On The Water 8/15/05

1. To everyone’s surprise, there are still some of those school bluefin tuna, dense little footballs anywhere from 20 to 40 pounds, running around in the waters of Block Island Sound, across the mouth of Narragansett Bay and east to Sakonnet, Rhode Island, and the Cape. The reports of these fish are still coming in from the south shore beaches to Watch Hill and out along Fishers Island to The Race, but those reports have faded a great deal since the last one. It looks like many of the bluefins that had been ripping around the beaches have pulled out around Block Island, which is the epicenter of sightings and catches this week.
2. Overall, fluke reports remain constant, with most shops talking about more, but smaller fish, along with a high percentage of 5-pound or better fish being brought in to the scales on a regular basis. Bass action has slowed with the heat while bluefish have improved. Porgies are everywhere in such abundance that the shops are not talking about them because they are so easy to catch."
3. Al Fee of Shaffer’s Marina, Mystic, said they had a quiet Sunday due to a scary forecast with that hurricane moving up the coast. It got rough Saturday as that storm moved by offshore. The open ocean is kicking up as a result, scaring some anglers off.
4. Everyone was doing well on fluke again this week. Fluke fishing is still holding up both in and around Mystic and Stonington, as well as along the Rhody coast and Fishers Island. He said it’s been great for the guys with small boats who are taking fish in the waters from Ellis Reef, Buoys 6 and 4, on east to White Rock. This is a low-traffic area, so it’s safer and more comfortable for anglers fishing from small boats. Al has seen many 5-pounders this week like he has all season, but nothing much larger than that. Glen Brotherton of Mystic took a pair of 5-pound fish on Monday from the south side of Fishers Island.
5. Al went out chartering Thursday and Friday, and said he’s having trouble finding fish in along the shore near Mystic. On Thursday they had to run to Race Rock where they caught a ton of blues and bass of 34 and 36 inches on top with poppers. After a while they did some fluking along the south side of the island where they caught a 25-incher, along with three other decent keepers and a bunch of shorts in 63 feet of water using a fluke ball and teaser. When the tide changed, the opposite side of Race Rock was again loaded with blues and bass, so they had another round of popper action on their return trip to Mystic.
6. The striped bass are out chasing bait and therefore moving all over the place. One angler was chunking off Sugar Reef and caught a bunch of bass on whole squid he was dropping down with leadcore line, an effective method for fishing these shallow reefs. The rough water had them turned on pretty well over the weekend. Wednesday, Al himself caught fish up to 30 inches along the eastern end of Fishers Island, during low tide when the fishing was difficult. Porgies are providing excellent fishing throughout the area. Rental boats are slaying them, so everyone is pretty happy.
7. No reports of bluefin in close in a week. No false albacore or bonito in the area yet, either.
8. Fluke fishing is decent fish from Groton over to Harkness Park. No monster doormat catches this week, but plenty of keepers and many more shorts being caught than a month or so ago.
9. Sugar Reef, Sandy Point and other places where there’s deep water where the bass can get out of the heat are holding good stripers at the present time. But catching them is a matter of fishing the tides early and late in the day, preferably with live baits to catch the bigger stuff. Tube-and-worming is becoming less productive for bass due to the porgy factor.
10. Small bluefish are all over the place off Race Point and along the island. One customer caught some of those big anchovies or possibly herring off Ocean Beach on Sabiki Rigs. They are also catching Atlantic herring out in The Race. Joe noted there are good numbers of small squid around that the bass and fluke are chowing down.
11. Crabbing is very poor this year.
12. Freshwater lakes have been producing good fish, but the weeds and algae are tough in many of them. Amos, Avery, Glasgo and Long Pond are all producing some fish.
13. Lou at Hillyer’s Bait and Tackle in Waterford said they have been seeing lots of fish. The fluke size has been coming down, but the numbers are up. One angler was fishing off Horse Shoe Beach and caught a couple keepers and some shorts from the shore in 12 feet of water. These fluke were apparently feeding on anchovies. There was a huge school of round herring that appeared recently in the area and brought some bass and blues in with it. Howard Beers has been taking Sunbeam fluke trips to The Ruins and said the boat did well out there last week. So, overall, fluking has been pretty good in the general area for the past few weeks. It seems anglers are even out picking up blackfish lately based on increased green crab sales.
14. Bass have been good at night off Harkness Park, where the beach meets the rocks on eels. But anglers are leaving their cars illegally in the lot and may be locked in. The park closes, so anyone who wants to fish there after dark must leave his car on the road and walk in or risk being locked in for the night.
15. There are loads of bluefish all over the place in the waters from Groton, up inside the Thames to Norwich and west to Niantic. The die-hard bass anglers are getting beaten up pretty bad, so they are not very happy.
16. Hickory shad fishing was hot between the bridges last week. But they thinned out this week. Lou said they are probably still around the area and will likely come back in numbers as we head into fall. Porgies are excellent here like everywhere else.
17. No reports of bluefins in Hillyer’s for about four days. No albies locally yet. The West Wall had a few around but just out of reach, according to Niantic Bob who is champing at the bit to get at some false albacore with his fly rod.
18. Pat Abate of River’s End, Saybrook, said the fluking is really good, with reports of big fluke from Madison to the Connecticut River. Sound View, Hatchet Reef and Long Sand Shoal are all producing. The average fish they are seeing are keepers with fewer small fish than anglers are reporting farther to the east, where most years the fluke fishing is normally much better.
