While striped bass fishing is far from where it should be as we approach the first of June, there was certainly an upswing in quality and quantity of fish from east to west this week.
Rivers End in Old Saybrook reported consistent catches of bass on the central sound reefs from Clinton to Westbrook, as well as some arrivals at eastern sound reefs. Plum Gut has continued to fish well, while reports from the race continue to be a bit spotty and inconsistent. The lower Connecticut River continues to have a good topwater bite of school to small keeper-sized bass, and with the river starting to clean it should remain steady through the weekend.
Bunker has been spotted in the Connecticut River, the Housatonic River, and most of the coves and marinas in between but schools have been a bit sparse and there haven’t been many fish on them. It would appear that most of the early arrival bass have not yet keyed in on the bunker schools and 3-wayed bucktail jigs and eels have accounted for the best bites on the reefs.
Captain Bruce, of The Otter, reported that things have started off slow but he was able to find a decent haul of short and smaller-keeper sized bass around his homewater this past weekend. While the bite hasn’t quite materialized in the race, large schools of bait have moved in and the bite will be taking off any day now.
Rock and Roll Charters in Clinton had another successful Memorial Day weekend in central Long Island Sound. It took a little bit of work and searching but Captain TJ was able to put limits of striped bass on the boat for all his clients over the weekend.
Andrew, at Fishin’ Factory 3 in Middletown, reported that while the spring run of striped bass in the Connecticut River has certainly started to slow, it is far from over. Over the holiday weekend, Andrew saw some quality bass hit his scales that came from the upper river tributaries, where some large bass have been taking advantage of the final few pushes of migrating river herring. Anglers fishing sandworms and cut bait have also continued to land keepers with consistency from Middletown to Essex.
A slight increase in size of the bass on the eastern sound reefs was reported this week with a few fish exceeding the 40-inch mark finally showing themselves on Bartlett’s Reef.
Fluke reports have been spotty at best in Long Island Sound, mainly due to a lack of effort thus far, with only a few keeper fish reported from the Waterford beaches and the Watch Hill area. Some better fluke reports came from the south side of Fisher’s Island and the south side of Block; which is usually the case early in the season.
Time spent hunting striped bass in Long Island Sound may be better spent in the western portions this weekend, as Bobby J’s Bait and Tackle in Milford reported a great upswing in bass catches in the 20- to 30-pound class over the past few days. The lower stretches of the Housatonic River remains a hot bed for good bass, but the inshore reefs along Milford and Stratford have also come alive over the past few days with big bass and blues hammering bunker, reported On The Water insider Capt. Chris Elser.
Fishing Forecast for Connecticut
We all know it takes patience to be a successful angler and the cold and often windy weather of this spring has certainly tested everyone’s patience. It would appear that we have finally reached that cusp that we hit every May, where everything is starting to line up and fishing can blow wide open overnight. Migratory striped bass, along with some hoards of bait, have shown up across the range of the striper coast and we should only be one or two more warm days away from true cows making their first appearance. For anglers in, or close to Rhode Island, one last spring tautog trip may be in order, as that season will be closed until July in Connecticut and August in Rhode Island.
Could you please rediscover that OTHER river in CT? The Thames? It seems as though you’ve forgotten it as it is rarely mentioned in your articles. The fish connection is a great source if you don’t know that already. I personally care less about the CT river, the Thames is much closer yet you pass it over.
Perhaps they have forgotten about the Thames River, as maybe Fish Connection, Kens, and the Hel Cat don’t advertise in their publication
And they certainly aren’t getting accurate fluke reports out of Misquamicut/Watch Hill area