Fishing CT Update | December 11, 2014

The Housatonic continues to produce some small to decent keeper sized striped bass as well as countless schoolies. The CT river is seeing some okay striper action as well, but it isn’t nearly as productive as the Housatonic. Other line sider reports came from the lower Thames and some harbors. Schoolies, schoolies and more schoolies. Smaller sluggos, SP minnows and swim baits like storm shads were productive again this week. Rain can help to turn on the bite in our tidal rivers when the water gets moving a bit. But water clarity can be a little rough.

Largemouth have been quite receptive to swim baits and hair jigs. Slowing down to fish hair jigs can be agonizingly painful, especially in the cold and wind. But be patient and put in the time, finesse can make all the difference when the bite is tough. Good fish were pulled from Candlewood, Ball pond, Coventry, Zoar and Pachaug Pond. As always, Candlewood was a top producer of bronzebacks. Though, some good catches also came from Colebrook, Bantam and the Saugatuck reservoir. But again, the best quality smallies came from Candlewood. These chubby fish are absolutely gorging themselves on alewives in that lake. Some fish came on swim baits and blade baits, while other fish took a more subtle approach in the way of hair jigs. Smallmouth have posted up on rocky points and drop offs. They won’t be moving too much either. So be sure to pay attention to where you are finding them now. When the ice is here, you’ll know where to revisit. A good mixed bag of panfish can be found in somewhat deeper water on the edges of weed lines and brush piles. Many of them fell to hair jigs and small shiners. Some good crappie were reported from coves on the CT river, Lillinonah, and various reservoirs all over the state. Candlewood produced some big hump back yellow perch too. A few small walleye were reported from the Saugatuck reservoir. Pike anglers continue to find success in coves along the CT and Housatonic, including Lillinonah and Zoar. These fish have still been taking large dead baits over artificials for the most part. Pick up some jumbo pond shiners or fallfish when targeting these fierce predators.

While the fishing has slowed in a lot of places, anglers are keeping busy by taking advantage of recently trout stocked waters. Reports came from West Hill pond, Black pond and Tyler pond. Other anglers hit the rivers for holdovers and overall better quality fish. Some gorgeous browns were reported from the Farmington as well as the upper Housatonic. One angler had great success with glo bugs and estaz egg patterns (size12-14), small blue wing olive emergers (size24) and griffeth gnats (size28). Using very light line, 8x tippet (1.5 lb test). But after Tuesday’s rain, the rivers are a bit high. Torrey at Housatonic River Outfitters reported the river running at 2210 CFS on Monday morning and 4370 CFS as of Wednesday morning. There were also a few decent salmon taken from Mt.Tom and the Shetucket river. Fishing this time of year can be brutal at times. This week alone we’ve had a lot of wind, rain and over all its just been downright cold. Now we have some snow in the forecast. This type of weather can discourage many anglers. Just keep in mind that you can’t catch fish sitting on the couch!

Kyle Quine
Fishing CT
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