Although cabelas has graced our small state with its presence by opening an East Hartford location, there is no store like a bass pro shops to cater to the needs of New England’s anglers. They tend to focus more on hunting and I have found that I can’t find everything I need there.

The new bass pro shops is said to be in the preliminary stages of development near costco, kohls, and coco key water resort. Although it is not certain whether this bps location will materialize, there is one thing that is certain… If this store does come I will need to come up with a higher fishing budget!

So here is my question to you guys… Has anybody been fishing Norwich harbor for hold-over stripers, and while you’re at it, what is your favorite way to catch the cold water schoolies? My favorite technique for when the stripers are holding the bottom is to throw Arkansas Shiner colored super flukes on white 1/4 ounce jigheads. I will throw the jigs around the pilings of the docks, count to 8 and reel as slow as possible, when the jig stops set the hook, you’ve got a striper!

When the fish are actively feeding on the surface, my bait of choice is a black and purple mambo minnow or bomber long A. Just give it a good zing out there and keep your rod tip up while reeling slowly. Hold on tight, the big boy stripers will really give you a good rip on topwater.

The 911 tapes released a couple days ago are pretty chilling.  You can listen to them below in the youtube video released by CNN. Caution the call is graphic.

A terrible story for a famous CT chimp and the families of the victims.

Yesterday Brian and I joined Greg, a lifetime saltwater fisherman in Mystic for a shot at the sounds triple crown, blackfish, bluefish and stripers. We got on the water around 7am and headed out of Mystic on Greg’s 26 foot fishing machine looking for early morning stripers and blues on topwater. Before we even made it past the boats in the marinas we saw some birds working and a few splashes under them. As we got there the birds flew off and the action stopped, but we still threw some plugs and poppers, which didn’t produce a single hit.

Not seeing anything else working the surface we fished a reef near Watch Hill using umbrella rigs, tube and worm, and topwater plugs with not even a single hit. Greg assured us this was on of his top spots for catching big bass and blues, and that the fish should be here at some point in the day. After a few passes trolling we decided to reel up and head to the deeper water out at the Race. On our way out we saw hundreds of birds working so we shot over to try some more topwater, but just couldn’t get a hit, no matter what we threw at them, or what we trolled by them. Frustrated we continued on to the Race.

We trolled around Valiant Rock with umbrella rigs, and finally got a hit (a 5lb bluefish). Trolling some more resulted in nothing despite a large flock of birds working the entire area. Watching the depth finder I noticed a few fish holding tight to the bottom and no visible bait balls anywhere on the screen, so we decided to discontinue the futile trolling effort and start three-waying some bucktails.

I tied one on and dropped it down and as soon as it hit the bottom I had a fish on. Greg saw me hook up and switched to a bucktail and almost immediately hooked up too. We had a double on our first drop. Brian was using a diamond jig with no luck, so we hooked him up with a bucktail, and he hooked up with a nice blue shortly after we released ours. We bucktailed for another 30 minutes and landed a few more blues before the slack went tide and our drift turned into a crawl.

Deciding fishing would be slow for a bit we moved into Fisher’s Island Sound to try our hand at some blackfishing. We anchored up in 20 ft of water on the edge of a small submerged rock pile, and rigged up some halved green crabs. I started out using a lighter spinning rod that I had used previously blackfishing, and Greg says to me “You sure that pole is meaty enough for blackfish?” Just as I am saying yeah I have fished with it before with no problems, I get a hit and the drag goes screaming. Before I could tighten it up the fish had me in the rocks. It came out once and immediately found another hiding spot and broke me off. I switched to a heavy duty rod after that!

We were fishing off the back of the boat and Brian and I were nailing fish after fish including a few porgies and cunners, with the blackfish mixed in. Greg tried everything but just couldn’t land one that day. We even let him switch spots with Brian and still nothing… Brian did catch a few Tautogs in his spot though

We only had 3 dozen green crabs with us and the fish were biting so we ran out of bait quick. In total we landed about 10 blackfish and 5 were keepers with the biggest being around 4 lbs. When we ran out of crabs Brian and I tried some of the Berkeley Gulp sandworms and actually caught a few blackfish and porgies on them to my surprise.

