On The Water 5/20/05

1. Water temperatures are still running on the cool side throughout the region, with the majority of checkpoints along the coast reporting water barely into the low 50-degree range in the open ocean and deeper parts of Long Island Sound. However, up inside salt ponds, bays, and estuaries the sun has done its work and warmed the water into the low 60s. The recent sunny, calm days warmed the bottom sediments enough to kick off some worm spawns throughout the area. From Niantic Bay east to Narragansett Bay, anglers are talking about worm swarm activity, with the Rhode Island salt ponds the epicenter of this highly anticipated annual event.
2. To the west, the first slugs of larger striped bass are apparently moving out of the Hudson River and pushing their way eastward in pursuit of some schools of menhaden that have moved into the western end of Long Island Sound since last weeks report.
3. Fluke action picked up considerably out around Montauk Point this week, after some disappointing reports last week. Fluke are reported in larger numbers both along the south side of Fishers Island as well as along the South Shore beaches of Rhode Island and into the Sound as far as Guilford. Anglers are culling through many shorts for each keeper but at least the action has improved since last week throughout the region.
4. Captain Jim White of Quaker Lane Bait and Tackle, North Kingston told me there are lots of bass feeding on squid and worms up inside Narragansett Bay from Providence to Sallie Rock. Most of the fish are smaller schoolies but a few bass are running into the mid teens. He has not heard of any fluke or weakfish up inside the bay yet. Right now all of the fluke action seems to be from Point Judith down toward the Connecticut.
5. Peter and the crew from Saltwater Edge, Newport were apparently out fishing this week, because no one was there to answer the phone when I called on Wednesday.
6. In the Point Judith area, Captain Andy Dangelo of Maridee Bait and Tackle, Narragansett said there are still lots of schoolies off the walls at Point Judith, but not much in the way of quality fish being reported yet. Captain Andy said that there have been a few more winter flounder caught up inside the Point Judith salt pond. However, overall there is not much interest in the flatfish now that the fluke and striper fishing has picked up. A few blackfish have been caught by anglers going after other species, mainly off of breachways and jetties, but there is no news so far this spring of anglers targeting these fish and taking good numbers. Everyone seems to be out chasing stripers or fluke. He said his regulars are catching more fluke outside the breakwalls and on down the coast to Carpenters Beach, but the majority of the catches have been shorts. So far no one has taken any doormat fluke but no one is complaining about the few keepers they are catching.
7. Farther south along the coast, Roe at Breachway Tackle, Charlestown said the fishing has improved drastically in Ninigret Salt Pond over the past week. Worm spawns have been picking up, particularly after those warm sunny afternoons last week. Even when the cool nights have shut the worms down, there have been good numbers of bass in Ninigret. Three- inch Slug-Go’s are best for fishing in the worm spawn, but 4 ½ inch Slug-Go’s to 4.5 inches are taking fish when there is no activity associated with the worms. The fish are of decent average size, and there is a reasonable chance to hook into a keeper-size striper at any time. Roe, who runs Gunner Charters out of Ocean House Marina located along the north shore of the salt pond, said that he has been guiding lately and doing well on all his trips. He and his customers have been catching as many or more stripers out along the channel in areas without worms as in the middle of the worm swarms, where a hooking up can be a real challenge when worms are super abundant. This is something I have also noticed in Ninigret. He also noted that on Tuesday he saw a couple small schools of hickory shad entering the pond. He didn’t catch any but one of his friends caught a couple of shad earlier in the week. The presence of hickory shad is always a good sign, because they usually attract some jumbo bass that are looking for an easy meal.
8. I made two trips to Ninigret over the weekend and both times worms were spotty, only showing in a couple of areas along the warmer north shore. We also caught more of our stripers in open areas, right along the main channel than we did when we fished in the boiling bass and the swarming worms. Even where we saw stripers boiling on the surface we had to search the water to see any worms. The worms were nowhere near peak abundance at the time, but that will quickly change after the next couple of hot sunny days. In two outings, we caught something like nineteen stripers in total, with the largest a hard fighting 33-incher. They were all quality fish, averaging 24 to 27 inches, without a single dinky 12-incher in the entire catch! In think the smallest bass we landed was about 22 inches.
