They're Heeeeere

An unexpected over 40" migratory bass on May 5th in Eastern Connecticut

Just like that, after the Friday full moon, it seems we have received our first solid push of migratory striped bass in Eastern Sound and the estuaries. I've been doing a lot of poking around for stripers since mid-April, in the kayak and on foot, and most of what I've turned up, until yesterday, appeared to be holdover fish. Each year, I've usually found some migratory fish by the third week of April, and they're usually schoolie to maybe slot sized fish. With several poor spawning years in a row, there seems to be a concerning void of migratory fish of that size. The trend this year across the northeast so far seems to be early arrival big fish. Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay, and several other fisheries that are high percentage areas early in the season are all reporting a lack of small fish, and surprisingly big fish ahead of normal schedule. Sure, large fish are great, and finding them this early on is amazing, but it's hard not to wonder what things will look like in 3 or 5 years from now. Some of those larger fish will eventually die of natural causes, from poor angler handling, or be harvested by commercial boats, and with no fish to replace them, things could become very bleak. A bright spot, the river herring are off the charts again this year, which are fueling good bites from one end of the state to the other, and are providing food for many living things besides stripers. Yesterday I got to witness a bald eagle grabbing one off the surface no more than 50 feet from me. Just when you think an osprey is a big bird...

I usually start my striper season very locally, looking for holdover bass that have taken notice to the inbound river herring and/or the warming of estuaries with shallow mud flats. Years ago, I used to fish the tidal Housatonic through the winter and into the spring, but I haven't put in much time there in close to a decade for a variety of reasons. Being a Connecticut River valley local and nearby some other small rivers that contain holdovers, I would rather find my own bite. It can be a bit of a struggle at times, but rewarding when you stumble upon something good. Even with the strong influx of river herring this year in many of the local runs, holdovers appeared sparse in some rivers, and in some cases, really only showed themselves at night. Water temps also wavered back and forth with the odd weather, and it took a while to get up and over that magical 50° mark. I did a handful of trips on lower Connecticut River tributaries in search of stripers in April, knowing that if they aren't many or willing to play, there are at least other options in terms of species.

On one trip, I started by throwing some medium sized topwater plugs and Nessie 9's around some key areas, but no appropriately sized fish were present despite the obvious presence of river herring. Instead, I found several schools of white perch with schoolies similar in size to the perch mixed in. Not really what I had in mind in terms of size of bass, but the white perch were a good time! As I was working my 1/8 oz hair jig and soft plastic on a jig head to hopefully find the largest white perch I could, I lucked into (luck?) 4 bycatch catfish (1 white cat, 1 bullhead, 2 channel cats), including one really nice channel cat I would estimate at about 10 lbs or so. Considering the catfish were also hitting the really small presentations, the thought crossed my mind that maybe the catfish were following the white perch waiting for them to drop their eggs in the midst of a spawn event so they could gobble them up. Or the larger catfish were sizing up the white perch and schoolies? Who knows. Either way, it was a fun trip, and all fish, including the big cat, were caught on ultralight tackle.

A large channel catfish that was hanging around a school of white perch and small schoolie stripers

Shamefully, I have not put in all that much time into fishing the smaller, accessable by foot herring runs, but from what I have experienced in the handful of visits I've made, only a few had good numbers of fish in them ahead of the full moon. One particular river had a good slug of fish, seemingly all holdovers, and a mix of sizes from around 20" up to about 35". There seemed to be far fewer of the overslot fish, but I got a report from a friend who had a few in the overslot size class. I unfortunately lost a really nice fish from that river about that same size. On that trip, it was a casual "hey let's go catch a fish real quick" kind of visit while out running errands with my wife. The fish tend to group up in a small tailwater near a bottleneck on a certain point in the tide, and we were hitting it perfectly. The sky was overcast too, which can be clutch. First cast with a Nessie 9 in the zone was waked on for about 10 feet then engulfed in an explosion of turmoiling water. I fought the fish for about 10 seconds, then suddenly, there was no weight at the end of my line. I reeled up to find I still had my quick clip that was as good as new. With the amount of tension on my line, I can't imagine the line tie of the Nessie slipped off the clip. Instead, I was left assuming the "thru-wire" frame inside the bait had broken. In it's defense, that Nessie had seen some action and caught a lot of fish, so I guess it had reached its breaking point. I wouldn't hate it if Berkley beefed up the construction of those baits and put some better hardware on them, but for about $20, they are a great value. I've taken several trips back to that specific river to only catch schoolies here and there. I have not done much on foot fishing since the full moon due to having some guided kayak trips coming up, so it makes more sense for me to have a gameplan for clients.

A solid Connecticut River striped bass that ate a 7" belly weighted soft plastic twitched just below the surface

A couple productive trips to the Connecticut River mouth area were a welcomed change of pace ahead of the full moon. The fishing was fair, having never really found my flow state on either trip. I had decent numbers on both trips, but it took a bit of junk fishing and lots of moving around to put something together. I would catch a fish on a certain bait or presentation, and then nothing else. Switch baits, catch one, and then not another one on that bait. It can be maddening when it's like that, but it keeps you thinking about your approach and paying attention to all the clues. I caught fish on a small topwater plug, Zoom Fluke on a jig head, 7" Slug-Go both weightless and on a jig head, SP Minnow, and a Cobra Bait Sad Shad on a belly weighted Owner Beast hook. The list of baits I tried and goose-egged with is about as long, and contains all lures I have had success there with in April's past. Hopefully that bite continues to improve with increasing water temps, more bait moving into the estuary, and I would assume some migratory fish have joined the holdovers by now, too.