After Blackfishing we decided to troll around Greg’s favorite reef by Watch Hill again, but unfortunately the swells were still ripping and the fish were no where to be found. Bucktailing that area also produced nothing but a small black sea bass.

Wanting to find that elusive striped bass to complete our triple crown, we thought about heading back out to the Race, but since we wouldn’t have much time to fish once we got out there we decided to save the gas for another time, and headed in to clean our blackfish and get on the road.

Overall we had a great time and it was really nice fishing with Greg, he really knows those fishing grounds… even though he couldn’t land a blackfish … He did invite us back out on Sunday to try again, but maybe we turn down the offer so he can catch a few this time.

I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a late October day, I even got a little bit of a tan since it was mid 60′s with bright sunshine.

I got on the water around 1:30 and fished some black and blue fleck hula grubs on a 1/4 ounce jighead on the East side of the lake, with no luck in the first 30 minutes. I then decided to switch gears and hit the West shoreline since I figured the water would be a few degrees warmer from the strong morning sun.  On the way over I hit some of the submerged rock piles with no luck.

Once on the other side of the lake I started throwing watermelon cabin creek spider jigs and texas rigged senkos around my favorite deeper water docks (which aren’t so deep anymore now that the lake is down over 2 feet).  I got a strike on my third cast and landed a 2 lb largemouth bass on a jig. Hoping I had found a pattern I kept fishing the sunny side of docks on the West shore.  20 minutes went by and finally another hit, again off a deep water dock, and another 2lb largemouth.

I didn’t find any other fish on the West side, but did catch a couple smallmouth on the North shore fishing some submerged rock piles in 6 feet of water.  Senkos produced nothing no matter what color, size or presentation I threw… One of the smallmouth I caught was so dark it look black.  As I was reeling it in I actually thought it was the first freshwater tautog (a.k.a. blackfish for those who don’t know what a tautog is).

I fished for another 45 minutes on the East shore with not as much as a hit, and then I called it a day around 4:30… It wasn’t a great day but with a cold front coming through this week, lowered water levels, and cold fall water, at least I caught something.

Hopefully I will be able to get out at least one more time this year on the lake, but it may not happen if the weather continues to get colder and the lake gets more shallow.

We got out on the water around 7:30am and started fishing shallow structure with everything from texas rigged senkos to spinnerbaits with no luck. After finding nothing in the shallows we went across the lake to fish deeper water and structure. Brian stuck with a senko and I switched over to a black and blue spider grub (technically it was the chompers hula grub). We both fished around the docks and pontoon boats (the ones that are still in the water) with minimal luck.

We both persevered with our respective baits and fished for about an hour with nothing more than a couple nibbles, until we got to some deeper docks on the north west shore of the lake. Just as I was commenting that I should be getting fish on spider grubs this time of year, I hooked up with a 2 pound largemouth. The next cast resulted in a 2.5lb largemouth. Having thought I found a pattern we continued fishing the deep water docks, and managed to find another 6 or seven fish including 2 smallmouth. Brian ended up landing only a smallmouth and 1 largemouth on the senko, despite his 5 hours of hard work casting and skipping his bait under the docks.

Largest fish of the day was only about 3lbs, and they were few and far between, but hopefully once our weather pattern settles down and the rain stops we will see some better fall fishing. If anyone is having success with other baits this time of the year let me know via the comments section below!

CT DEP Freshwater and Marine Fishing Reports for September 25th 2008

INLAND REPORT

TROUT

Fall Trout Stocking update- This week, DEP stocked the Shetucket River, Salmon River (including the TMA), Natchaug River, Scantic River, Hammonasset River (including the TMA), Mashapaug Lake, and the Chatfield Hollow, Mohegan Park Pond and Day Pond Trout Parks with a total of 6,000 brown trout (these fish are in the 11-14” range). The Valley Falls Park Pond Trout Park was stocked with 200 standard-size rainbow trout.