19. Bass are being caught in good numbers out on the local reefs, including Hatchet Reef and Cornfield Point, while The Race has slowed down a tad. Bunches of schoolie stripers have been chasing baby bunker, small herring, tinker mackerel and large herring around the Lyme to Saybrook area. Fishing evenings and early in the day have been good from both shore and boat.Bluefish are all over the place, mostly small stuff to fill in the action gaps between the stripers and fluke.
20. Captain Jerry Morgan of Captain Morgan’s Tackle in Madison said that one of his customers reported seeing some much-bigger-than-football bluefins chasing bluefish out of the water Tuesday a mile off the Charlestown Breachway. The fish were evidently medium or giants that were feeding on bluefish in the 10-pound class. Details of exact location were sketchy, but he said that this guy, who is a charter captain, told him the big tuna were actually grabbing the bluefish in the air as they tried to escape.
21. The weather and heat have taken their tolls. Tons of bluefish are chasing bunker ranging from 12 inches on down, in close to shore, which makes fishing better for the surfcasters and small-boat owners. The captain said that timing is perfect for the big bluefish contest that’s coming up the last weekend in August. Snapper bluefish are abundant from all the inshore jetties, piers and bridges.
22. Captain Morgan said that one guy came in saying he caught a false albacore on his dinky, 6-pound-test ultralight snapper bluefish rod. When he described the fish in detail, Captain Morgan had to put him straight – he’d caught a hickory shad, not a false albacore. An instance like this shows us how easy it is to get rumors started, especially when all the people are seeing is boils and splashes.
23. Porgies are plentiful, with both anglers and striped bass hitting them hard. The heat has slowed the bass catches. Anglers using eels or live scup for bait are taking big bass from local reefs and rock piles.
24. There have been a couple of small blue sharks caught in deep water mid-Sound off New Haven and the Thimble Islands, which is typical for this time of year. He said that hot summers like this one always bring some oddball stuff that often goes unnoticed into the deeper waters of Long Island Sound.
    
25. Blue crabs are the best he’s seen in a couple years. People are taking a few but no filled bushel baskets.
26. Chris Fulton, owner of Stratford Bait and Tackle in Stratford, said he weighed in a 60.26- pound striper that was caught off Long Sand Shoal, off the mouth of the Connecticut River late last week by one of his customers. However, due to the heat, bass are becoming hard to find and harder to catch.
27. He’s been receiving excellent reports of bluefish all over the place that are reportedly blowing up on peanut bunker. Most of the bluefish are seven pounds and down, with tons of the 1- to 3-pounders dominating the scene like everywhere else in the region. Two weeks ago, an interclub bluefish tournament yielded a top fish of 14 pounds, but not many big prize-winners have been reported lately. This is due in part to people not wanting to give away their spots, with the $20,000 World’s Greatest Bluefish Tournament coming up in two weekends.
28. Snapper blues are also abundant up in the river and along the beaches. Fluke action has been consistent for a few hard-core anglers, but for the most part Chris’s customers are out after the bass and bluefish. One angler caught fish to about five pounds with his wife off the West Haven breakwall, but they had to pick through about 20 or 25 fish to catch a limit.Porgy fishing is excellent. Anglers are not chasing them like they usually do for some reason this year. The river temperature is up to 79 degrees, so don’t expect many bass. It’s going to be pretty much all bluefish in the Stratford area for the time being.
29. Scott from Fisherman’s World, Norwalk, indicated to us that the warm weather has been a factor in both what they are catching and the number of anglers out lately. But their anglers are still doing some damage on the abundant bluefish. Todd’s Point in Greenwich has been a hot spot, along with the Norwalk River mouth, which is consistently holding good numbers of fish that are chasing bunker. The Saugatuck River has slowed down a tad lately. The bluefishing is pretty good overall, with mostly small fish under three pounds being caught, but there are some midteen-size fish in the mix. No one is reporting the bigger fish due to the upcoming bluefish contest, which is coming up the weekend of August 26 through 28.
30. The tides are swinging around to favorable bass fishing again this week.
31. Fluke fishing has been steady on the Connecticut side of the Sound, although the best catches consistently come from the waters off Long Island where eight-year-old Daniel Epstein caught his first big fluke, a 5-pounder, while fishing with his dad, Michael, off Smithtown Bay. Locally the action is so-so, with limits of barely keepers being caught off Todd’s Point, with fish up to five or six pounds topping the catches. Fishing for fluke has been good off Greenwich lately. A couple of anglers are catching them in the Middle Passage in the Norwalk Islands up to five or six pounds. They are working for the fluke that are being caught in these two areas.
32. Best bet this week is still, provided you have a permit that can be obtained online at www.nmfspermits.com, bluefin tunas anywhere in the waters from Montauk Point to Sakonnet, Rhode Island. They are jetting around, so it’s a matter of spotting the schools and getting quality casts into the fray. This could be the chance of a lifetime for small-boat owners to catch these bluewater fish within sight of land. Fluke fishing appears to be holding its own or improving with the summer’s heat, so that’s a viable option. Bass are more difficult to find and catch unless you fish after dark. Bottom fishermen will find porgies, and light-line casters and fly-rodders will find bluefish everywhere in abundance – the best bet for a bent rod any place in the region on any given day.