Good evening all!!
I do not post much but I wanted to share my experiences over the last few weeks on the sound. Guys don't do what I did and not bring the complete arsonol of baits. I got skunked on 2 different trips. I feel that if I would have had a few diamond jigs, live bait or an umbrella rig I could have enticed some fish to bite. I chose to fish chunks' tubes and swim baits and never got a hit. I also would choose a different time; I had bait in the water by 6:15 am. In the future I will be there earlier or dinner to dark.
Has anyone else had this type of experience lately?
[/img]
I do not post much but I wanted to share my experiences over the last few weeks on the sound. Guys don't do what I did and not bring the complete arsonol of baits. I got skunked on 2 different trips. I feel that if I would have had a few diamond jigs, live bait or an umbrella rig I could have enticed some fish to bite. I chose to fish chunks' tubes and swim baits and never got a hit. I also would choose a different time; I had bait in the water by 6:15 am. In the future I will be there earlier or dinner to dark.
Has anyone else had this type of experience lately?
[/img]
Went out on the Blackhawk out of Niantic Thursday diamond jigging and got skunked. Only a few fish on board, luckily my step father caught a striper and my son lost a blue on the surface. Went back out on the Sunbeam out of Waterford on Fri night using eels and had 15 people on board and got 5 fish total on board. My son pulled in a striper. Those two trips were the worst ones I have seen all season. Captains are blaming the tides and water temp. To me I don't know this is my first season striper and blues fishing in the area. Was considering my own boat for next spring/summer.
Been fishing on the Blackhawk 8-9 times this year, all evening trips, and have had multiple keepers + blues on all of them. Greg told me they had a few rough trips the past few days. Look for dates when the times coincide with the ebb tide. The flood has generally sucked all season. Day trips will almost certainly produce nothing but blues from now through early September, as there are so many of them and the stripers in the Race just hang out under them. Last night was a bit tough for people to catch stripers, as blues up in the teens were stacked on top. Myself and 3 other guys accounted for the ten stripers boated. I took second place for the 6th time 
Tide was ripping with a 20+SW wind pushing with it, so drifts were fast and most people spent the whole trip with their lines far above and out of the strike zone. I dropped a 14oz. diamond jig on the first drift, a 16oz. on the second, and had a bucktail on for the third. Even the 16oz. was tough to keep down, and the fish were feeding on smaller bait anyway. First three of four drifts with the bucktail I had stripers. On the whole, I've found this season to be better for stripers in the Race than last. That's not to say that every trip will produce a lot, but that's fishing. Of course, you own boat opens up a whole new world!
Tide was ripping with a 20+SW wind pushing with it, so drifts were fast and most people spent the whole trip with their lines far above and out of the strike zone. I dropped a 14oz. diamond jig on the first drift, a 16oz. on the second, and had a bucktail on for the third. Even the 16oz. was tough to keep down, and the fish were feeding on smaller bait anyway. First three of four drifts with the bucktail I had stripers. On the whole, I've found this season to be better for stripers in the Race than last. That's not to say that every trip will produce a lot, but that's fishing. Of course, you own boat opens up a whole new world!
Went out Mon. and Wed. evenings on the Blackhawk, as the wind and thunderstorms have sidelined my little boat. Monday was decent, as I posted, and last night cut short by the storm, though the stripers were really starting to bite with the pressure dropping and the ebb tide building. Left some potentially phenomenal fishing 
Keep in mind that the LIS is a pretty diverse area, and it's not so much a need to carry everything but the kitchen sink so much as knowing the areas you will fish and what works there. Others can chime in here, but I've found the flood tide has continued be be tough regardless of where I'm fishing. I fish all east of the CT River to RI. Tube-n-Worm, chartreuse swimmbaits, zoom flukes and other soft baits on jig heads have all been producing for me to the point that they are all I've been carrying in my little boat for near shore. I do sometimes carry a few scup rigs and squid if I want to try to catch some live-lining bait, a Deadly Dick or two and a few leaders if I want to catch breaking blues.
Keep in mind that the LIS is a pretty diverse area, and it's not so much a need to carry everything but the kitchen sink so much as knowing the areas you will fish and what works there. Others can chime in here, but I've found the flood tide has continued be be tough regardless of where I'm fishing. I fish all east of the CT River to RI. Tube-n-Worm, chartreuse swimmbaits, zoom flukes and other soft baits on jig heads have all been producing for me to the point that they are all I've been carrying in my little boat for near shore. I do sometimes carry a few scup rigs and squid if I want to try to catch some live-lining bait, a Deadly Dick or two and a few leaders if I want to catch breaking blues.
