Saltwater
The Connecticut River remains a hotspot for great striped bass action. The bluefish are around in numbers as well and can be seen harassing schools of bunker. Anglers are finding success by dunking chunks and also live-lining bunker. The causeway is a great place to get in on some of the action, though it can be crowded at times. Long Sand Shoal and local reefs have also been giving up good bass with a few cows mixed in. Norwalk to Milford has been producing great gator sized blues (up to 15lbs) especially after dark. But the bite at sunset has been the best. Scup are being found in great quality and quantity on Bartletts and Hatchetts. Fish are also being found along rocky shore lines so you don’t necessarily need a boat to go catch dinner. Anglers have been reporting good scup and sea bass action off of Middlegrounds. Fluke fishing has again been reported as slow. Locally there are many fish but a ton of shorts. Quality fish are being found in much deeper water, Black Point produced some good fish. Again, you’re going to need to put in your time for good fish locally. Some anglers have been taking the trip to RI or NY where the action has been better. A few anglers have reported some decent tog from shore with the biggest coming in at 25″. Blue crabs are showing up more and more, be sure to check small tidal creeks and rivers for them. Coves on the lower CT river are also good places to find some of these delicious critters.
Pelagic Beast Charters
Bottom fishing has been amazing in Norwalk. Fluke are still on a great bite anywhere from 25 ft to 50 ft of water. Scup and sea bass can be found on most pieces and wrecks. Blackfish have been showing up, and lots of winter flounders mixed in with the porgies. Theres a good number
of stripers in the rocks and the shallows in the early morning and the evenings. Top water baits have been producing as many schoolies as you want to catch. Some larger fish are still hanging around out off of buoy 28c and 32a.
The Otter
Thursday trip was good with several bass to 42 inches.14 yr old Rachel landed the big one.On Friday Ken Punzelt landed and released a beautiful 50 incher on one of our 14 inch Otter Eels.The Russell family landed several bass on there 2 trips with the young girls Emily and Maddie getting the 2 largest. Emily landed a 45 incher . George Madeira and crew landed 4 bass to 40 inches on Sunday afternoon. Mondays trip yielded only one bass For Mike Hulls crew…still no bluefish to speak of in our area (Groton/Waterford).
Middlebank II
We’ve been doing well with fluke in 26-35′ and have started to pull bigger ones out of deeper drops in 50-60′. Porgies and sea bass have really started to make a strong showing and those anglers switching over to our scup rigs baited with small strips of squid have put some great catches together while drifting! We’ve been lucky this week as most of the weather has passed is over after the Middlebank is back from her day of fishing!
Freshwater
Bass remains decent and anglers are finding success with topwater spooks and poppers from dusk til dawn. During the day its been hot and slowing things down with soft plastics. Many places are now covered or have spots that have that thick vegetation. Flipping into the weeds is where you’ll find fish. Especially weedy areas that have drop offs to immediate open water. But throwing a frog on top of those weeds isn’t a terrible idea either. Good Largemouth action was reported on Candlewood, Ball pond, Bantam, Moodus, Mudge and Zoar. Smallie fishing has been a tad slow still. Candlewood, Squantz, Highland, Zoar and the CT river have produced some decent fish. Pike reports have been slow with only a few small fish coming from confluences on the CT river. Walleye reports were okay with a few eater-sized fish coming from Squantz on alewives. The crappie action is cooling down now. Going to need to work for them, they’re feasting like they were two weeks ago.
UpCountry Sportfishing
Grady said the Farmington is still fishing well. The further upriver you go, the cooler the water and the earlier in the day you will see particular hatches, with “evening hatches” sometimes occuring in the afternoon. #16-18 Sulfurs and #18-20 Blue Wing Olives are the main hatches now, make sure to have spinners for both (rusty for the Olives). They are also seeing good Isonychia (“Iso”) hatches in the later afternoon to evening slot, they are big, an easy #10-12, sometimes bigger!