Stripers – Striper reports have been a bit off this week. We received some reports that Long sand shoal and Bartletts gave up a few good fish. It seems that one day its on and the next its off. Anglers are having a hard time predicting patterns day to day. However, you really can’t go wrong with dropping some eels on the reefs or rocky shoreline. Eric Abrahamson is pictured here with a great striper that he caught on, thats right you guessed it, a live eel.
Fluke – Fluke are just gorging themselves on squid. The usual places are still producing but the ratio of shorts to keepers is not favorable. A few weeks ago anglers were catching a lot of shorts but also some real doormats in 35-45 feet of water. Now the better reports are coming from deeper water. Pictured is Christie Drube with a beautiful fluke. Keep jigging buck tails tipped with squid. If you’re having a hard time finding the big ones, deploy a fluke bomb!
Scup (Porgy) – Scup reports have been few and far between. But when anglers find some, they hammer these fish! Most of the good reports for scup are coming from the border of CT/RI. Scup rigs baited with clam strips or bucktails tipped with clams or squid get the job done. Hopefully the fishing will pick up soon and the reports will get better. Also, blackfish season has opened again, but very few reports have come in. Pictured is Dylan Olzacki with some nice porgies for the dinner table.
Black Sea Bass – Anglers are still hooking up with sea bass consistently. Fish are being found in around 80 feet of water on the bottom. Pictured is Rob Olints with some nice sea bass. He was using squid strips on a hi/low rig with a three inch pink squid hoochie as a teaser. The sea bass numbers are great and anglers are having a blast with them.
Bluefish – Bluefish are keeping anglers busy all over. A lot of smaller blues are being caught from the surf. Dunking bunker chunks will get you some decent fish and there are tons of fresh bunker to snag and net. The chopper blues are more easily found from boat, though. Diamond jigging for blues is a no brainer and is always fun. Pictured is Luis Feliciano with two big blues.
Bass – The recent weather has put a damper on bass fishing. The pressure keeps building and then dropping with the storms. Dealing with the change in weather and the conditions it brings can be difficult. Mansfield Hollow, Moodus and Candlewood have given up some good bass this past week. Topwater lures are a good bet from sunset to sunrise. Flipping into weeds throughout the day is still very much effective. The better reports have come from anglers who have been poking around with soft plastics. When nothing seems to be working, try downsizing and slowing it down. Pictured is Will Regan with a solid largemouth out of Candlewood lake. He was throwing a 3 inch creature bait with a 1/16oz weight. He said, “I’ve found lately in the last week that sizing down and going at an agonizingly slow pace is the key”.
Kyle Quine
Fishing CT
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