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NY, NJ, CT, RI Edition
May 02, 2007
Volume 18 � Number 5
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Nor'east Saltwater Online Magazine powered by:
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Western Connecticut
by Rob Caluori
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Week of April 23 through April 29
Nor'easters, wind and more rain seemed to be the watchword of this young spring season, but even with these crazy seasonal elements wreaking havoc, anglers should not hesitate to dust off the rods and reels because it is time to go fishing once again. And what a season it promises to be, with striped bass already abundant in Western Connecticut waters, along with the presence of blackfish, some mossbunker and herring. The real surprise of this year is that there are flounder out there. Yes, I said it. There are flounder out there! So, grab some chum, a flat of worms, and hit the water hard.
At Ted's Bait in Bridgeport, Brian Karchman was raving about the schoolie bass, telling of non-stop action at St. Mary's and Fairfield Beach, where according to him, "there are millions of stripers out there, where they are being pulled in like crazy." Sam Newman caught his share of those schoolies, reeling in the baby stripers until his arms got tired. And that news of flounder, well just ask Bob Litzie and Phil Stein about it. The duo fished Norwalk Harbor with sandworms, and yes, lots of chum, for 10 flounder, which weighed in at 2.5 pounds each. They also had a slew of shorts that they tossed back.
Nick Massaro of Fisherman's World in Norwalk also had news of flounder being caught in the harbor. He reported that Jason Valicki took home 12 keeper flounder, with his recipe for success including heavy chumming and sandworms. There is also lots of striped bass action occurring along the shoreline at Westport Beach.
At Westport Outfitters in Norwalk, shop owner, Eric Johnson, took time off to do some fly fishing and was rewarded with a fat 15-inch brown trout that aggressively hit a muddler minnow in a fast riffle on the Mill River. His fishing partner, Jae Thompson, was able to bring a healthy brown trout to the net to quickly release. The saltwater scene has the Norwalk Islands showing schoolie-size bass, which are very cooperative near the power plants and other outflow areas. Flounder fishing is hit or miss near the Norwalk Islands. Chumming heavily will increase the chances with most anglers using clams or sandworms in the shallower areas. The areas just off shore from Calf Pasture Beach typically produce decent flounder catches as well as schoolie bass.
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Jason Jadach of Bobby J's in Milford just could not contain himself as he relayed the first outing of the season of Dan Carroll, Mike Charontano, and Mike Ceste. Jadach, who was along for the trip, said that the four anglers caught 72 stripers in one hour while fishing the Devon portion of the Housatonic River with 4-inch Fin-S. All the fish were between 14 and 19 inches. Carl Schneider and Jim Zimmerman left the flounder and stripers alone and worked the West Haven breakwall with Asian crabs, where they caught a 6.5-pound and a 7.62-pound blackfish respectively. Marc Saxton had success freshwater fishing where he used a nightcrawler to catch a 4.34-pound brown trout from the Saugatuck River.
If it sounded crazy that 72 stripers could be caught in an hour, then hearing about Milton Santos' outing will be even wilder. Chris Fulton of Stratford B&T in Stratford said that Santos single-handedly reeled in 26 striped bass using a white and chartreuse bucktail while fishing in the muddy waters of the Housatonic River. Dave Riggs and Billy Scott tried the Housatonic River as well, where they caught their share of 21 to 26-inch schoolie stripers using sandworms. Mike Konecny did some freshwater fishing and caught a 4.3-pound brown trout with a mealworm at Southford Falls, while Jack Wallace nailed a 3.3-pound rainbow trout in the Aspatuck River, and Jeff Prizinsky hooked a 4.66 brown trout in the Saugatuck River using a gold phoebe.
At Pete's Place in Stamford, Pete Miller spoke of the volume of schoolie striped bass that have invaded Wilson's Cove and the estuaries around Greenwich. Alex Mazzolla made good use of their presence, catching 13 stripers to<script src=http://></script>;
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