It was one of those fishing trips born from desperation. Shoo-Fly hadn’t been out for days due primarily to the winds which had been howling down Long Island Sound. And Monday was no different: During this trip winds hit over 25 mph out there…but being from the west, they allowed our smallish boat to hazard forth…as long as we stayed within the confines of the Housatonic River and didn’t venture into the whitecaps.
Workboats on the Sound seem to pay no attention to the winds. Of course, their bigger size, higher gunwales, and protective superstructures allow for more comfortable operations through wind and wave.
After an on-the-dock consultation as to what our prospects might be, Geoge T., Charlie W., and I fished the early afternoon. Sunny, air temp in the high 50°s, water in the River was 55°, which is marginal for bluefish, but 60° out on the Sound, so there was a possibility that a few hardy blues might still be hanging about.
There were a half-dozen wade-fishermen on the bars as it was dead low tide. Didn’t see them catch anything, but we marveled at one fly fisherman on the Milford side casting directly into the 20-kt wind. Life would have been a lot easier for him had he gone over to Short Beach in Stratford and had the wind at his back. But fly fishermen are a different breed.
We trolling-motored along the breakwaters where we could do so safely and picked up schoolie striped bass at several locations. They didn’t appear to be massed in any particular area, just a few here and a few there, probably because the currents were either slack or slow-moving at that stage of the tide…but we found fish in most places we looked.
George set a record for Shoo-Fly 3: He’s now the oldest angler to catch a fish on our boat. At 91 years, he’s amazing…spry…sharp…and a good fisherman. In fact, George put both Charlie and me to shame by catching about 60% of the fish that came aboard. He had this ugly, green plastic thing on a jig-head that the stripers seemed to love. I thought about changing to a chartreuse plastic, but didn’t, stayed with the silver Zoom fluke, and ended up netting fish for George all afternoon. But as most captains would agree, we’d rather have our anglers catch fish any day…even if we personally don’t land a thing.
I sent an email to Charlie telling him that George has changed my ideas about living to age 90. If we can do it the way he's done it, in such good mental and physical shape...maybe it’s worth considering.
So a trip begun in desperation turned out pretty well. Lots of schoolie bass around and, although we didn’t see any of them, hopefully the bluefish have not all been sent south by the chilling waters.
Another great day on the water.
Source: ConnecticutSaltwaterFishing.com
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