On the Water 6/4/09

Best Bets for the Weekend: This has been an unusually good year for trout fishing conditions, with water levels and temperatures cooperating to create ideal conditions. Take advantage of this and hit the trout streams. Pressure is less as many anglers head to the coast and there are lots of hungry trout left over from recent stocking activities. Don’t overlook Candlewood Lake when hatching your trout plans.

In the salt, western Long Island Sound is providing the most consistent action for striped bass, and some bigger fish at that. If it’s big fish you’re after, though, targeting reefs offshore where larger fish are setting up on schools of bait might be your best bet for a cow. Scup anglers would be best served to wait another week until things really get going before getting after these delicious fish.

Captain Jack Balint at The Fish Connection in Preston is finding that striped bass action on the reefs off Watch Hill is improving, but still sporadic. More bait is showing up, particularly sand eels and butterfish, with a fair showing of squid. The Mystic River and Pawcatuck River are both fishing well for schoolie bass, and Race Point and Bartletts Reef were providing some good surface action early in the week. Striped bass action in The Race is improving, with diamond jigs taking their share of nice fish on a regular basis. The Thames River is probably your best bet for stripers in the area around Gales Ferry down to the Coast Guard Academy. Bluefish are all over now. Trout fishing continues to be excellent all around the area, with water levels ideal. Largemouth bass fishing is good, but sporadic, depending upon temperatures.

Howard at Hillyer’s Bait & Tackle in Waterford reports good fishing to striped bass in the Niantic and Waterford areas, with some bluefish mixed in, though they are still pretty sparse overall. Fishing on the reefs offshore has improved considerably over the past week, with larger bass being found regularly using chunk bait or whole squid. The few reports for scup that have come into the shop suggest that the season will be a good one for this species.

“Q” at Rivers End in Old Saybrook reports continued good fishing at the mouth of the Connecticut River, with some bigger stripers mixed in among the schoolies. The ebb tide at dusk or dawn is producing the best action for this species. There are still pods of Bunker in the lower Connecticut River, and bass are under them, but you’ll need to seek them out each trip as the bunker are constantly on the move. Action on the reefs offshore has improved considerably, with Southwest and Six Mile reefs producing some of the best action. The Race has been hot, though mainly to school bass with an occasional bigger fish. Good numbers of bluefish are now patrolling The Race.

The near-shore flats have come alive with striped bass over the past week, reports Captain Jerry Morgan at Captain Morgan’s Bait & Tackle in Madison. Surface action is being found, from shore, along the Madison—Guilford beaches, but it is sporadic; the fish are still there and feeding however. Striped bass to 40 inches are coming from the mouths of tidal rivers in the area, while offshore reefs and structure are producing bass upwards of 50 inches. These larger fish are falling for chunk baits. There is a ton of bunker in the area, in the rivers and offshore. Scup fishing is hit or miss. In freshwater, trout fishing continues to be excellent all over, with water levels ideal and lots of bugs coming off, keeping the fly-rodders happy. The largemouth bass action bass cooled with the temperatures.

Rick at Fisherman’s World in Norwalk reports outstanding fishing for striped bass throughout western Long Island Sound, with fish in the 50-pound range coming to hook at a variety of areas. Angler Joe Gaudet and friends landed a large number of stripers in the 30-pound class, with several into the 40s, including a 44 and a 48 pounder, in the Greenwich area. Buoy 11B is producing some good striped bass fishing as well, with diamond jigs taking fish to 35 pounds. Norwalk Harbor has a ton of bunker in it, and large striped bass know about it. Night time is the right time, from shore, to hit this spot with chunk bait. Bluefish are scattered about, but Smithtown Bay was seeing good surface action for blues mid-week. The Saugatuck Reservoir continues to give up large walleye, brown trout, and good numbers of smallmouth bass to those fishing with live shiners.

Chris at Stratford Bait & Tackle in Stratford reports a mixed bag of striped bass and bluefish in the area. Fishing has been good, though perhaps a bit slower early in the week. Reports indicated that scup season is off to a slow start.

From the Valley Angler in Danbury, James reports the trout fishing in Candlewood Lake to be a bit on the challenging side over the past week or so, but says there are fish biting for those anglers willing to do the work to find them. Brown trout up to seven pounds, have been taken. Reports have it that the trout are beginning to school up in about 20 feet of water. Targeting this specific depth should improve your odds of catching a brown considerably. Action to bass in the lake has been good, with surface poppers seeing good action. The new KeiTech bait is producing incredible action to both smallmouth and largemouth bass. Squantz Pond has seen a slow down in fishing pressure over the past week, but those anglers testing this body of water are seeing good action to walleye, and some nice sized fish are coming in. [Alan Desbonnet, On The Water]