Connecticut Fishing Report | October 16, 2014

Tautog season started with a bang in Connecticut and continues to pick up steam in Rhode Island. Fish are easy to find, eager to eat and tight to shallow, inshore structure. A strong fall run for Rhode Island surfcasters remains consistent, and with the recent warm temperatures it isn’t showing signs of letting up.

Connecticut Fishing Report

The tautog season has started out hot on the eastern sound reefs and rockpiles. According to Hillyers Bait and Tackle in Waterford, fish are holding in shallower water, and anglers are having no trouble finding them from Niantic to Watch Hill. Fishing for porgy and black sea bass remains as steady as ever, and bluefish blitzes are still popping up at Plum Gut and the Sluiceway. False albacore have thinned out quite a bit as of late, but some decent reports are still coming in from Watch Hill, Fishers Island and Plum Island.

Joe, at Rivers End in Old Saybrook, reiterated that fact that the surf fishing has been excellent across Rhode Island for the past two weeks. Locally, the striped bass fishing remains tough for boat and shore anglers, with the exception of a few hefty bass taken on fresh bunker inside the mouth of the river last weekend. The river is still loaded with bunker and it remains your best bet for finding a good bass and plenty of large bluefish. Black sea bass fishing remains great on deep structure and there is still no shortage of scup in the eastern sound. Bonito and false albacore have thinned out and are finicky, but can still be found at the usual hotspots. It seems to be that the rougher the weather the better the albie fishing, and there has been no shortage of rough weather lately.

At Fishin Factory 3 in Middletown, Andrew was excited to report that he finally had multiple reports of big striped bass locally. A few 40-plus pound fish hit the scales this week from anglers livelining bunker in the mouth of the river. Along with a few cow bass, shore anglers are still scoring gator bluefish at the Dock N Dine, DEEP Docks and the Causeway. Upriver, the northern pike bite continues to improve from Wethersfield to Middletown, and one of his customers had 3 nice pike to 35 inches at Wethersfield Cove before the much-needed rain.

TC Marine Bait and Tackle in Shelton, reported that the blackfishing was excellent all weekend from Stratford to New Haven, and around the Housatonic River breakwalls. Despite the rough seas, most anglers reported no difficulty managing a limit of tog. Prior to the heavy rains, striped bass fishing was going strong in the Housatonic River, including a 45 pound beast taken earlier in the week on a live eel. As the flows get back to normal through the weekend, the bass fishing should pick up right where it left off.

Solid blackfish reports have come from everyone I talked to this week, and it was no different out west, where the guys at Fisherman’s World in Norwalk reported great catches on all the shallow rockpiles of the western sound. Keepers have been easy to come by and it has not been uncommon to boat upwards of 30 fish in a single trip. Besides blackfish, anglers in the western sound spent some time this week targeting schoolie bass and taylor blues; which have been feeding on small bait around the Norwalk Islands. If you’re looking for big bluefish try diamond jigging around 11B and 28C, where the bite remains red hot, although don’t expect to find many bass out there right now.

Fishing Forecast

It’s blackfish season in New England and now is the time to stock up your freezer, as keeper fish are residing on every shallow rockpile from Newport to Norwalk. The persistent winds can make anchoring difficult, but with the fish in shallow water you can stay close to home and usually find some shelter. For the surfcasters out there, a decent fall run seems to be making up for the poor summer, and with unseasonably warm temperatures there is a good chance it will last for a few more weeks.