After having heard the slow reports last week from eastern Connecticut and experiencing slow fishing myself before Friday's full moon, I decided to head back out that way to take another look around. Things can happen very quickly at this time, and it can be important to be on the water as these changes are happening. I couldn't sleep, so I got up at 2:15am, well ahead of my 3:45am alarm, and hit the road. It was my first launch in the dark of the year, and I pedaled out to a spot that I frequently find early season schoolies, and maybe a slot fish or two mixed in. By the time I got there, it was just starting to get light enough to see, but the sun was still well below the horizon. I marked significantly more fish on the side imaging than my last visit a little more than a week before. To my dismay, the fish were completely inactive and wouldn't even so much as follow an unweighted soft plastic or tap a carefully presented small jig and plastic. Great. It always feels frustrating to get up that early, pedal your ass off to a spot, just to find negative fish. My guess is that they fed all night under the still big moon, and were resting and digesting. I moved on from there and figured I'll check the area again on my way back home.

From there, I headed toward an area leading into a herring run. As I was heading there, I could see nervous water in front of me, and several ospreys hovering and making false dive attempts. As I got closer, I watched a few successful osprey dives, coming up with river herring. The icing on the cake was the massive bald eagle no more than 75 feet off my bow, swooping down and effortlessly grabbing a herring of its own. Oddly, I didn't mark any fish near where this was happening. I scoured a nearby transition from rock to sand, a big flat, and the downstream side of a road bridge. I saw two mid 30" bass cruising a shoreline, but they saw me too. I continued to cast my way up under the bridge with no action, and powered my way to the topside of the bridge. An accurate cast right to the bank with a Shad colored Nessie was met by a "thunk" after only a few cranks, and I was on. It wasn't as big as I had imagined when it hit, but it was a solid 26" or so fish, that had the appearance (and smell) of a holdover. Has anyone else ever noticed that holdovers smell awful? The next several casts were either hit or followed, then I finally got one more fish that was a bit smaller. Not having enough tide to go up any further and having exhausted that option, I headed back out to see what else was happening.

I found my way back to where I started the morning. As I was heading there, I could see what looked like sporadic surface feeds in the distance, and as I got closer, it was confirmed. Though not of National Geographic proportions, it was nice to see some surface action. By the time I got over there, the fish were very spread out, and feeds were fewer and further between. I was marking the schools on side imaging, and if I cast a weightless Albie Snax in the direction of them or the last surface disturbance, I would get action. It appeared to be mostly schoolie sized fish on small bait, but I never got a good look at what they were eating. I was using my schoolie rod with 20# fluoro leader, which was fine, until it wasn't. I hooked into a good fish, not huge, but bigger than 30", that broke me off mid fight. Almost as soon as that happened, I marked a pod of fish that appeared larger, but I didn't think too much of it. I thought maybe the return was distorted due to me turning the kayak or something. Breaking that fish off prompted me to re-rig the same soft plastic, but on my new Tsunami Evict 4000 reel and 7'7" H Forged Rod with 30# fluoro leader. My next fish was about 14" with the tail pinched, and I towed it in, laughing to myself. About 10 minutes had gone by without much happening, and I was about to call it a day. My wife called, and as we were talking on the phone, I was taking some exploratory casts in the general direction of where the fish "should be". Out of nowhere, a massive boil behind the plastic followed by a hit with a lot of weight behind it, and I was on a good one. I had to actually chase the fish down due to some nearby obstructions I didn't want to lose the fish in. I knew right away it was at least a 40" fish. I was in disbelief the entire fight because A. This is not a big fish spot, and B. It's only May 5th. Finally landing this fish felt surreal, like something that should be the norm in July or August on the boulder fields. My GoPro wouldn't turn on, so I got a few shots with my phone and put the fish grip on her lip and quickly put her in the water.

A close-up of just a few of the many sea lice on this big fish

Maybe 100 yards away, there was a center console with 2 guys fly fishing. I pedaled over to them with the fish in the water, and they were nice enough to get a couple photos for me. They too were surprised by this fish, and said they had also seen a few larger than normal fish in the area, but they were spooky and wouldn't eat their flies. After a revival and watching this big girl swim away, I felt the only thing to do was look for the school of bigger fish I happened to notice on the side imaging.

After locating them again on side imaging and a couple dozen unanswered casts with the Albie Snax, I tried a few different offerings that might be easier to find in the now consistent chop on the surface. With no reaction to anything else I tried, I said what about the Nessie? The very first cast with the inexpensive glidebait was followed by a fish just as big if not bigger than the one I had just landed. A couple casts later, another good sized follower and a half-hearted "POP" of the bass' trap jaw, just behind the bait. Now the adrenaline is pumping. Finally, after another half dozen follows, I finally connected with another fish, about a 30" this time, and it just about inhaled the Nessie. Luckily, it was hooked in the roof of the mouth. This fish had eaten its fair share of herring, as it's belly was rock hard and full of baitfish. I continued to cast the Nessie around, hoping to put it in front of some fish that I hadn't bothered yet, but the moment had passed, and it was time to head in.

Nessie 9 down the hatch!

The weather has been a little tough to work around this week (wind specifically), and the up and down temperatures leading into May have certainly slowed things down a bit. The fish are here though, and more are on the way. I'm always disappointed with how I'm rarely busy with trips at the end of April and beginning of May. Even though it can be sporadic action and things are changing quickly, the first week of May is usually awesome, and this year followed suit. I'm excited to see how things progress in the coming weeks, and I'm excited to broaden my search to some different locations. I still have some open dates on the schedule for May and plenty for June and beyond. You can book online or reach out any way you'd like. The season has just begun, but don't wait any longer to get out there!

Big thanks to the nearby fly anglers for helping me with some photos!

-Josh