American Chaos, Fish Don’t Seem to Mind

Posted on by norwalkislandsfishing

2020 continues to be a bit of a sh**show in the world and our country. So much polarization, violence, hate, it’s truly a sad time. Fishing is a nice reprise from it all and an escape. To go outside and watch the sunset, watch the tides roll in and out, and watch fish feed, is a reminder of the beauty of our natural world unaffected by politics, crime, and human rights issues, and I find it extremely meditative.

Anyway, enough of that sappy stuff, onto the fishing. There are some better fish being taken in shallow in the islands the last 3 weeks. But you really, really have to work for them. I won’t lie. It’s been a grind out there. Plenty of fish but they’re spread out, and not as many big ones as I’d like. This year has been a good reminder of how Mobile striped bass are, one day they’re there, one day they’re not. One day they’re in Darien, then they’re in Westport, and some days they’re mid sound. They follow the bait and the bait has been somewhat unpredictable. Fishing some primo tides around new/full moons and sunset/sunrise will certainly amp your chances, and the bad weather days (fog, wind) have been good to me too.

This year has been full of ‘exotics’, and no I don’t mean exotic dancers or the Tiger King, I mean rarer species in the sound. Namely Shad, Atlantic mackerel, and weakfish. There have been blitzes (birds diving, surface commotion) that have confused a few anglers when the fish refused to take standard bass or bluefish offerings. Instead these were Shad and/or Macks, who will only eat the really small stuff (tiny jigs, soft plastics, sabikis). Weakfish have been caught by a few anglers targeting bass.

Lastly, and perhaps what everyone is waiting for, is what’s the story for big bass fishing. Who’s getting trophy fish, where, how. I will say this: generally chunking has not been great, yet. A few good reports started to trickle in so that may change. Live bait fishing has produced good ones. Either moving from school of bunker to school and dropping live ones to test the waters at each, or, 3 waying live ones on structure. This is a mid sound game. The fish should get more aggressive by the day. It seems it’s better fishing earlier in the day on bait now, and towards the end of June this will move to sunset.

Those who follow my blog know, June into early July is the time nail a big fish. Get out there people. Full moon on Saturday, big tides and current, big bass. Full moon is usually better to me during daylight hours not the morning, but we shall see. Tight lines

Schoolies for Days

Posted on by norwalkislandsfishing

Well spring started off with a bang in early April. Some herring moved in and a few (very few) got onto a hot upriver bite in early/mid April. Then it got cold, and wet. Really wet. 2 solid weeks of cold rain pretty much mid April. It’s been a cold spring. Sound familiar? JUST like last year.

What does this mean for the fishing? Well the water is still a few degrees behind average for this time of year. I hear from my Hudson friends that the bass up there havent spawned yet, which they do before they move into the sound or South Shore LI (we prefer the former option). A few degrees may not seem like much to humans but to fish it’s a big deal.

But, finally starting this last Saturday we had a week ish of consistent stabile weather patterns and warmth (aside from the temps in 30s coming early Saturday AM). I have been doing well fishing on the boat, catching consistently in a lot of different spots; mostly sandbars and eelgrass beds starting to fill in, all inner islands, mouth of the rivers and coves etc, as long as it’s got moving water. ‘Back bay’ fishing as they say in Joisey. No topwater bite for me yet, but a friend got a 34 incher the last Tuesday of April and again beginning of March on top🤷‍♂️. So things are looking up. Didn’t catch quite as many big fish in April as I would’ve liked but tons of 23-24 inchers the last week. Bunker is moving in too, mid sound and even inner islands. Methinks I’ll be targeting big fish from sunset onwards in coming weeks.

Tight lines, send your reports or comment below!

Quarantine Angling Report #2

Posted on by norwalkislandsfishing

Quarantine goes on, the first round of the pandemic is supposedly waning slightly, and fish are still chewin’. Weird times is all I can say. As I said in my last post, we are lucky this hobby of ours can be done safely while distancing, just make sure to use common sense.

Onto the fishing. We had a burst of really good fishing (big fish for this early too). Bass are still around but the big ones have eluded me for a few weeks. The weather has cooled down. This was the first morning on my boat ever that I was breaking a thin layer of ice pulling out of my slip. Per usual stripers are in the rivers, marshes etc. Find fast current and/or some kind of structure in these environments, and work the water column. Three essentials you need are an unweighted soft plastic (slug O, albie snax, hogy), a weighted soft plastic on a jighead (1/8-3/4 oz depending on depth), and a swimmer (bomber, mag darter, crystal minnow etc). On Fly rod, a clouser or streamer on intermediate or sinking line. Pics below.

For those of you who do some bottomfishing, I put one day of blackfishing in. I fished a handful of spots from 40-70 feet, the deeper water (60-70) is where I found fish, and even then they were a little reluctant. I managed one quality fish. Those who I talk to have said the same, shallow water has not been producing. The mouth of the housatonic river and new haven have been producing in shallow though, due to warmer water temps outside the river.

Thank you to frontline workers and particularly healthcare workers. If any of my readers are in that category or know an angler who is, please reach out to me directly.