Thanks for the advice and the sharing of your experience. Looking back at my notes of the last two trips, they have both been on the flood. I was foiled from getting out this wekend because of some equipment issues but I look forward to hitting the ebb next week. Thanks again!! 
Got out on Saturday and decided to try something different. We went out to Cornfield Point to see if this was one of the on or off days for the spot. Lucky for us it was on. The fog was thick and so were the Blues. The only unfortunate thing was at the start we were rigged for Stripers and lost some gear. We got things changed around for the yellow eyes and got back to fishing. I had my 8 year old supervised by a friend on an eel when he got hooked up with something big!! By the reaction of the pole and the 2 fighting the fish I was rather certain it was a keeper striper. After about a 5 minute battle I was preparing to land the fish; when it came into view I was shocked to see it was a BIG blue. I would guess it to be at least 15 pounds. When the fish got to the side of the boat he made a run and openned a swivle. My little guy can't wait to get back out there. Unfortunatly that was the end of the bite and we called it a day but we are all pumped to get back out there again.
We took a trip out to the sound yesturday about 6:00am. We got to witness one of the best sunrises I have ever seen. As we rolled out of the river we headed to Hatchets and soaked some chunks and did some jigging to no avail. We moved to Black Point with the same result. We took a cruz to Cornfield and still did not put any fish in the boat. Somewhat dejected and running out of time we headed back to the mouth of the river where we saw birds working and a handfull of boats fishing. We crept up to the area and got some lines in the water. We were getting bites but still not landing fish. At that moment our luck changed; one of the other boats saw we were not catching fish and came over to us and asked if we had a cast master and I replied "not a spoon on the boat". He then tossed one to me which I so elequently dropped into the sound. He threw me another and I was able to catch it. I put the spoon on a lite rig and gave it to my 9 year old to fish. After a short period of time he hooked a 5 or 6 pound blue. On 12 pound test he really had to fight the fish for 4 runs from the boat. We finally landed the chopper when the fish spit out 2 whole butter fish that we then proceeded to catch several other fish with.
I hope who ever you are that you follow the site and you respond to this. I really appreciate the help and thanks to you my son has some great memories of catching his first blue. Thanks again!!
I hope who ever you are that you follow the site and you respond to this. I really appreciate the help and thanks to you my son has some great memories of catching his first blue. Thanks again!!
That's great! Hopefully you'll get a chance to pay it forward some day, and help out another "Frustrated" angler. Glad your kid landed some nice fish. That will keep him excited about next season. The more you get out there, the more catching days you'll have!
PS - I always keep a couple of Deadly Dicks at the ready, especially in the fall for anything from schoolies to blues to albies.
PS - I always keep a couple of Deadly Dicks at the ready, especially in the fall for anything from schoolies to blues to albies.
Thanks for that; I will be sure to have them with me in the future. Things have really changed in the last 30 years. Back then a day fishing on the sound ment going out to the race with some frozen bunker and 12 - 16 ounce sinkers. We either did very well or were skunked. I do not ever remember a striper coming over the side and a big blue was 10 pounds. Any luck on the new boat?
want to go shark fishing sat 8/12/17 on my 35 cabo?Went out on the Blackhawk out of Niantic Thursday diamond jigging and got skunked. Only a few fish on board, luckily my step father caught a striper and my son lost a blue on the surface. Went back out on the Sunbeam out of Waterford on Fri night using eels and had 15 people on board and got 5 fish total on board. My son pulled in a striper. Those two trips were the worst ones I have seen all season. Captains are blaming the tides and water temp. To me I don't know this is my first season striper and blues fishing in the area. Was considering my own boat for next spring/summer.
want to go shark fishing sat 8/12/17 on my 35 cabo?Went out on the Blackhawk out of Niantic Thursday diamond jigging and got skunked. Only a few fish on board, luckily my step father caught a striper and my son lost a blue on the surface. Went back out on the Sunbeam out of Waterford on Fri night using eels and had 15 people on board and got 5 fish total on board. My son pulled in a striper. Those two trips were the worst ones I have seen all season. Captains are blaming the tides and water temp. To me I don't know this is my first season striper and blues fishing in the area. Was considering my own boat for next spring/summer.