26, evening; summer pupa #18-22 morning), Midges (#22-28, morning), Black Ants (#14-22, mid day in fast water), Summer Cahills/Stenonema (#14-22 in the evening), Black Beetles (#16-18, mid day), Flying Ants (#16-26, mid day, when windy/humid) and Stone Hoppers (#8-12, mid day). Tricos (#22-26) are still working in the upper West Branch.
• Housatonic River - Trout fishing remains good, although low flow conditions are concentrating fish and anglers. Flows remain clear and continue to decline, currently about 90 cfs at Falls Village and about 160 cfs at Gaylordsville. Morning water temperatures in the TMA are in the low 60’s °F, although temperatures may rise again with warmer weather predicted for the next several days. Current hatches/patterns include Blue Wing Olive (#18-26, early morning; spinner fall in evening), Isonychia (#10-12 evening), Sulfurs (#16-18), Summer Cahills/Stenonema (#12-14 in the evening) and Black caddis (#14-18, early morning & evening).
• Lakes & Ponds – Lakes reporting good trout fishing include Candlewood Lake (6 lb brown), East Twin Lake (13 trout for one angler, one 19” rainbow), Crystal Lake, Highland Lake and West Hill Pond.
• BASS fishing remains variable. Good reports for LARGEMOUTH BASS from Bashan, Andover, Highland, Hayward, Wintergreen, Lower Bolton (lots of action on smaller fish) and Cedar Lakes. Fishing reported as fair at Hopeville Pond, Quonnipaug Lake, Gorton Pond (bags include a 5.5 lb bass), Pachaug Pond (5.7 lb largemouth among the catches), Batterson Park Pond and Bunnells Pond, and slow at Lake Housatonic (but a 5.2 lb largemouth among the catches) and Beseck Lake. Mixed reports from Amos Lake and Bantam Lake.
  
• Good SMALLMOUTH BASS action reported from Candlewood (including several 3-4 lb smallies), Highland, Mashapaug and Coventry Lakes.
• NORTHERN PIKE action reported from Bantam Lake, Hopeville Pond and Pachaug Pond.
• WALLEYE catches are reported from: Squantz Pond and Lake Saltonstall (6.7 lb walleye among the catches).
• CHAIN PICKEREL have been caught at Beardsley Park Pond.
• Connecticut River – NORTHERN PIKE fishing is reported as good. Fish have been found in the Enfield area, Wethersfield Cove, and from Middletown (including a 32” pike) to the Haddam Meadows/Salmon River Cove area. BLACK CRAPPIE fishing is good to very good on small shiners in coves.
• CATFISH have slowed, but are still being taken (cut bait in the deeper holes and on the outside edges of the river). LARGEMOUTH BASS fishing is slow. SMALLMOUTH BASS action reported from the Farmington River confluence area, and a 4.2 lb smallie among the catches from above the Enfield Dam.
• STRIPED BASS fishing remains good at the usual spots the Watch Hill reefs, south side of Fishers Island off Wilderness Point, Ram Island Reef in Fishers Island, the Race, the Sluiceway, Plum Gut, Pigeon Rip (just north of Plum Island), Harkness Memorial State Park, Bartlett Reef, Black Point, Hatchett Reef, Long Sand Shoal, Southwest Reef, Sixmile Reef, Falkner Island area, the reefs off Branford, Milford Harbor-Charles Island area including Silver Sands State Park, Stratford Shoal/Middle Ground area, Bridgeport Harbor, and the Norwalk Islands. Live bait, cut chunk baits, and the tube and worm combination has worked well for cow bass.
• BLUEFISH fishing remains good to excellent in the Race, Plum Gut, Thames River, Harkness Memorial State Park, Pigeon Rip, Bartlett Reef, Hatchett Reef, Connecticut River from the Baldwin (I-95) Bridge to the breakwaters, Long Sand Shoal, Sixmile Reef, Southwest Reef, Falkner Island area to the reefs off Branford, New Haven Harbor, Silver Sands State Park, Stratford Shoal/Middle Ground area, Penfield Reef, Norwalk Islands and Stamford Harbor. Casting surface plugs or using chunk baits on three way rigs will score on big choppers!
• SCUP (porgy) fishing remains good to excellent and is about prime time for these hard fighting fish. Any rock pile or bottom structure will do.
• HICKORY SHAD fishing is good at the usual spots: The Mystic River, Niantic River between Rte. 156 and the railroad bridge, and the lower Connecticut River (from Essex down to the breakwaters) including DEP Marine Headquarters fishing pier.
• BLACK SEA BASS and TAUTOG (blackfish) can be caught off the major reef areas and rock piles in addition to scup.
• ATLANTIC BONITO and LITTLE TUNNY are racing around the Pine Island area, Little Gull Island, the Sluiceway, Millstone Point to Black Point, Hatchett Reef, Sixmile Reef, Charles Island area to Milford Point and around the Norwalk Islands.
• PEANUT BUNKER are everywhere along the coastline.
• BLUE CRABBING remains good to excellent with jimmies measuring in the 7 inch range being reported.

