Norwich Bulletin, WALLEYE

The Walleye Show

1. Lake Saltonstall is that great big reservoir just this side of the Quinnipiac Bridge, where Interstate 95 crosses into downtown New Haven.
2. Lake Saltonstall is a public water supply reservoir open to fishing under a strict set of guidelines, which allow fishing either from shore or from rental boats.
3. This lake can provide some excellent fishing for high quality bass, panfish, trout and walleyes. Last year on a walleye fishing trip to Saltonstall, I accidentally caught a 1 1/2-lbs, 1 1/2-inch bass on a jig intended for walleyes, along with a couple of 12-inch-plus yellow perch.
4. Anglers frequently catch calico bass of 2 pounds, largemouth bass to 8 pounds or heavier and the DEP turned over 10-pound-plus walleyes while sampling the walleye population with their electro-fishing boat last spring.
5. It's a lake where an angler can rent a boat and have a very real chance to land the fish of a lifetime on any given day. Instructions and phone numbers for reservations on this incredible lake can be found on page 22 of the 2005 Connecticut Anglers Guide.
6. The other day I received a copy of an e-mail from a hardcore walleye fisherman by the handle of Bob V, who frequently fishes both Lake Saltonstall and the Saugatuck Reservoir for their trophy class walleyes.
7. Bob V was fishing Saltonstall this past Sunday and not having a very productive day. He said he worked very hard to land two small walleyes, a yellow perch and a rainbow trout.
8. At one point during the day, he saw a young kid catch a rainbow trout from the pier. The youngster had a stringer with a couple of foot-long rainbow trout on it already, so he adds the new fish to his stringer and sets it back into the water.
9. According to Bob V, a short while after the trout stopped flopping on the stringer, one of the lakes monster walleyes comes up, grabs the fish and tries to swim off with it, pulling hard on the stringer in the process.
10. Bob goes over to check on the situation. The kid is screaming for a net as he tries to save his trout from the hungry and aggressive walleye, which won't let go of his trout. The kid would pull on the stringer and the huge marble eye would pull in the other direction nearly as hard.
11. Bob, who is an experienced Connecticut walleye angler with some trophy class catches to his credit, said he just stood there, awestruck never having experienced anything like this in his life time on the water.
12. Finally, as Bob was looking on, the kid lifts the stringer, the walleye's huge toothy head comes out of the water, giving him a good look. He estimated the fish at 28 to 30 inches and 10 or 11-pounds, at least.
13. Finally, the walleye rips one of the trout or part of a trout off the stringer, leaving the youngster with a couple of sliced up rainbow trout as a souvenir of his ordeal.
14. I've had a 12-inch smallmouth bass grabbed and killed by a huge pike at Gogama Lodge, Ontario; a 10-inch bass killed by a 5-pounder in one of the ponds on the UConn Campus; small stripers ripped up by huge bluefish and cod filleted by blue sharks. But I've never seen a fish with the gall to come up and grab a fish while it was on a stringer.
15. Every year since I've been hearing the stories of Saltonstall's giant walleye, I promise myself I will take the time to figure out this lake, but never do.
16. I'm already revved up enough by this fish story to be planning a trip the next time the barometer is dropping with the approach of a rain storm.

Fishing Report:

1. Joe Balint of the Fish Connection said the Thames is still holding loads of those dinky stripers, with occasional keeper fish showing from time to time. In addition to all the bass, a school of 2- to 3-pound bluefish has moved into the river to do battle with the anglers who are fishing for the stripers.
2. The worm spawn finally got revved up at Ninigret Salt Pond starting last week.
3. The occasional hot, sunny days gets the worms out that evening and the pond is now holding a good number of quality stripers along with nightly appearances by the all important yellow jawed clam worms, or cinder worms, as they are often called.
4. Anglers can fish from shore at Ninigret State Park or from a boat that can be launched at the Ocean House Marina for a $10 parking fee. I looked for the worms both days last weekend, but the spawns were minimal at best. We landed a total of 19 stripers for both trips combined.
5. The largest fish was a 33-incher caught by Jack Reed, but, unlike the hundreds of fish I've seen and caught recently in the Thames River, where none have been longer than 22 inches, that was the smallest of the 19 fish we took on Slug-Gos and 4-inch-long Senko-type worms. The average stripers there have been 24 to 27 inches.
6. However, as the worm spawns continue, and they will rage through early June, the average size will drop down into the teens as smaller fish are pulled into the fray, along with hickory shad and small bluefish. It is a fun fishery, my favorite way to catch stripers even though the odds of taking a fish much heavier than 12 pounds is very low.
7. Fluke action finally began to improve this week as the fluke have begun to push this way from Montauk Point. Reports indicated anglers who fished Montauk Point this past weekend and this week did well, whereas a week back, all reports from Montauk Point were negative.
8. In addition, we had the first reports of anglers catching decent numbers of fluke both off Carpenters Beach in the Charleston area of Rhode Island and off the south shore of Fishers Island near Isabella Beach. Both reports indicated the anglers did not limit out but waded through large numbers of short fish to catch three or four keepers each.
9. The the good thing is there are some fish there to catch, even if they are under the new 1 1/2-inch minimum length.
10. Remember this year all three states, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York have a 1 1/2 -inch minimum length for fluke, but the creel limits vary, with Connecticut allowing six, Rhode Island allowing seven and New York allowing five fish per day.