Fishing CT Report – July 16, 2015

Saltwater

There are still some good bass to be found in the mouth of the CT river but things have really slowed down. However, bluefish have shown up in numbers in the river. They’ve been keeping anglers busy at the causeway and DEEP dock. There is definitely more action going to be had on the reefs if you’re looking for bass, though. Most harbors are thick with bunker and the bluefish are big and hungry! Bass like to sit below schools of blues and clean up what falls to the bottom. So if you find the bait, you’ll find the fish. You just might need to fight through a mess of blues to get to some bass underneath. Fishing eels after dark is another great way to get on some big bass. There has been some big bass in the 40-50lb range still being taken out of the Bridgeport/Stratford area this past week. Fluke fishing locally seems to finally have picked up and some better reports have come in. Good reports came in from Long Sand shoal, Black Point, White Sands and the mouth of the CT at flood tide. Seabass and Porgies are abundant and can be found on local reefs. Hatchetts, Bartletts, Clinton and Crane have been good as of late. When ground fishing, high/low rigs baited with squid or clam strips is the way to go. Some okay tog are being pulled from rocky shorelines with a few from the Niantic area specifically. Blue crabs are still showing up but nothing substantial yet. Try checking tidal rivers/creeks and marshy areas. Snapper blues are around as well. Get out the Kastmasters and spoons for these little fellas. They can be a blast on ultra light gear and they are an excellent way to get kids into fishing.

Middlebank II

Although weather and tidal conditions made a few trips on the slow side, large past week’s fluke fishing was pretty good. Our anglers saw larger Fluke to 9lbs hitting the decks as well as many Black Sea Bass and some pretty hefty scup. We’ve been focusing our attention on deep water, drifting in depths over 60′ at times. The simple bait rig tipped with large smelt, bunker, and big squid strips/whole squid caught better then buck tails or spinner rigs

The Otter

Most trips produced good numbers of bass.The fluke bite in our areas favorite fishing spots is still slow, producing limited number of keepers.The largest bass on Thursday was 40 inches taken on an Otter Spoon, Wednesday’s largest was 41 inches on my 14 inch pink Otter Eel.On Saturday we landed 7 bass to 38 inches on Otter Eels along with one lone monster 38 inch bluefish. Sunday’s trips saw bass to 38 inches and several blues. Tuesday afternoon we landed 17 bass mostly shorts using white bucktails trimmed with Otter Short Tails and we limited out today on bass with Jeff Schenna’s crew.Largest bass today was 39 inches. Still plenty of bait around and I expect some larger fish to show up soon.

Freshwater

Largemouth reports were decent overall with good bass coming from Candlewood, Ball pond, Coventry, Mudge and Moodus. Smallmouth reports varied with some good fish coming from Candlewood and Lillinonah. The upper Housatonic and Naugy can have great smallie fishing this time of year as well. Anglers have been giving mixed reports on bass fishing but the most productive time seems to be the night time bite. The days have been hot and once the suns goes down, the fish have been more willing to bite. Squantz pond gave up some keeper sized eyes that came at night on alewives. Pike fishing has been slow but Lillinonah, Lake Housatonic and the CT river produced some decent fish. Good trout came from Candlewood and East Twins. As I mentioned, its hot out so many anglers turn their attention to cold, fast flowing rivers this time of year. The upper Housatonic and Farmington have had good flows and are fishing well right now. When it comes to big browns, the Farmington does not disappoint.

UpCountry Sportfishing

Torrey said that hatches remain good to excellent, with Olives, Sulfurs & Iso’s the dominant bugs. Ants, Tan Caddis, Light Cahills, Craneflies & Attractor Dries are also picking up fish at moments.

NOTE: The 3RD Annual Greater Wethersfield 2015 “Whisker Round Up” Catfish Fishing Tournament is being held on 8/1. Contact Gary at CT Outfitters for more information.