9. Roe said that fluke fishing was just beginning to pick up after a slow start. He mentioned that two customers who drifted for two and a half hours off Charlestown and fished in 60 feet of water had four keepers to show for their efforts. They were disappointed but Roe called that a decent start to the season.
10. No one has reported catches of winter flounder from Ninigret so far this spring. He said that this fishery has fallen off tremendously this year, mentioning how even a fyke net that one customer has set up in the pond was not even catching any flatfish. He said a buddy has only caught something like five flatfish all season so far in his net.
11. On the southern end of the salt pond, Captain Don of Captain Don’s, Tackle on Route 1 in Charlestown told me that worm swarms were beginning to happen in Quonny Pond as well as up the coast at Ninigret. Quonny Pond turned off Tuesday after a chilly evening, but it had been red hot on Monday and over the weekend. In addition to worms up inside the pond to attract hungry stripers, Captain Don said there were also loads of squid. For some reason the catches from both the Quonny Breachway and Pawcatuck River have slowed down this week. However, the odds are this lull will only be temporary with all the bait in the area and so many fish moving into and through the region.
12. Fluke fishing has been slower at the southern end of the South Shore beaches so far this season, which is normal. Usually, the fluke seem to show first off Point Judith before they push along these beaches and into the eastern end of Long Island Sound. Don told me that on Wednesday, two customers came in and said they each caught four keeper fluke. One angler had been fishing along the south side of Fishers Island near Isabella Beach and the other had fished off Carpenters Beach, a few miles down the shore from Point Judith. Both anglers said they had to cull through many 15- to 16-inch short fluke for every keeper they put into the live well.
13. Remember this year all three states, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York have the same 17.5-inch minimum length on fluke. Each state has different creel limits, with Rhody allowing seven, Connecticut six and New York five fluke per angler.
14. Cheryl Fee of Shaffer’s Marina in Mystic said two customers came from Montauk Point with glowing reports of the fluke action. George Horvath from Wallingford caught about 30 fish total, with a limit of keepers, all taken on “fluke sandwich rigs” while fishing off Montauk Point on Saturday. A fluke sandwich rig is a bucktail or plain jighead that is baited with a strip of squid and a mummichog or shiner, live if possible. I also add a scented Mario’s Plastic Squid strip underneath all this real bait, so if porgies or crabs rip the softer baits off, there is still a smelly, soft hunk of plastic left behind to draw strikes. On Wednesday, another angler quickly limited out off Montauk Point. Cheryl said that so far there have not been any reports of anglers catching fluke on this side of the Sound, but that may be due as much to a lack of effort as a lack of fish. Squid have been reported in the Mystic River, Niantic Bay and around a couple of the local reefs. Normally, wherever squid are found at this time of year, both stripers and fluke are usually right there feeding on them. Normally, fluke are present on this side of the Sound as soon as the first reports of squid make it to the local tackle shops.
15. A few hickory shad showed up in the Mystic River over the weekend. Last Friday, the Mystic River at Shaffer’s was still a chilly, 48 degrees dring an incoming tide, which was probably closer to the temperature of the Sound rather than the warmer, shallow bay inland from their docks. More than likely the river has warmed a few degrees since then. Most years, the Mystic River’s worm spawn takes place within three days on either side of May 22, so watch for this short-lived but often intense event if you happen to fish this area on a regular basis.
16. This week, for some reason, Cheryl said they did not have any specific reports from their avid striper fishing crew. Her brother Al, who is normally good for a couple of fish stories every week, has not been doing any fishing due to the workload at the marina.
17. Joe Balint of The Fish Connection in Preston said that the Thames River is still loaded with small striped bass with a bunch more bluefish in the 2- to 3-pound range showing up in the mix. The majority of bass in the Thames are those foot-long dinks that have been so abundant thus far this season. Outside in the Sound, Joe has had reports from his regulars of schoolie stripers coming in from the surf at Harkness Park and points around the lower Thames near its mouth.
18. Joe said that customers have been catching white perch in Poquetanuck Cove right under the Route 12 bridge, which is located about a tenth of a mile from the shop. Anglers can launch small boats and canoes at this location and gain access to the very fishy waters of Poquetanuck Cove, which isn’t only a great white perch spot but also a good place to cast for striped bass.
