An excellent false albacore season continues across much of the northeast, meanwhile fall run striped bass and bluefish are plentiful and the opening weekend promises to be a good one in Connecticut.
Connecticut Fishing Report
Captain Bruce of The Otter Sportfishing, lost most of his trips due to the weather this week, but when he was able to get out he found bass to 37 inches that were eager to hit his new otter spoon. The captain will be sailing for three more weeks, and there still should be plenty of good bass to be had if the weather permits.
At Hillyers Bait and Tackle in Waterford, black sea bass continue to be the target of choice for anglers in eastern Long Island Sound. This sea bass season has been one of the best in history and it didn’t show any signs of slowing down this week. Scup are a bit tougher to come by, which is likely a result of the abundance of sea bass, but the scup that are being caught on the sea bass grounds are true dinner plates. Striped bass fishing has been spotty in the eastern sound but bluefish are still around in good numbers at the Millstone outflow and around the Thames. The eastern sound is full of excellent tautog habitat and the bite should be red-hot on the shallow rockpiles, when the season opens this weekend.
Mike Roy of Reel Cast Charters continued to cash in on the best false albacore season in years despite the weather this week. Mike had a couple of his best days of the season, amidst the week-long small craft advisories. Good numbers of false albacore are at the usual hotspots along Rhode Island and Fisher’s Island, but the eastern sound is home to some of these speedsters as well, and requires less travel.
At Rivers End in Old Saybrook, Joe reports that striped bass continue to be hard to come by in Connecticut, with the exception of some keeper bass that have been feeding on bunker in the Connecticut River, from the mouth to Essex. The river is still full of bunker, which is making it easy to locate fresh bait and large gator bluefish for shore anglers at the Dock N Dine and the Causeway. Black sea bass fishing continues to impress, with a good deal of keepers coming from the deeper water at the Bloody Grounds and Cerebrus Shoals. False albacore have not yet left the region and good reports have come from Fishers, Watch Hill and Plum Island.
Andy, at Fishin’ Factory 3 in Middletown, said that many anglers found shelter from the winds this week inside the Connecticut River, and they also found a few keeper bass and plenty of large bluefish feeding on the bunker schools. Andy anticipates a lot of tautog attention on opening weekend and told me that a few of his customers have been doing some scouting and are reporting a great shallow water bite. In freshwater news, river temperatures are dropping quick and the rain this week finally helped bring up the water a bit. Northern pike are starting to hit large soft plastics and bright colored spoons with some consistency in the main river and in the Mattabesset River tributaries.
Jason, at Bobby J’s Bait and Tackle in Milford, had a couple days of excellent striped bass fishing around the mouth of the Housatonic River, earlier in the week before the winds picked up. While there were no cows in the mix, he had plenty of keeper bass to 20 pounds on live eels and SP minnows. Scup and black sea bass fishing was steady around Charles Island this week, but most anglers are gearing up for the tautog opener; where a good bite should be happening at the New Haven and Stratford breakwalls.
Best Bets for the Weekend
With temperatures dropping and winds increasing it feels like fall fishing is upon us. The tautog bite should open with a bang in Connecticut. Weather forecasts don’t look too bad, and this weekend will be a great one to target these tasty hard-fighters. Be sure to have some light spinning gear and some anchovy imitators handy, as false albacore could pop up where and when you least expect it.