Connecticut & Rhode Island Fishing Report: 10-27-11

Break out those winter hats because temperatures are dropping and fish are biting!  It’s the tail-end of the new moon phase in late October – if this isn’t a good time to be putting some hours in the saltwater arena, then I don’t know when is.  There are some very large striped bass and bluefish on the move in the area, but they can be here one moment and gone the next.  The season is running short, so put time in when you can.  The blackfish bite remains good to excellent in relatively shallow water.  Block Island still has respectable black sea bass action when weather permits.  False albacore have mostly moved out of the area, but a few were still poking around Montauk and western Long Island Sound this week.  In freshwater, fall stockings have been keeping trout anglers busy and a few hundred broodstock salmon up to 18-pounds have been released into Connecticut waters.  There is also a free all-day carp event this Sunday in a Connecticut pond, which gave up one over 30-pounds already this week!

Rhode Island

There have been large striped bass roaming the Rhode Island surf line over the last week.  Plug-maker Gary Soldati landed a 51-pounder in front of a certain lighthouse in raging surf, northeast wind and driving rain early Thursday morning.  The trophy bass slammed one of Gary’s own olive Giant Pikes and never let go.  It goes to show that sometimes it’s the snottiest conditions which produce those elusive fish of a lifetime.  Steve McKenna at Quaker Lane Outfitters shared with me another remarkable catch, Ben Pickering’s 50-inch striper on a black Bomber Sunday night in the Narragansett area.  Steve also noted that a friend of his landed 10 bass on a recent outing somewhere in South County on live eels, two of which went over the 40-pound mark.  Steve himself nabbed a 16.5-pound bluefish on a Beachmaster Jr. this week, so apparently gorilla blues are in the mix as well.  The bait situation is helping fuel the action, as he mentioned some pogies have been spilling out of Narragansett Bay and mullet are around too.  Not every outing will yield great fish, and sometimes you may go home empty handed, but they’re out there and it’s now or next year because time is running short.

For top-water junkies, Peter at Saltwater Edge told me about big schools of striped bass in the 24 to 26-inch range blitzing on bay anchovies in the Newport area during daylight hours.  You can cash in on this classic fall fishing with surface lures like spooks, pencils, and Polaris poppers.  A bucktail jig with a pork rind trailer and a metal tin with a teaser in front are also good options for connecting with fish on the outskirts or below the melee.

Fishing for blackfish keeps improving with the falling water temperatures.  Steve at Breachway Bait and Tackle said rock piles or mussel beds in approximately 30-feet of water have been the areas giving up the most consistent action.  His favorite bait for white-chins are green crabs cut in half.  Mike at Watch Hill Outfitters said one of his customers reported a great day of toggin’ around “the clumps” on the inside of Fisher’s Island this week with fish up to 8-pounds.  He also mentioned that big porgies are still biting in many of the same areas you can expect to find blackfish.

Block Island

 The seas and breeze laid down enough over the weekend for boaters to ply the south side of Block Island again and many found large striped bass right where they left them, hugging bottom in about 40-feet of water from the Southwest Corner to Southwest Ledge.  Chris of Block Island Fish Works said live eels have been out producing soft-plastic baits lately and accounted for bass up to 41-pounds on his boat and up to 45-pounds for a fellow charter captain recently.  Depending on the tide stage, he’s sometimes up to three-ounces of lead to get and keep the eels on bottom.

Chris also said a decent black sea bass bite remains off Clay Head, Southeast Light and Southwest Ledge.  It’s not as lock-and-load as it was two weeks ago, but Lucanus jigs tipped with squid strips and high/low rigs with mummies are still putting nice fish in the boat from 30 to 40-feet of water.  He mentioned that locating sea bass can be tricky, but once you find them it’s usually easy to stick with them