19. Joe said that it is ironic that now that the blackfish season has closed in Connecticut, they have had a rash of anglers reporting they caught and had to release some decent blackfish while fishing for other species. The oddest of these catches was a fish caught off the Norwich town docks, a place where the surface waters are totally freshwater run off. This type of thing happens annually, but usually the blackfish are caught in Norwich later in the summer when the saltwater wedge is much more dominant in the river.
20. Fish Connection customers have been reporting a few fluke off Misquamicut and along the south side of Fishers Island, but they have been working hard so far for a small number of keepers. The best fluke catches are coming from Montauk Point, which is red hot right now. Joe mentioned that Shelter Island and Peconic Bay have been a disappointment so far this season in the fluke production department. The reason is there are so many squid hanging outside the bay, on the ocean side, that the fluke have not been searching for food up inside as they normally do at this time of year. Wherever those squid are concentrated fishing for both fluke and striped bass has been excellent.
21. In the freshwater department, Joe noted that calico bass are hitting well in Glasgo Pond, Oxoboxo Lake, the weedy end of Long Pond, Avery Pond and in the Shetucket River off Exit 83-A near the launch ramp. Largemouth bass reports have been scattered. No one is sure if the bass have spawned yet. Cold nights have been driving them off the beds in one of the small ponds I visit on a regular basis. However, it is possible that in some of the shallower ponds the largemouths are off the beds. With the water still in the high 50s it is simply too cold for them to have spawned in the majority of deep water lakes in this area.
22. Trout fishermen will be happy to hear that pretty much all of the local waters have been recently restocked by the DEP. As promised, anglers have been catching a higher percentage of one-pound plus fish than in the past as a result of changes made to production schedules as a part of the trout management plan that went into effect two years ago.
23. There have not been many reports lately from the anglers who chase the stripers up at the Greenville Dam. It’s been quiet since a week before the big tournament. However, the first shad catches of the spring have been made below the Greenville Dam and over 600 shad have been passed over the dam in the fish elevator. This means fishermen can begin to catch shad in some of the areas above the dam but below the closed zone below the newly commissioned fish passage facility in Taftville at the Ponemah Mills Dam. In time, as shad runs are improved through the passage of shad upstream to spawning areas that haven’t been used for two hundred years or more, this fast water below Taftville and the Shetucket River from the Occum Impoundment to the Scotland Dam could become some of the best shad fishing waters in the Northeast.
24. Matt at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle Waterford said that all the marine fishing is ready to bust loose anytime now. This is based on the information that right on schedule, the first few decent sized (20-pound class and larger) stripers have been caught out in the Race, and you can expect their numbers to increase every day for the next few weeks as the migration progress. The first big striped bass of the year were reported mid week, last week. However, the fishing was spotty over the weekend, due in large part to the unfavorable weather forecasts, which kept many anglers at home. By the middle of this week, catch reports began to improve noticeably. Every year the big bass seem to enter the Race right around May 20 and they are right on schedule so far this season. The catches have not included any huge fish yet. So far the majority of the larger fish reported have been weighing up into the mid to high, 20-pound range. A couple of anglers trolled the new “Polish Perch” shad colored lures that are fast becoming the rage in this area and said they took two 20-pound class stripers along the edge of the rip line.
25. Matt said that at this time of year, with all the squid around, three-waying a bucktail with a pork rind or Mario’s plastic teaser is the best way to consistently catch those big bass from the Race. Other successful methods include trolling umbrellas, tube and worms or drifting the depths with live eels on a three-way rig. He said the striper action had been pretty good over the weekend and earlier in the week up inside the Niantic River because there had been a worm spawn earlier in the week. Not realizing the Race was turning on, a couple of customers made the run across to Montauk Point and reported finding good numbers of both bass and fluke feeding on the abundant squid that are in that area.
26. To our surprise, winter flounder are once again being caught in the Niantic River. Last spring some of the most consistent catches of flatfish from this half of the state were made in the Niantic River and later on the Niantic Bay by a couple of local winter flounder experts, which include Matt’s brother, John. The flatties have not been caught in very large numbers, but these sharpies are catching some fish when they try. Matt said: “Everything is poised and ready to bust loose. All we need is some decent weather so the fishermen can get out and do their thing.”
