Connecticut Fishing Report
Matt, at Black Hall Outfitters in Westbrook sent over the following report for the week; “It sounds like it’s been some good fishing all over from what I’ve seen and gathered. Sea bass and fluke action is heating up out in 60 to 80-feet of water and should keep getting better as the water warms. Water temperatures in the region are still hovering around 61 to 62 degrees but should bump up consistently and bring those fish in closer. Sea bass have been caught on SK jigs and squid rigs. Fluke have been falling on a bunch of stuff including rigs and bucktails. Bass fishing is excellent. Lots of fish around, especially on the reefs. The Race has been very good and a couple customers have run into big schools of bass on bunker which has produced some giants. Hopefully those bunker keep pushing our direction. GT Eels, live eels, spoons, jigs, big soft plastics, tubes, and topwaters are all producing well.”
Heather from the Black Hawk Sportfishing in Niantic reports: “We had a few tougher trips this week. Several of our porgy trips were slower than we’d like, though we worked at it, moved to some new places, and stuck it out as best we could. Sometimes, though, as we know, Mother Nature can be tough to work with. Our bass and blue trips early in the week were sensational, with lots of bass, and even a few blues in the mix. Some private charters did some porgy fishing as well, which was an added bonus as they picked up some jumbo scup. We have now started sailing seven days a week, so be sure to check our calendar online and grab a ticket for your trip! We still have a few private charter dates available and will be adding some special trips in the mix as well, so stay tuned. Now that the kids are out of school, we can’t wait to see them on the boat! Let’s get those kids outside and fishing! We look forward to seeing everyone soon!”
Captain Mike Roy at Reel Cast Charters said striper fishing has been excellent over the last couple of weeks and following this week’s full moon that should continue. They’ve seen consistent pushes of bait into the region from adult bunker to butterfish, whiting and herring. Captain Mike said you have to be prepared to catch fish in a variety of ways right now depending on where you’re fishing, what the tide is doing and what mood the fish might be in. They’ve had success with topwater plugs, three-wayed bucktails, soft plastics on jigheads and flutter spoons alike for both quantity and quality, with fish in the 30- to 40-inch plus range. They’ve rounded out trips with some sea bass fishing and that action is picking up, seemingly by the day, as more fish migrate into the area. They are now booking trips for big bass, fishing with live bait, for July and August and that can make for some very exciting action. They have some openings so give Captain Mike and his team a call to take advantage of those spots while they last.
Anthony, at Game On Lures sent over the following report for the week; “Bass fishing has remained really solid in most of the sound and more big fish are continuing to push east. There has been a ton of smaller bait in the area, but the recent big push of bunker really kicked things off and have had these fish fired up. Despite the colder than usual water temps at this time these fish have been eating all the summer specials. Topwater plugs, large plastics, and spoons have all been working great. The 6″ X-Walk and 13″ Duratech eel were the hot bait this week. I haven’t run into many bluefish myself this year, but guys have been reporting getting into them here and there around the bunker schools. The sea bass bite has improved, and guys are getting them on EXO jigs, bucktails and slow pitch jigs in 60-100ft. The porgy bite has been strangely quiet this year but should improve as the water warms up. Fluke fishing has picked up and some larger fish are starting to be caught anywhere from 40-80 ft. Fluke spoons, bucktails, and squid have been getting some of the bigger bites.”
Middlebank Sportfishing reports that we are just coming up on the end of the Spring spawn bite, so while the bite is not as fast and furious as it was a week ago, anglers are still walking off the boat with enough porgies for a few meals. They’ve had a nice bycatch of sea bass, flounder, striped bass, fluke, mackerel and weakfish this past week to round out the trips. Monday’s fluke trip was hampered with strong ENE winds, and they were limited as to where they could drift. Despite this, they still saw plenty of action with shorts, a couple of nice keepers, and a few weakfish. Tuesday’s Fluke trip was lost due to weather. For daily fishing updates and pictures, please find them on Facebook at Middlebank Sport Fishing.
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Max, at Fisherman’s World in Norwalk said that local fishing has been really good with big striped bass, big bluefish, fluke to 9 pounds and more and more scup on the Connecticut side of the sound. Local striper fishing remains good although the areas where quality fish can be caught have expanded. Bunker and some larger schools of stripers have started to move in around the islands and even into the harbor. This week they heard reports and saw pictures of fish from around the islands ranging from 15 to 30 pounds caught on GT paddletails and bucktails, as well as topwater lures like spooks and poppers. While the fish moving closer to home is welcome for many anglers, those still fishing the deep-water reefs are just as happy to cash in on the action there, mainly around 28C and 11B. The bite has been excellent and customers report catching fish on topwater lures, soft plastics, Diamond Jigs, flutter spoons, mojos, bunker spoons and deep diving plugs. Other folks have been live lining or chunking bunker for bass ranging anywhere from 20 to 40 pounds. Fluke reports continued to pick up this week as more anglers put in time locally, rather than heading across to the north shore. While the bite on the other side is still good there have been plenty of local flatfish caught as well. The best action on our side of the sound has reportedly been around cans 24 and 26 in 30 feet of water. Bucktails and Gulp are ever popular as is fishing with squid. Sea bass action is still best around deep-water wrecks in 60- to 80-feet of water. Fishing with Diamond Jigs, butterfly jigs or bait like clams, sandworms or squid have all been effective. Scup fishing continues to improve as well as more and more reports come in from customers catching them locally. Shore reports have been good as well with shore anglers scoring from Sherwood islands and other areas of hard structure on sand worms.
Connecticut Fishing Forecast
We are through the June full moon and fishing across Long Island Sound has been very good for stripers while ground fishing seems to have made some incremental improvements. Striped bass reports came in from shops from Norwalk to New London that included fish in a variety of types of water from deep water rips to local reefs to the surf. The lower Connecticut River has cleaned up, and while the results have been inconsistent from day to day, there has at least been at least a few days this week where bass and bunker moved into the lower river. The Race, Plum Gut, and Fishers Island has been holding loads of striped bass of varying sizes. These bass are coming on anything from all out topwater blitzes, light jigs with soft plastics, and heavy diamond jigs/bucktails. The key seems to be continuing to work a number of different offerings to see what these fish want to eat on any given tide. Bottom fishing has seemed to tick up week by week in the last two to three weeks and both the western and eastern sound noted progress with both fluke and scup. Sea bass fishing seems to have an edge in the western and central sound though lots of short fish seemed to be a common denominator across the region. With plenty of bait in our area and the next moon on the way, these next few weeks should be primed for some excellent early season action.