May 3rd

This past week was another banner fishing week. The spring runs of stripers, shad and herring are right on time and fish are being caught from Old Saybrook all the way up to Enfield. Trout fishing continues to be very productive across the state indicating another stocking job by the DEP. There have even been a couple of reports of sturgeon caught and released by anglers pursuing stripers with bait on the bottom.

Rivers & Streams – The Connecticut River is running at normal levels making access to all boat launches and favorite shoreline venues a breeze. Striped bass over 40” have been reported from Old Saybrook all the way up to the Enfield dam. Kevin Joyal landed a 21 pound striper on a Slammer up in the Windsor area along with a number of other sizeable fish and many reports have been coming in from all over the river valley of mid-30″ fish being very common. The moratorium on river herring is still in effect and all herring accidentally caught must be immediately released. Sandworms, bloodworms and chunk bait have all been catching their fair share of fish. Artificial baits that have been working well include large Slug-O’s, Bombers, topwater plugs andswim baits.

Lakes & Ponds – Trout trollers have been doing quite well on the trophy trout lakes this season. Fish have been holding from the surface down to around 30 feet so lead core trollers have been using 3-4 colors to get into some decent fish with trolling flies, spoons and jointed Rapalas. Largemouth bass fishing continues to be great with reports of fish up to seven pounds being reported this past week. The usual spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and jigs have all been producing but it seems if you’re after a big fish your best bet it to concentrate on throwing large swim baits like the Revolution Shad of the Castaic trout baits. You won’t get as many bites but when you do it will be a good one!

Marine District – Winter flounder reports have not improved, unfortunately. The fish are sparse and the new creel limit of two fish has kept many anglers uninterested in pursuing these fish. It seems the blackfish moved into their shallower lairs just as the season closed this week. The last couple of days of the season saw reports of fish up to 10lbs taken from 20-30 feet of water and good numbers of 4-8lb fish in the mix. The first reports of bluefish have also arrived from the Eastern Sound with schools of 5-8lb fish blitzing on baitfish. Stripers are appearing at shoreline locations but the mouths of the large river systems seem to producing the best as most of the stripers are following bait into the rivers.