Over the past couple weeks, safe ice has quickly formed and melted several times over. In much of Connecticut though, the ice fishing season is fully underway. Ice anglers have seen productive fishing over the course of varying conditions and most notably, a substantial blizzard.
During our last conversation, Shawn at Black Hall Outfitters said the Lieutenant River, Patchogue River and Black Hall River had been yielding stripers between 12 and 24-inches in length. Now, the fish have become virtually inaccessible. Areas with safe ice have seen a flurry of holdover striped bass caught, but otherwise the stripers have complete lockjaw- and that’s okay. Plenty of safe ice across the state has given anglers more than enough opportunity to get out and catch a plethora of species, besides our coveted bass.
From the Shops
This week I got the scoop from Matt Stone at Black Hall Outfitters in Westbrook. With safe ice across much of the state now, trout fishing in the rivers and creeks has slowed down significantly. Ice forming on the rivers along with added precipitation have made river conditions less than desirable. According to Matt, most of southern Connecticut has safe ice around 5-inches thick, while northern portions of Connecticut are seeing ice up to 12-inches in some cases!
Like much of New England, the warmer temperatures this week have caused the snow to start melting and in turn, the ice has begun to melt off in southern Connecticut; but Matt is confident that the weekend weather will re-freeze much of the ice that began to melt off. Matt isn’t the only one hoping the ice lasts through the weekend; Black Hall Outfitters has received plentiful reports of yellow perch, chain pickerel, northern pike, and healthy trout being caught through the ice and keeping anglers hopeful for a fishy Saturday or Sunday. Anglers using artificial baits are catching most of their fish on small Rapala jigging raps; in the event of using bait, Matt says dead meal worms have been a successful bait as well.
When selecting a spot to drill on the ice, Matt has noticed that most anglers have been finding success along shallow transition areas; these are locations where the lake or pond bottom changes, and sand turns to weeds, weeds turn to rocky areas, rock beds turn to ledges, etc.
At Fisherman’s World in Norwalk, trout remain the most popular catches being reported. Local rivers have become difficult to navigate due to increased ice, but some anglers are managing to get it done using micro-soft plastic jigs being bounced along the bottom of riverbeds where there’s open water. Anglers were targeting striped bass in the northern stretches of the Housatonic River until the river began to freeze over more. Open stretches of river may reward anglers with a fish or two, especially on cloudy, overcast days or during nightfall.
The report from Fisherman’s World also made mention of signs of herring in local harbors. As the harbors begin to slightly freeze over, keep an eye for a thaw out or a solid freeze. Herring are easy to target once they are located, and they can be caught through ice or in open water using sabiki rigs with a light weight or Kastmaster tied on to the bottom.
From the Shore
Although the ice is thicker up north, southern CT is still producing quality through the ice. Ray Strong of Connecticut reeled in a nice 9.2-pound brown trout this week in Middlesex County.
Remember, Connecticut is stocking about ten lakes and ponds with Seeforellen strain brown trout. These trout tend to be super-sized upon stocking. While the trout above is not a Seeforellen, the ones stocked (shown below) are a similar size.
Several lakes and ponds have been stocked already, but most recently, Highland Lake was stocked with the Seeforellen browns. There are about six lakes remaining to be stocked with this type of brown trout.
Connecticut Fishing Forecast
Going into the weekend, ice fishing will be the best option for fishermen across the state. Downstate anglers will have to keep an eye on safe ice as temperatures warmed a bit this week; but with nearly a foot of ice in some waters of northern Connecticut that shouldn’t be a worry. A safe assumption is that dead baits like meal worms will continue to produce catches, especially if temperatures drop on Saturday and Sunday. Nightcrawlers might do the trick, although live ones tend to freeze up and die quickly when submerged in icy waters, so best to stick with artificials and dead bait.
Yellow perch and largemouth bass will be the likely runner-ups to productive trout fishing, and from what I have heard yellow perch are great tableware when they’re fried up.
Apparently the groundhog saw it’s own shadow, so it looks like we might be in for some more ice fishing conditions over the course of the next six weeks. It’s a good time to gear up, bundle up, and take advantage of the cold weather. Most importantly, stay safe on the ice and fish on!