 Connecticut

It’s getting to be crunch time and there are some great angling opportunities in Long Island Sound at the moment.  The strong blackfish bite continues in water less than 30-feet deep.  Cheyenne at The Fish Connection said shore-bound anglers and boaters alike are doing well with crabs along the rocks of Ocean Beach, Pine Island, Avery Point, and the entire Waterford coast.  Lou at Hillyers had a customer weigh-in a 9-pound shore-caught blackfish on Wednesday from Niantic.  The angler was using an Andrus blackfish jig tipped with half a green crab, slowly jigging it between long pauses.  There may be hang-ups and lost rigs using this technique, but the payoff can be worth it.  Pat at River’s End echoed the good tautog action and said that customer Joe Buckie weighed-in a 10.8-pound slob this week.  He suggested using green, Asian, or fiddler crabs in about 30-feet of water at places like Southwest Reef.  Another thing Pat mentioned was that decent numbers of adult bunker have been spotted near the mouth of the Connecticut and Thames Rivers.

The blitzes of Montauk have been drawing Connecticut anglers for several weeks now, including Andrew of Fishing Factory III and Captain Blaine Anderson.  They went there again on Monday and found thousands of birds and a mess of cocktail blues feeding on bay anchovies, yet there was only one pod of blitzing bass and way too many boats.  They managed a lone false albacore, maybe their last “hard tail” of the season, before jigging up dinner-plate sized porgies closer to home.  When conditions allow, Cheyenne at The Fish Connection said three-waying eels or bucktails at the Race has been consistent for both stripers and blues.  Lou at Hillyers mentioned Pigeon Rip as a classic and sometimes overlooked area to try drifting bucktails and eels too.  He also reported a 46-pound bass coming out of Bartlett’s Reef on Sunday.  Some hefty bluefish have hit the scales this week, including Michaela Aruzbasan’s 16.4-pound gator weighed-in Fisherman’s Paradise from the Branford area.  Chunking fresh or frozen bunker and mackerel remains one of the best ways to get big blues on the line.

Things are starting to heat up in the striper department in the western Sound.  OTW contributor Captain Chris Elser had a couple great charter trips this week in the Milford and Stratford area.  Drifting live eels during banker’s hours tight to shore accounted for a 41-pound cow and several other bass over the 30-pound mark, with bluefish up to 15-pounds.  He said the majority of the bass have been coming during the slack high tide window.  Chris’ eel rig consists of a half-ounce egg sinker above a three-foot 50-pound leader snelled to a 7/0 octopus hook.  If you failed to connect with a false albacore this fall, there may still be a shot in the western end of the Sound.  Nick at Fisherman’s World received two different reports this week about small pods of albies popping up off Norwalk near Goose Island and Greens Ledge.  Nick also got word of birds over surface-busting bluefish at the mouth of the Saugatuck River and off of Stamford.

In freshwater news, CT DEEP has completed their initial fall stocking of Atlantic salmon in the Shetucket and Naugatuck Rivers, as well as Mount Tom Pond and Crystal Lake.  This batch included about 400 broodstock salmon ranging from three to 18-pounds.  Sometimes it’s more about ticking them off then getting them to eat.  Retrieving a brightly colored single-hook, free-swinging fly or lure in front of their face could do the trick.  On Sunday, Connecticut Outfitters is hosting an all-day free carp “fish-in” at Batterson Pond.  Carp gurus will be on hand to teach anyone who wants to learn about the elaborate techniques and gear now used to fool giant carp.  Iain Sorrell landed 32-, 28-, and 22-pound carp out of Batterson this past Tuesday alone just to give you an idea of what can be caught there.

Best Bets for the Weekend

 The Rhode Island surf scene from Newport to Westerly has been hot one night and seemingly barren the next, but that’s fall fishing in a nutshell lately.  That area remains one of your best shots at going large from shore this time of year in the Northeast and we saw a few fine examples of that this past week.  Pack some top-water lures for daytime action and needlefish plugs, swimmers, and live or rigged eels for the night shift.  There are still a few good weeks left of fishing for migratory striped bass and bluefish, but another season will be over before we know it.  I already heard the dreaded four-letter word ‘snow’ bounced around local weather forecasts, so get your last licks in before winter sneaks up on us.