27. Mark Lewchik of River’s End Tackle, Saybrook reported that lately up inside the lower Connecticut River a few more of the stripers have been caught and they have been coming up and whacking topwater baits. Most of the fish are small schoolies but more good-sized have appeared since the last report. This week customers have reported stripers running up to about 40 inches, probably drawn into the river by migratory herring and shad. Tons of schoolies are concentrated off Lieutenant River and on down along the west side of Great Island, with the best time to fish being the dropping tide. The bigger fish seem to come out of nowhere, said Mark.
28. Usually, by this time in the season there is a fleet of boats fishing for and catching winter flounder in the lower river around the breakwalls during the flood tide. Unfortunately, so far this spring there has not been much at all in the way of winter flounder reports from the lower river. The Lieutenant River has been producing some white perch lately from the access points up river, with reports of a few American shad and hickories caught from its mouth, where it enters the Connecticut River near the state angler access pier.
29. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle, Madison said that “a lot of everything is happening this week!” There are fish all over the place with some larger stripers finally beginning to show up. He also noted that there is a major squid run going on in his area that is naturally drawing the attention of some pretty decent stripers out around the reefs. Captain Morgan said that he caught the top of the flood tide Tuesday evening and hit fish right through the beginning of the ebb catching small bass close to shore on soft plastics, and larger stripers up to the low 40-inch size class off the reefs on live eels after dark. The water temperature in this middle portion of the Connecticut shoreline is in the high 40s, bumping up to 50 from time to time closer to the shore and near out flowing rivers. When asked about worm spawns, the Captain said they occur in his area but are sporadic, short lived and therefore difficult to predict and fish. He said that normally he knows after one has taken place because he sees the worms floating down the river when he goes to his boat at dawn for a fishing trip. In his area there aren’t major, long term worm spawns like anglers observe in places such as Ninigret Salt Pond.
30. Fluke catches improved from near zero to hearing about a few, mostly “short fluke” coming from the drifts along the shore from Hammonassett Beach on west to Guilford. Few anglers are targeting fluke on this side of the Sound; most of the catches he’s heard of have been accidental catches made on sandworms intended for winter flounder or by anglers who were casting bucktails for schoolie bass.
31. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait &Tackle was out fishing when I called, so I don’t have any update from him as to what’s taken place since last week, but I have heard from other sources that there are some bluefish pushing some menhaden around in Bridgeport Harbor. If there are menhaden it won’t be long before some big striped bass show up to feed on them.
32. Nick Mola of Fisherman’s World, Norwalk said that Oyster Bay and Hempstead Harbor, New York, have been producing good numbers of jumbo stripers lately ranging from 25 to 45 pounds. These fish have been feeding hard on some schools of adult menhaden (bunker) that showed up suddenly over the weekend. The fish are still to the west but he figures that these bigger bass will be in and feeding in the mid Sound area off Buoy 11-B and the Obstruction Buoy south of Norwalk and filtering into the Norwalk Islands within a week. In the meantime, local anglers continue to catch schoolie striped bass and a few decent-sized winter flounder in the Norwalk River channel and out off of Calf Pasture Point Pier. The fluke have not yet made it to the Norwalk side of the Sound. He said one customer, Mike Hannon caught a 4-pound fluke off Eatons Neck and fish to 7 pounds have been reported by anglers who made the run across the way to fish at Mattituck, Long Island.
33. This week anglers should be on the lookout for worm spawns in the larger bays and inlets along the coast, with Quonny Pond, Ninigret and Point Judith Ponds probably being the region’s hot spots for worm spawn fishing. Big stripers will continue to build up in abundance in the deep waters of the Race, which means more fish will begin to filter into the Sound and along the coast to feed on the squid that seem to be around all the reefs and rock piles throughout the region. Fluke action is picking up and with Montauk red hot last week, odds are there should be a few more quality fish to catch on this side of the Sound as well as off Fishers Island and along Rhody’s south shore beaches. by BOB SAMPSON, JR