Things are Definitely Heating Up....
Capt. Sal Tardella
June 13, 2008
Norwalk Islands - Saltwater Fishing Report
On Saturday morning we had all first-timers aboard "My Bonnie"; Bruce-Sean Reshen of Fairfield, Dana Doty and her son, Justin, of Redding, Carlos Dasilva of NYC and Ryan Wong of HongKong. There was a pea-soup fog, making it difficult to see fish on the shoreline surface, so we headed for the middle of the Sound and listened for indications of fish feeding on top. When we were pretty sure we were on the fish, we cast out sand eel jigs and poppers. Everyone caught small blues at a steady pace, and when the fog lifted we saw birds working and headed toward their location and found bluefish in the 4-6 pound range under them. We also got a 32-inch striped bass among the blues. All of the fish were released except for two blues for the table.
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.
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