Rivers End Tackle, 5/1/09

STRIPED BASS_- Well its May and the schoolies are in the Connecticut River with a few larger ones. Casting from the Old Lyme shoreline to the channel edge is producing. The numbers are not up to previous years and unfortunately this seems to be a trend for the last five years. Catching a dozen or so bass up to two feet is not uncommon for a tide. Last year it might have been twenty and the year before that thirty. Enough gloom! Best strategy is to drift and cast and then try to repeat your drift without going over the fish. Anchoring is discouraged since it blocks other boats from drifting. A few anglers have been trolling tube and worm in the lower River with some success, and thats a good way to find the bass. They are hitting surface lures now.

Up the Connecticut River we're getting reports of some schoolies and larger bass than we are getting at the mouth. A few schoolies are also being caught along the Old Lyme beaches, bait casters at the DEP Piers are getting some also.

No word yet of any bass on the reefs but that might change by the end of the week. We have had first hand reports of bunker at Millstone, Mumford Cove, Bridgeport Harbor and Peconic bay.

BLUEFISH_- Not here yet, its still safe to use Slug-gos for the next two weeks. They have shown up on the south shore of Long Island.

WINTER FLOUNDER_- The season is open until the end of the month. A few flats are still being reported from the Niantic area, but its a long shot.

NETTING LIVE BAIT SEMINAR_ - Tomorrow, May 2nd at 11am is our last seminar of the season. "Q" will demonstrate how to use a cast net and gill net.
If you're intending to use live bait and get your own this demonstration will get you started.