Bass 2013

Any catches yet? I know it's early, but I've been seeing a lot of signs! Within 2wks I've seen the ospreys show up, osprey/alewife combos, and osprey/menhaden combos. I figure if bunker are in, bass gotta be in, right? In the ballpark anyway?

I learned the spring run as first Alewife, then Bluebacks, then American shad and Striped bass, then menhaden, and then the Hickory shad come at the end of summer and clean up. Every year now weather is different and that means the fishing is different, but is the above pattern about right? Ignoring a dozen other species of course.

Hooked into a few schoolies this weekend the biggest being around 18" but we were marking some big fish and bait schools. I think they will be running hard in the next few weeks.

What are you guys useing for bait

Hey fellas so have we been doing good fishing the bass yet???

My fishing has been so hit or miss. Only able to get out 1-2 times a week, and with the current weather and a few billion gallons of fresh water dumped into the sound, it's been hard to figure out patterns. My brother came up from Philly this weekend, and we got skunked Sunday. We ran out of Old Saybrook at 4:30am, but couldn't find the bunker in the mouth of the CT River in any large concentrations. Headed west to Clinton again. Got down there and still couldn't spot any bunker. Both places were crawling Saturday. Decided we would have to rely on artificials. The second we tried to move, fog rolled in. We were down to 100ft of visibility in minutes. This was 6:30 in the morning. We crawled back to Saybrook as I didn't want to get run over in my skiff. It sucked. We threw some topwaters on the flats. Zip. By 8-8:30 we discussed calling it a day, but the fog started lifting. Forecasts still had thunderstorms moving in around 10-11am, but I wasn't seeing anything on radar. I decided to take a peek at Long Sand Shoal. Nothing. Not a bird in the air. On the way back in, lo and behold, big bunker all over. We debated whether to snag a few as the tide was crapping out, and ended up grabbing a half a dozen. We ran over to Hatchet's, but had no tide. I threw one on a line and let it swim. We sat there for forty minutes and drifted a few yards. I told my brother we weren't likely to do much until the tide got going, which meant waiting, and he wanted to get on the road. I started ditching the rest of the baits in the livewell. As I dumped the last one, I caught a big swirl out of the corner of my eye. I had just provided a free meal to a big striper. I quickly reeled in the last bait and pitched it in the area. It was taken in about ten seconds. I let it run for a bit then engaged the reel and came tight. Fish took off down the edge of the reef. It broke me off in the rocks. That was it. Day over.

Reports from a few other boats were that Bartlett's and the Niantic area was also tough, though Valiant Rock in the Race yielded some small bass. The Blues are MIA, and I worry that many just continued past the LIS as there was so much fresh water dumped in.

Night bite in the race has been solid. Lots of fish in the 20-40 pound range. Went on a Blackhawk trip where we had 4 40+ and a 57lb. pool winner. Clobbered my biggest at 25-30. Had another 30+ this past week, and my brother did take home a cooler filled with striper fillets from some of the smaller keepers.

Last edited by redneckangler on Mon Jul 01, 2013 11:19 am; edited 1 time in total

Thanks for the detailed info Red. I was trying to explain to the kids about billions of tons of fresh water and how that impacts fish...I don't remember ever seeing rain like this in late June early July