Rivers & streams – Conditions (moderate temperatures and flows) have been good for late summer/early fall trout fishing, with good reports from the West Branch Farmington, Farmington, Mill (Fairfield), Norwalk, Naugatuck and Shetucket Rivers. Fishing should continue to improve as we move deeper into autumn. As water temperatures cool, anglers can expect aggressive pre-spawn trout taking streamers with heavy hits. Try white, yellow and brown colors. Nymphing also picks up in October, and patterns to try include Midge Pupa/Larva, Brassie, Zebra Midge, Micro Mayfly, Serendipity & Copper John. Several days of rain are in the forecast, so anglers venturing out this weekend are reminded that flows in smaller tributaries typically rise quickest, but also drop back to fishable levels quickest. Anglers are also reminded that Real time stream flow data from 51 USGS gauging stations can be found at the following USGS web page: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ct/nwis/current/?type=flow

FARMINGTON RIVER – West Branch flows are currently clear and low, but will increase following completion of DEP’s annual electrofishing survey on Thursday. At that time flows at Riverton are expected to increase to 300-400 cfs. As several days of rain are expected, flows, especially below the confluence with the Still River could increase significantly this weekend. Patterns/hatches include Tricos (Trycorythodes stygiatus, #22-28, 7:00am-10:00am, Riverton Area), Isonychia bicolor (major hatch, #10-14, fast water, afternoon/evening), Blue Wing Olives (Drunella & Baetis sps., #22-28, mid-late afternoon), Cahills/Summer (Stenonema ithaca (#18-22), Sulfurs duns (Heptagenia sps., #16-20, below the dam due to low temperatures, morning; afternoon to early evening for spinners), Caddis (tan #14-18, all day; green #22-26, evening; summer pupa #18-20 morning), Midges (#22-32, morning), Black Ants (#16-18, mid day in fast water), Black Beetles (#16-18, mid day), Flying Ants (#18-22, mid day, when windy/humid) and Stone Hopper (#10-12, mid day).

Housatonic River – Conditions have been very good for early fall trout fishing, with dropping temperatures (currently in the upper 50’s°F, mornings) and clear, moderate and quite fishable flows, currently at 450 cfs in Falls Village and 690 cfs in Gaylordsville. With a significant rain event possible, flows may increase to more difficult-to-fish levels this weekend. For updated flow information, anglers can call FirstLight Power toll-free at 1-888-417-4837. Insect hatches/patterns include Blue Wing Olive (#18-26, early morning; spinner fall in evening), Leadwing Coachman (#10-12 evening), Cahills/Summer (#12-14), and Black caddis (#16, early morning & evening). Golden stonefly nymphs hatch at first light and adults egg-lay after dark, trout will ignore everything else when they are on the water. Try Black/Cinnamon Ants (#14-18, mid day in fast water), Sulfurs (#16-18), Black Beetles (#14-18, mid day), Stone Hopper (#8-10, mid day) and Flying Ants (#16-18, mid day, when windy/humid). Try nymphing the pockets, deeper riffles and pool heads.

Lakes & Ponds – Trout fishing is variable, with good reports from East Twin Lake, Wononskopomuc Lake and Crystal Lake (Ellington), fair reports from Beach Pond and Mashapaug Lake, and slow at Hogback Reservoir (West Branch Reservoir). Mixed reports from Highland Lake and West Hill Pond.

LARGEMOUTH BASS fishing is improving, but remains variable, with good reports from Aspinook Pond, Pattagansett Lake (including a 5.3 lb bass), Highland Lake (recent catches included several 5 lb pluslargemouth), Lower Bolton Lake, Mashapaug Lake, Great Hollow Pond, Winchester Lake and East Twin Lake. Fishing is reported as fair at Bashan Lake, Gardner Lake, Powers Lake, Howells Pond, Tyler Lake, Coventry Lake, Rainbow Reservoir, Mansfield Hollow Reservoir and Hatch Pond, and slow at Long Pond, Pachaug Pond, Bantam Lake, Rogers Lake (although catches do include a 5 lb bass) and Beseck Lake.