On The Water Magazine

• Across the region, reports from the past week were a bit slow, with most of the blame being tacked on the sometimes-gusty east wind, but there were some bright spots. Bait is thick no matter where you look, so chances are good that with a shift in the winds this weekend and the moon waning toward the new, fishing will pick up through this weekend.
• Narragansett Bay has loads of options, from good scup fishing and tautog around Hope Island, Halfway Ledge, the Jamestown Bridge – “anywhere there’s rocks” – as Tommy at Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle in North Kingstown put it. And with enough bait around that “you could walk to Portugal on it,” you should have no problem finding blitzing bluefish this weekend. Bass fishing has been decent and should only improve with the new moon tides and (eventually) cooler weather.
• In Newport, Peter at The Saltwater Edge reported that some big bass are being landed by plug guys fishing the surf. Rob from the shop took a 34-pounder in the early morning on a pencil popper, and Earl landed a 35-pounder on a needlefish plug. This time of year the bass are starting to school up and travel in packs, so it’s hit or miss proposition. Peter recommends setting out with a game plan and moving around to find the fish.
• Albie and bonito fishing has slowed from the “once in a lifetime” pace that marked most of September to what Peter described as “better than normal.” While there seem to be fewer fish around, they also seem to be feeding on larger bait now, 3- to 4-inch peanut bunker for the most part, and that usually means the fish are a lot less picky than when feeding on small bait. Slightly larger lures and small topwater plugs have been getting results on albies off Point Judith, the Breachway and Sakonnet Point; these fish move fast and can pop up just about anywhere.
• Bass fishing is best in the very early morning right now, according to Mary at Maridee Bait & Tackle in Narragansett. Any spot from Pier 5 down to the East Wall could have fish feeding on top at first light; expect lots of bluefish but plenty of bass underneath them. Boat fishermen working outside of the Center Wall have been taking some good bass by fishing eels at night, according to Rob at Wildwood Outfitters in Wakefield. Rob also reported that a couple kayak fishermen trolling eels and tube-and-worm rigs around Dutch Island and Dutch Harbor in Narragansett Bay took some bass up to 30 pounds. Scup and sea bass are “everywhere,” said Rob, and blackfish up to 8 pounds are being caught off the Narrow River at River Ledge.
• Out at the Mud Hole, one Wildwood customer cast-netted some live baits and went out to the Mud Hole to play with juvenile bluefin tuna in the 15- to 25-pound class. There have also been reports of good numbers of bluefin tuna in the 40-pound range being taken on chunk bait, while at the opposite end of the fishing spectrum, freshwater anglers are finding tough conditions with low water levels and warm daytime temperatures.
• Block Island bass fishing is in another league, where 20-pound bass are considered average. John at Twin Maples Bait & Tackle noted that surf fishing for bass has been very good for surfcasters working the North End out to Sandy Point. A 42-pounder was taken off the beach on a needlefish plug at night. Southeast Point is also fishing well at low tide, when shore anglers can wade out on the rocks and reach the deeper holes.
• False albacore fishing is excellent out at the Block, with fly-guys working the Coast Guard Channel and light-tackle fishermen throwing Yo-Zuri L-Jacks and other metals with reflective green sides. Sea bass and scup fishing is good; some surprisingly large scup have been hitting tube-and-worm rigs intended for stripers. Bait is in abundance around the island, including plenty of squid moving into New Harbor at night.
• Fishing along the breachways has been very productive, according to Steve at Breachway Bait and Tackle, but the bite is best from sundown to sunup. Plenty of legal-sized stripers are being caught up 38 inches, along with bluefish. There’s a great deal of bait around, so much that it’s making the fishing tough at times. Steve mentioned that false albacore are still around out by Watch Hill but they have gotten spotty, popping up occasionally and not staying up for too long.
• The striper fishing is pretty good around Watch Hill and Sugar reefs; Rennie at The Fish Connection in Preston reported a 42-incher caught this past Wednesday and plenty of legal-sized fish. Trolling tube-and-worm rigs along the outside shore of Fishers Island is also a good bet this time of year. Porgy fishing is excellent, and these fish are even being caught way up in the Thames where they are mjixing with white perch. Lots of 3- to 4-pound blues can be found in the upper portion of the Thames, and bigger blues are following the schools of large bunker farther down. Eels are producing some nice stripers out at The Race including plenty of 20-pounders and the occasional 30 to 40. Bonito were reported around Bluff Point and out to Race Point as recently as the first of October, but it’s been quiet for the past few days. Blackfish season is still off to a slow start, but it could be that the warm weather has anglers thinking bass and not anchoring up for tautog. Seaflower Reef, Sarah Ledge, Goshen Point, Latimer Light, the Dumplings and the breakwaters at Stonington are all excellent spots to go blackfishing.
• Captain Jerry Morgan out in Madison reported that blackfishing is picking up, with nearshore reefs producing very well. Madison Reef and Charles Reef have been notable, but you can also head out to Falkner and Kimberly if you feel like taking a longer boat ride. Bluefish are pretty common, feeding heavily on the top, and there is no real sign yet of any striper migration – could be because the water is still a warm 68 degrees. Look for bonito anywhere from Hammonasset Point to Falkner Island, and if you’re a fan of blue crabs, the East River is chock full.
• I heard excellent reports this week from the Housatonic River; the first was from Stratford Bait and Tackle, where surfcasters are taking bass up to 25 pounds and double-digit bluefish tossing Danny-style plugs near the mouth. Yellow is the hot color at the moment, but more important is that your plug is swimming under dark skies as the bite has consistently died out as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon. The second report came from Westport Outfitters in Norwalk, where Eric reported that they had been taking charters up into the Housie because the wind has been tough lately. Up in the river, they treated clients to 20-pound bass and “gator” blues. In the Norwalk area, albies had moved in and mostly displaced the bonito, but the strong east wind has made finding the albies sketchy for the past few days. With a lighter southwest blow in the forecast and lots of palm-sized peanut bunker in the area, Eric predicts things to break open this weekend.
• Best Bets for Connecticut and Rhode Island:Your best bet this weekend is to hit the salt and wet a line. Typical fall action on stripers and blackfish is just starting to pick up, but with the warm weather and water, the late-summer action on bonito and false albacore is still holding on. If you’re a surf fisherman, your best bet is still to head out after dark and cast eels or plugs, especially as we head toward the new moon next Thursday. And if you enjoy chasing bonito and albies, get out now because time is running out.