Westport Outfitters, 5/28/09

Just when you thought it could not get any better…well…it did. The local fishing scene remains red hot and over the past week, although a bit reluctant, since I did not want to jinx anything, I started to poll a few old salts that I know and they too confirmed my feeling, that this spring is off to an epic start. Last week we finally started to see a solid infiltration of sand eels around the county including areas such as Holly Pond, Compo Cove, Sunken Island and at the mouth of the Saugatuck River. Water temps at the time of this report are holding steady at around 56 degrees.

When attempting to match the hatch with the most recent infiltration of sand eels, try the GULP baits as well as the sand eel color 4 inch sluggos, again rigging them weightless and weed less as we described in our bonus video on www.westportoutfitters.tv last week.

Bunker remains all over the Western Sound in most of the harbors. Since they are not necessarily getting worked by the blues and bass all the time, now is an ideal time to become intimately familiar with your depth/fish finder. If you know the area you are in and you feel it should be holding bait, but yet you see no surface activity, keep a close eye on your sounder. If you know you are in 20 feet of water and all of a sudden it bumps up to a plateau shape displaying like 4-5 feet, chances are you just ran over a bunker school. As we noted last week, we have also witnessed some adult spawning silver sides, which you can match with the lighter colored sluggos or GULP Jerk Shads.

Farther to our west, the guy/gals fishing downtown had a very productive weekend fishing the larger adult bunker schools which we will get to in a minute. The weekend weather is looking pretty good after a front pushes on through so get on out there. On to the report…

The Micinilio brothers continue to have much success in and around Fairfield, trolling as well as live lining fresh bunker and emailed in a slob of a fish that was safely released earlier in the weekend that weighed in at 32 lbs and 42 inches, that fell for a live bunker (see recent catches). To this point, to increase your catches, stop in and take a look at some of our double hook rigs for live lining that we home made crimp here, you will be glad you did….

Back in shore, Penfield Reef has been hit or miss, but when it’s on it’s on…The Night Rider stopped into report a few nice 30 inch fish and an even better story from over the weekend where he was spooled, that is right folks, spooled, could not even think about stopping this TRAIN!!

John Peets focusing on fishing the Stamford area is really getting his saltwater game on after recently moving to the area and hanging up the freshwater sticks for a bit. His tactics have been drifting 9 inch Sluggos in areas such as the outflow near Holly Pond for bass and blues.

Saturday, Captain Steve armed with a charter and the long rods boated five fish up to 27 inches in and around the Norwalk Islands on sand eel imitations as well as on some of his hand tied bunny tailed clousers.

Our own Cody Lapnow has been focusing his efforts fishing the outgoing tide and has found Sunken Island in Fairfield really producing. Over the weekend he had fish on weighted sluggos with sand eels all over, with bass up to 26 inches at will. On Wednesday night with a thick fog rolling in, he fished Frost Point where blues/bass were hammering sand eels. He fished spooks for blues up to 8 lbs and bass up to 27 inches on white X-Raps.

Sunday the shop was cranking but took the time to weigh in fellow Westport Striped Bass Club member Scott Platt’s 26lb bass caught somewhere west of Stamford…Not to be outdone, fellow member Sam Bell took advantage of the holiday the next day to catch nearly a 30lb fish to put him in second place for one of the current contests under way. Nice fish guys!!

Chuck D. emailed in a report on Monday, as well as a thank you to Cody for some great guidance and insight into some top water action off of Sheffield Island. Chuck fished Monday A.M. and had tremendous top water action including three keepers up to 32 inches on plugs, X-raps and Spooks!

After stopping into the store for some intel on Monday, Jon Nowicki, who has been putting his time in to learn all there is to know about fishing Fairfield County, emailed in his share of schoolies at the Mill Pond on the dropping tide fishing with some of our hand tied JJ’s sand eel sliders. After tiring his arm out, he moved on to Penfield where he had a nice healthy 32 inch bass on the fly rod on the same pattern!

Stopping into a friend’s BBQ on Monday afternoon after a long weekend, I enjoyed an adult beverage and was told by Eric Lutz that he and crew landed four 25lb plus fish off of Bridgeport fishing Stratford shoals on chunks Monday A.M. He brought up a good point that should once again be shared. When fishing areas such as Stratford Shoals, if you are targeting the bottom of the water column, be sure your baits are actually on the bottom, at times, when the current really starts cranking; don’t hesitate to change your weight, it could be the difference between a 4 lb bluefish and a 20lb bass. Although this may seem obvious, take a look next time you are fishing close to another boat and I guarantee some of their lines that are supposed to be on the bottom, are straight out….

Throughout the weekend, our good friend Bill Beck reported in that the fishing off of Compo is improving daily, now that the sand eels are around, with his share of blues to 4lbs and mid twenty sized bass at first light!

Welcome home to Pat O’Donnell who has been hitting the local beaches at night and in the A.M. hard. With the fly rods, Pat has racked up a dozen or so fish up to 28 inches on mostly Pete V. tied closuer and sand eel patterns. Welcome home Pat!

Sgt. Colonies reported in with a report from late Wednesday night, where he fished the islands and could not get a fish to hit with so much sand eel activity around. After swithcing it up and tossing one of Eric Peterson's sand eel patterns that we carry here in the store,he was rewarded with a 30 inch fish on the long rods!

Lastly, you may have read in the local papers, that we are now the exclusive outlet, outside of the town of Westport's Conservation Department, to be able to sell clamming permits, so if clamming is your game, come on down! We have all the necessary gear to get you a full bushel! [Eric Johnson, Westport Outfitters]