SMALLMOUTH BASS fishing is variable, with the best reports from Candlewood Lake and the Quinebaug River (upper Aspinook Pond, recent catches included a 3.1 lb smallie), fair reports from Highland Lake, West Branch Reservoir, Mashapaug Lake and Rainbow Reservoir, and slow fishing reported from Bashan Lake, Gardner Lake and Coventry Lake.

NORTHERN PIKE – Limited reports in for pike, areas to try include Bantam Lake, Winchester Lake, Mansfield Hollow Reservoir, Quaddick Reservoir and Pachaug Pond.

Fall WALLEYE action is fair. Catches reported from Saugatuck Reservoir, Gardner Lake, Mashapaug Lake, Beach Pond and Squantz Pond.

Good YELLOW PERCH action reported from Lake Hayward, Stillwater Pond, Winchester Lake, Gardner Lake, Candlewood Lake (11-14” perch), Tyler Lake and Batterson Park Pond.

CONNECTICUT RIVER – STRIPED BASS action remains good in the lower river. NORTHERN PIKE fishing is fair, with some catches reported from the Haddam Meadows/Salmon River Cove area and Wrights Cove. CARP are providing a lot of excitement for those willing to give them a try, with catches up to 15 lbs reported this week. Both LARGEMOUTH BASS and SMALLMOUTH BASS fishing have been slow. BLACK CRAPPIE are providing anglers some nice action in the coves, small shiners are favorite bait.

FISHING ACCESS & BOAT LAUNCH INFORMATION

A three-foot draw down of LAKE HOUSATONIC is currently scheduled for this weekend (9/27-9/28).

FirstLight Power is currently drawing down LAKE LILLINONAH to 3.5 feet below the normal operating range as a flood control measure in response to the potential of the Housatonic River watershed to receive 2-4 inches of rain in the next four days.

DEP has been informed that public access to ALEXANDER LAKE is no longer available.

Boat rental operations at LAKE SALTONSTALL have closed for the year. Since July, the lake has been drawn down over 5 feet to facilitate planned work includes construction of a new concrete spillway, inlets and earth embankment, and the low water levels have made boat launching and retrieval difficult and at times, hazardous. Also due to the draw down, shore fishing access is restricted to the fishing dock.

• The “seawall” area extending from the handicap-accessible fishing pier to the permitted swim area at SQUANTZ POND is currently open to fishing. Anyone with a fishing pole can now access the fence through the several gates. Anglers can also enter the water in that area (except for the one area posted “no trespassing”).

• The LAKE WARAMAUG Town Boat Launch in Washington remains open for use by the general public through the last Sunday in October. The launch will be open 3 days a week (Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays) for morning (6 am to 11 am) and late afternoon/evening (4 pm to sunset) periods of operation. Seven parking spaces are available on a first come first served basis at the launch. Additionally, up to 13 trailered boats from the Lake Waramaug State Park campground will be allowed to access the lake from the Town launch. The Town charges a $25 annual fee to launch and all boats will be inspected for invasive plants ($5 per launch inspection fee). All town fees can be paid at the boat launch.

MARINE FISHING REPORT

Water temperatures in Long Island Sound (LIS) are in the upper 60’s °F. Check out the following web sites for more detailed water temperatures and marine boating conditions:

• http://www.mysound.uconn.edu/stationstat.html
• http://marine.rutgers.edu/mrs/sat_data/?nothumbs=1
• http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
• http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/AN/330.html

Remember to check the 2008 Connecticut Angler’s Guide for tidal information (page 52) and pages 49-51 for saltwater trophy fish award information.

BUNKER (Atlantic menhaden) remain very abundant in harbors and tidal rivers along the coastline. Bluefish have been chasing menhaden into confined areas often creating fish kills due to the lack of oxygen because of the excess number of fish.

BLUEFISH and STRIPED BASS fishing remains good off the Watch Hill reefs, Napatree Point to Sandy Point (Stonington), Mystic River, Ram Island Reef (Fishers Island Sound), Thames River, the Race, Sluiceway, Pigeon Rip, Plum Gut, Bartlett Reef, Black Point, outer humps off Hatchett Reef, lower Connecticut River, Long Sand Shoal, Cornfield Point, Southwest Reef, Duck Island area, Sixmile Reef, Falkner Island area, the reefs off Branford, New Haven Harbor, Charles Island to Milford Point, Buoys 18 and 20 off Stratford/Bridgeport, Bridgeport Harbor, Stratford Shoal/Middle Ground, the reefs off Norwalk, Cable and Anchor Reef, the Cows off Stamford, and Greenwich Harbor.

