Lots of Bait...Lots of Fish Underneath....
Capt. Sal Tardella
June 14, 2008
Norwalk Islands - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sunday's passengers were "My Bonnie" regulars, Virginia Kamsky and her young son, Michael--residents of Wilson Point and NYC. We left the dock at 1:00pm on a sultry afternoon--with temps in the 90's and high humidity--and the possibility of a thunderstorm later in the day. We scouted around looking for bluefish on the surface, but they were nowhere to be found. However, we managed a few bass up to 26", caught on tube and worm rigs. The trip was curtailed after 2.5 hours as we took heed of severe weather warnings on our radio...and sure enough, high winds and lightning were upon us as we tied up at the dock. It didn't last very long, and we never got any rain to go with the thunder and lightning. But our passengers--good fishermen--enjoyed the trip, as always.
As a busman's holiday Tuesday morning, I fished with sometimes-mate, Emilio (Amin) Pandolfi of Danbury. We headed west towards Rye NY, and within 15 minutes we both hooked into large striped bass that were lying beneath active bunker schools. In less than two hours we boated seven, ranging from 15-29 pounds, quitting shortly thereafter--leaving the fish hitting on almost every cast. I kept one of the stripers to share with friends, and all the others were returned to the water.
We took out Bud Wehrle of Nevada and his nephew, Bud Betts of Wyoming, for two morning trips--on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday's trip produced a nice catch of bluefish and keeper striped bass, and on Friday we had blues 5-7 lbs, caught on bucktail and tube & worm, as well as some striped bass up to 26", while fishing in Westport. Then--while blindcasting around Copp's--we got into blues in the 3-5 lb. range. Action was fairly steady for the entire morning.
On Saturday morning we had first-timers, Everett Shaw and Connie Elkinson of Stamford. We headed for the Norwalk Islands and had immediate action with bluefish on the surface, during which we boated blues and striped bass--using imitation sand heel on a jig head. When things slowed down, we made our way toward Westport and found more striped bass and bluefish on tube & worm rigs.
There's been so much bait everywhere in our area for the past couple of weeks that we see no signs of diminished activity for the coming months.
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