Eastern LIS, T. Coleman 5/15/09

The Thames River is our hot spot of the week, drawing large bass drawn by the bunker moving around in the river from the Gold Star Bridge all the way up to Norwich. Find the bunkers and you might find the school with some big stripers underneath them.

Bob's at Red's in Uncasville said people are snagging bunkers then live-lining them for larger bass up and down the Thames River. Not every school of bait has bass underneath it so it pays to look around from spot to spot. To date no blues were reported in the river but the first ones are due pretty soon.

You still have the opportunity to catch a few flounder for supper off Harkness Park or around the mouth of the Thames. The weather looks fair to good for the big striper tournament that is taking place on the river from tomorrow night through Saturday.

The Fish Connection told me two customers landed two 40-pound bass in their small boat one day this week off the Sub Base. They located a bunker school, snagged some bait then live-lined them for their prizes.

Capt. Jack Balint reported via cell phone about small blues at Orient Point and Millstone but no real push of bass yet into The Race. We should see squid soon in Stonington Harbor and hopefully a good charge of fish on the Watch Hill Reefs by the May 20.

Don at King Cove in Stonington said two fly rodders caught 20 schoolies one day in Lambert's Cove. Watch Hill Harbor has bunkers in it but the only bass around them were shorts and small keepers.

Shaffers Marina: We are selling snag hooks for the bunkers in the Mystic River said Allen at Shaffers Marina. To date though the only bass landed were small ones, the biggest of the week a 30-incher caught around Six Penny Island on Wednesday night by Tony Lasardo on a floating Gags popper.

Allen hasn't seen any flounder at all but the local kids continue to land small schoolies from the Mason's Island Bridge. Allen has compiled a list of all current regulations for New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, available free at the shop. The New York fluke season opens tomorrow with a two-fish limit at 21.8 inches, closing on June 15 and reopening from July 15 to Aug. 15, same size and bag limits.

Captain Howard Beers was minding the store at Hillyers. He said you can find blues over at Greenport and have a chance for a few flounder for supper in the Niantic River upriver from the road bridge. Bass are due soon in The Race, maybe this weekend.

We heard about the first sporadic fish caught in The Race this week, according to Roger at J&B, who quickly added the main body of fish as yet to show as of this report. The Mystic River has schoolie bass and another school bass was caught on Thursday morning on the north side of the golf course on Fishers Island.

Mark at River's End in Old Saybrook reported the bass fishing from Essex to the mouth of the Connecticut River was fair to good one day and very poor the next. Most people are casting plastic baits of some type, mostly shads or Slug-Gos. If you weed through a lot of skates at the breakwater at the river mouth you might catch a flounder or two for dinner.

Other fishermen got in their cars and went either west on 95 to the mouth of the Housatonic River for good striper fishing or to east to the Rhode Island breachways for lesser numbers of fish, mostly at dusk and daybreak. Overall the surf fishing in nearby Rhody is off and on, with a good trip one day and the same beach the very next evening almost barren. Most of the fish are covered with sea lice (not harmful), a sure sign the spring migration is under way. [Tim Coleman, The Day]