SNAPPER BLUES are still around with a JACK CREVALLE or two in the mix.

HICKORY SHAD fishing is good in the Niantic River and the Connecticut River (DEP Marine Headquarters fishing pier)

SCUP (porgy) fishing remains good to excellent on the local reefs. Remember, the last day for scup fishing is September 26 (closed September 27-May 23).

Reports of little tunny (false albacore) have been coming in from the Montauk Point, NY to Watch Hill, RI.

For regulation updates, please check our web site: www.ct.gov/dep/fishing.

This year the fair is not only offering the usual funnel cakes, fried dough, corn dogs, candy apples, and cotton candy, but also providing fair goers the opportunity to feast on delicacies like lobster rolls, buffalo steak sandwiches, pad thai noodles, and jambalaya… This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg though, a complete lineup of all that the stands offer can be found here http://www.durhamfair.org/content/580/default.aspx.

Along with the food, they have numerous livestock shows and competitions, carnival rides, baking contests, concerts, tractor pulls, and even pig races some years. There are plenty of things to do to keep you occupied!

The only problem this year is that it is supposed to raining all weekend long. This still won’t keep me and my buddies from visiting the fair grounds and dawning our ponchos and umbrellas, afterall the Durham Fair only comes around once a year…

****UPDATE****

The Durham fair will definitely be held rain or shine this weekend and will NOT be cancelled because of the rain and wind according to a press released statement by Michelle LaPointe who is the Durham Fair Marketing Director.  Here a quote from her recent statement:

“Really not much changes for us. We still encourage people to come because we still have indoor events for them to attend,” LaPointe said.

LaPointe said the midway, entertainment and some offsite parking lots at the Durham Fair could be affected by the rain. She encourages people to stop out despite the rain. Umbrellas and other Durham Fair rain gear will be available for purchase at the event.

The way I see it, the rain will give a great chance for attendees to experience shorter lines at the fair!

Date: 9/21/08

Since the season was winding down on Cedar Lake we decided to take the boat out of the water last weekend and make a trip to the sounds for some striper, bluefish, and porgy fishing before we dropped the boat off at the marina to be winterized. We launched out of the Baldwin Bridge launch in Old Saybrook aroun 5:30AM, but didn’t make it out into open water until 6:45AM since the fog was in thick and visibility was only about 5 feet!

At one point a 50 foot boat crossed in front of us about 10 feet off our bow and we barely saw it.  Thank god for GPS otherwise we would have never made it to the sound… As soon as the sun came up the fog burned off and we were able to open it up and head out to the eastern rip.  We three way’d eels on two rods and and fresh bunker chunks on one rod from 30-50 feet.  Almost immediately we hooked up with a nice bluefish that gave a pretty good fight and weighted about 12 lbs on the boga grips.

Here is a shot of my friend Robbie with his catch:

We had 2 or three more big hits on the eels, but nothing else was boated on the rip. The fresh bunker was left untouched the whole day. After an hour of drifting we moved to Long Sand Shoal to try our luck, but nothing was biting there either.

A short trip to Outer Hatchetts Reef and we were drifting live eels and bunker chuck with no success again.  At this point the tide went slack and we decided to switch into porgy mode catching 20-30 porgies and about the same number of small black sea bass using clams and squid. It was coming up on lunch time so we decided to tube and worm with t-man custom tackle tubes and sandworms up the shoreline back to the dock and dine, but never had a strike on those either. We ate lunch and headed back out to the eastern rip and tried our luck with our last couple eels.

We hooked up pretty quick when we got back to the rip, but it turned out to be a skate.

It was getting late and the sun, water, and fishing had beat us up all day, and we still needed to scrub down the boat and drop it off at the marina, so we headed back to the launch.

Overall we had a fun day, even though we didn’t have the best luck…