SALTWATER
Striped bass fishing seems to have slowed down a bit this past week. Anglers have seen some good catches off of Hatchetts, Bartletts, Meigs Point and Black Point, though. Live lining bunker or scup will produce some great fish. But honestly, if you want big fish then putting in time during the night shift is where its at. Drifting eels over rock piles and humps is a great way to produce BIG fish. The bluefish bite hasn’t skipped a beat though and the lower CT is loaded with blues. Some gators are being pulled out too. Bunker, either chunked up or live has been the go to. Find the bait and you’ll find the fish. Bunker are prevalent and once you find them, the blues wont be far behind. Most harbors have been seeing good action as well. Just like with the bass, larger blues are to be had after dark. Anglers have been working hard locally when it comes to fluke. Others are taking the trip to Block where guys have been slamming doormats with more ease and quite a few of them were double digit fish. Finding the sand eels is imperative when trying to locate big fluke. Meanwhile, guys locally have been doing well with glow, green and yellow jigs tipped with squid and curl tail grubs. Rapid steady jigging has been getting them to strike and they were strikin hard! Top of high tide some anglers found good fish in the 50ft range and at the bottom of the tide they were as deep as 80-90ft. Porgy and seabass action is outta control right now. Great scup can be found on just about every rock pile, reef and wreck around. The seabass are also keeping rods busy. But for the big hump heads you want to be deep. Good sea bass were found in around 70-80ft of water. Blue crabs are in and getting a meals worth is becoming easier as long as you know the right spots. Try coves on the lower CT and also tidal creeks. Please remember to release all females. They are the ones with red on their claws.
Middlebank II: The end of July is a tricky time of year for catching good numbers of keeper size, and larger, summer flounder. Fishing for them becomes technical as they set up in deeper water during the heat of the day. This time of year starts to signal the end of our fluke season as the bite and action slows to a steady pick but, we are still encouraged to pursue them after an odd day of spectacular fishing. This describes the past week for us aboard Middlebank as our anglers put together nice catches of fluke to 8lbs. In the mean time more and more scup work their way into the “box” while sea bass provide a nice surprise between. Do we switch our attention to the rocky reefs and wrecks for scup and sea bass, diamond jig for bass and blues, or keep on fluke fishing in hopes they put the feed bag on as snapper blues and peanut bunker become more abundant next month? Time will tell!!
Capt Tim Griffith
Middlebank.com
The Otter: The bass fishing continues to be good and although they’re only plentiful on certain reefs, they continue to limit out nearly every trip. Out of the Groton area, last Thursday Jason Silkowski caught his largest ever a 41 incher. Over the weekend they saw many fish over the 40″ mark. Mon, Tues and weds trips saw mostly limits to 44 inches. Trolling the Otter spoon and tubes over humps and rocking structure has accounted for many fish. Fluke fishing is still slow locally.
FRESHWATER
Largemouth fishing has been reported as being good. A lot of anglers are setting out at night for lunkers. The hot summer days can be lack luster but the nights are more productive. Topwater like black buzzbaits, poppers and spooks will get their attention. During the day guys are flipping and pitching into the weeds with heavy jigs to punch through the thick, matted cover. Solid largemouth reports came from Candlewood, Ball pond, Coventry, Bantam and Pachaug pond. A lot of anglers are also hitting their favorite little ponds for big bass. Smallie reports were decent from Candlewood, upper Housatonic and Lillinonah. Pike reports were slow with a few decent fish coming from Pachaug pond, Winchester and Zoar. Decent walleye were trolled up on Squantz. Nothing too big but perfect for the table. Catfish action on the Housatonic and CT river systems has been great. Chicken liver and chunked up sunfish are good choices when chasing kitties. Night time has been more productive and the CT river has been giving up some big ones!
UpCountry Sportfishing: Torrey said the river is in great shape with cool to cold flow averaging in the 50’s. Needhami’s have been hatching in the mornings for about a week now and are averaging a #22-26 on this river. They normally hatch from about 7am to 1pm’ish. There are still good Winter/Summer Caddis #22-24 in early/mid mornings in the TMA (C&R section), with some small Tan Caddis in #18-20 hatching sporadically from mid/late morning through the day. Isonychia are a major hatch in late afternoon thru early/mid evening. Sulfurs averaging a #18 are on the water in the evening with spinners at dusk. Blue Wing Olives #20 & #24 are hatching in the late afternoon as well with matching #20 rusty spinners at dusk.
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.