Matthew Curtiss, Esq

The Day - Stripers in The Race are the best bet this holiday weekend

Our first long weekend of the summer will feature some good striper fishing in The Race and adjacent waters; keeper fluke where you find them and possibly the first porgies of the year, that season now open.

Captain Jack Balint of the Fish Connection spoke with me via cell saying he fished his first charter of the year Wednesday, starting on the flood tide off Watch Hill for a few scant schoolies then moving to the start of the ebb at Race Point. There he found better numbers of small bass chasing five- to six-inch sand eels on top.

If you fish Race Point this weekend don't be surprised to see a new "landmark." A 40- to 50-foot tugboat ran aground inside the red buoy over a month ago and has yet to be removed, another unfortunate vessel that came to grief in that spot.

Jack also reported some casting opportunities at times on the slack tide around Latimer Light, and also the rocky points between the Monastery and Stonington. Bucktailing has been good during the day in The Race and diamond jigs also working on either end of the tide when it isn't running that hard.

via www.theday.com

I love bottom painting. No really. Its actually quite satisfying. It marks the beginning of summer for me.

There's a little bit of pride walking around town with specks of green anti-fouling paint on my forearms and legs.

The boat won't be in, but perhaps I'll get some casts in from shore.

Have a great memorial Day everyone.

Fishing Friday: The Day - The herring run has begun

Amid spring's flourish of new life, there's probably nothing in the state matching the primeval surge of small, sleek, silver-bellied fish out of the Atlantic Ocean into Long Island Sound and then into Bride Brook.

For David Ellis, the transformation of this small and otherwise unremarkable coastal stream into a herring highway to their ancestral spawning grounds at Bride Lake is his favorite seasonal cue.

"I don't think it's spring until the alewife come in," Ellis, research technician with the state Department of Environmental Protection, said Wednesday, after a morning of handling dozens of the lively little fish as part of ongoing research.

No one knows for sure, but the Bride Brook run is believed to be second only to the Connecticut River run in the numbers of alewife that use it, and their progeny have been transplanted by DEP staff to some 30 other streams and ponds around the state in a decade-long effort to bring back the once-mighty populations of river herring.

By the time the spring run ends in early June, some 65,000 to 120,000 alewife - one of two species of river herring, but the only one in Bride Brook - will have tripped the DEP's electronic fish counter at the site.

via www.theday.com

Great news for those seeking Stripers this spring. With all the rains around here, I can't imagine the opening of trout season this weekend will be all that great. Two local streams have been affected by bridge washouts and I can't help but think their trout population have been affected. 

Ten Towns Work To Preserve Salmon River Watershed - Courant.com

It is often said it takes a village to raise a child. When it comes to protecting and preserving the Salmon River watershed, it's going to take 10 villages working together.

Since 2008, when the Salmon River Watershed Conservation Compact was signed, officials from Bolton, Colchester, Columbia, East Haddam, East Hampton, Glastonbury, Haddam, Hebron, Lebanon and Marlborough have been working with the Nature Conservancy to come up with a plan to protect the 96,000-acre watershed. The Salmon River is a pristine waterway — one of the cleanest in the state — that flows from the confluence of the Blackledge and Jeremy rivers to the Connecticut River.

via www.courant.com

Great to see that such a great river system is being watched over. I grew up camping and fishing the Salmon, and I can't wait to bring my daughter there to introduce her to fly fishing.

TheDay.com Fishing Report- Some things are almost sure things

In other news, Allen said casters were catching school bass tight to the rock on the south side of Middle Clump and blues in the rip between the rock and the 21 can. Richard Gilman and his wife Liz caught some nice sea bass on the rocky bottom in 40 feet of water south of Wreck Island. One of the Fishers Island regulars came in to buy five dozen live eels, a sign the bass bite is good after dark on the south side. Black fish season opens in both Connecticut and New York waters on Oct. 1. You are allowed to keep four fish per person per day with a 14-inch minimum.

via www.theday.com

The fall striper run hasn't begun, but the action looks decent enough. Casting to albies near Horseshoe Reef/GLP sounds like fun, though maddening to wait for these speedsters to arrive.

TheDay.com - Storm is providing large surge of fish

The passage of the last two storms off our coast pushed a nice surge of fish into our waters. Blue fishing is good to excellent in The Race plus false albacore and bonito, the latter two sometimes called the poor-man's tuna since they are available to those with smaller boats, also moved within range.

via www.theday.com

Great news for us flycasters. I better rig up some surf candies and other epoxies for these things.

TheDay.com - Beware anglers: There's some major weather coming our way

Hurricane Bill, now a Category 3 storm, will pass to the southeast of our region on Saturday and into Sunday, bringing potential problems to area anglers. As of Thursday the forecast was for 12- to 18-foot seas, possibly higher if the storm takes a more westerly track, bringing it closer to southern New England. All small boaters should exercise caution and adjust their fishing plans accordingly.

via www.theday.com

So there go my plans. For what it's worth, Fisher's Island Sound should be fine, but my 18 footer doesn't handle chop very well, so perhaps I'll limit myself to a MTB ride out to Bluff Point to watch the Mason's Island Yacht Club Regatta

Fishing Friday- 7.24.09

Highly doubt the lines will get wet this weekend, but we will be getting on the water for the Mystic Seaport Antique Boat Parade.    Definitely get out there to see such beauties as this:

Striper fishing has moved to a early morning or nighttime activity.  Lots of porgies out there, apparently; so perhaps I'll finally get some inshore action.

Fishing Friday- 6.19.09

Local fluke season is underway

Hard to think about fishing when the weather has felt more like London than New London.    I'll be hitting the salt after a week in Vermont.  Hopefully, many trout will be caught.

Back in a week or so

TheDay.com - State in holding pattern on saltwater fishing licenses

TheDay.com - State in holding pattern on saltwater fishing licenses.

The state Department of Environmental Protection suspended sales of saltwater fishing licenses Friday, both through its Web site and the special terminals at many town clerks' offices and bait shops.

Freshwater fishing and hunting licenses are still available through the DEP site and the terminals. Until Friday, the saltwater licenses were also being sold in anticipation of a saltwater license law taking effect June 15, but Gov. M. Jodi Rell has not yet acted on the bill.

DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said the license sales were suspended due to “technical issues” but would be available “immediately” if Rell signs the bill. It is not yet at her office, a Rell spokesman said Tuesday.

”We're ready to go,” Schain said.

If Rell does not sign the bill, the $10 license fee will be refunded to those who have already purchased the license, Schain said.

I want my $10!!!

TheDay.com - Saltwater licenses are now available

TheDay.com - Saltwater licenses are now available.

and the fun begins.

All anglers will need the license by June 15, paying $10 for resident and $15 for non-resident. If that sounds a bit rushed, also consider the bill to approve the license went through the state house, senate and governor's office in one day.

You can obtain the saltwater license at any place now selling freshwater licenses. Such include town halls, some tackle stores or visits Web site at CTDEP.gov., though as of Thursday the web site had only provisions for resident, nothing yet for people that live in other states. Still unanswered at this point is whether other nearby states will honor a Connecticut license if, say, one runs to Montauk from New London?

And that's the thing for people around here. I'm within a few miles of both New York and Rhode Island waters.  I would hope it would operate similarly to a driver's license rather than a freshwater license where all states have different requirements. 

States obviously don't stock saltwater species, and unlike freshwater streams and lakes, there's no boundary preventing fish from moving between state waters.  There seems to be a compelling reason to make these licenses reciprocal, but I'm sure money will get in the way.