Week of September 10th-September 17th

Before we get to the report this week, just one big, huge housekeeping item. Many of you have verbally committed for what will be the greatest fishing tournament of the year, The Saugatuck Cup. However, we have yet to receive many of the entry forms and payment, which makes our planning that much more difficult. If you want in, please get those entry forms to the shop sooner than later so you don’t loose your space.

THE 2010 SAUGATUCK CUP IS SET FOR OCTOBER 9th, DON’T MISS OUT ON THIS GREAT EVENT! http://www.saugatuckcup.com/

DON’T FORGET BUSINESS OWNERS…SAUGATUCK CUP 2010! BE A PART OF IT ON AND OFF THE WATER WITH A CORPORATE DONATION (TAX DEDUCTABLE)!

Consider this; when the W.O. crew isn’t out on the water setting hooks on Albies and Stripers we’re regularly browsing the web and staying in touch with the fishy world we love. We’re fans of videos, useful links and articles, stuff that’s different and pertinent, it’s off the beat and path – we like that too. One of the sites we pay attention to is a local creation - WesternSoundFly.com Loaded with a mix of local and regional flavor it’s a site created by local fly fisherman, shore guide and longtime friend of the shop, Pat O’Donnell. Be sure to check it out over the course of this fall fishing season.

Another week that started a bit slow but surely finished strong. The kids are back to school and most of the part timers have started making calls to their marina of choice to begin hauling their boats. Trust me folks, I know it sounds crazy, but the guys in the back at All Seasons already have a few boats wrapped up and put to bed for the winter season. To this point, the more space I have out there, the better! For those of you that have chosen wisely and decided to keep your boats in the water for what could be the best three months of the fishing season, kudos to you!

The water temperatures have continued to slide all week long. We had air temperatures in the early A.M. hours in the high 40s and low 50s. Although these temps may make it more difficult to get out of bed, it is doing nothing but good things for the fishing. Don’t worry, no migration yet, just a ton of fish feeding hard in preparation for a long swim south. At this time of year, I love tossing small poppers and almost use them as a fish finder. I can rapid fire a small plug like a Stillwater and cover so much water in every direction to hopefully find a hungry fish and the fact that they ARE hungry is key to this technique. In say late spring, I find that fish are less apt to really go out of their way to feed, so blind casting small plugs or other baits may not be as effective. Consequently in the fall, these fish have one thing on their mind and one thing only, food and thus are willing to move out of their comfort zone if you will to get it. Once I find feeding fish with my plug, I can change it up to any other type of lure, or even better yet, start tossing some flies at them. Try it…you may like it…

Before we get to the local report, which is a good one, I briefly wanted to touch on what is happening out in Montauk. Each fall the legendary run of blitzing bass, blues, albies and bonito tear up the point out east and well, its game on. I have been receiving reports and pics daily from guide friends of mine out east as well as some customers from the store that have been making the trek out there in their own boats. To each is own, but if you have a trailer, it’s highly recommended that you trailer to say the Niantic area and make the short 35 minute run across as opposed to running the whole way there, which is over 78 miles. The weather can turn at anytime and the difference between 1.5 foot seas and 3 foot seas can mean a 2.5 hour drive back after a long day of fishing can turn into a 6 hour one. The bass have been feeding hard and the albie bite seems to be only rivaled by the epic blue crab season…The pics will speak for themselves, but one notable is Cory C. from All Seasons who made the run out on both Saturday and Monday, both days were off the hook, landing well over 20 albies each time with a majority of those on flies. As usual when this starts happening, you are almost trying not to catch bass, which Cory and crew were unsuccessful at, landing bass anywhere from 28 to 36 inches at will. Double hook ups on albies using the Sea Rock Jigs on spinning gear were too many to mention. If you can get out there folks do it, it’s an amazing place that many local anglers have never even ventured to. If you need some guidance, give the shop a call or email me directly (see recent catches).

Back locally, the bait is still in thick with a combination of silver sides, bay anchovies, peanut bunker and some scattered schools of bunker in the mix as well. I surely don’t want to jinx it but the bait situation is better than good…I will leave it at that.

Shop customer Glenn Katz reported in that the bite at first light has been hot at 11B. Saturday morning he and crew were on the northwest side of the ledge and found bass/blues feeding hard on peanut bunker. Decent sized blues up to 10lbs and some smaller stripers were mixed in. He noted that there were a few boats also anchored in the area in the 50ft to 70ft of water getting into some bigger blues chunking. He recommended diamond jigging when they were ripping through the chunked baits. Glenn said the fish were not holding in the rips for very long. It would be like a feeding frenzy for 45 minutes and then they would shut down or move off. Some great intelligence here from Glenn, now go fish and apply it folks!

The Micinilio Brothers checked in over the weekend where the reported they had to go all the way to Stamford to catch some fish. Trolling tubes and deep lip swimmers they ended up with 26 bass up to 26" and three blues. The only thing crashing bait were the snappers. The highlight of the day was a nice 32" blue they caught on a tube in Darien.

While the water temps are dropping, shore anglers once again can have shots at some quality. The usual haunts locally have been hit or miss, but Grey’s is starting to produce at night and early A.M. again on the dropping tide. Dan L. had a few nice fish that topped the 30 inch mark on smaller mushies on Wednesday night.

The crew from Southport who likes to remain nameless, claims that the chunk bite at night due south of the harbor is beginning to heat up again as well. Fishing Tuesday night, they had fish up to 20 lbs, all on chunks and a few big blues to 10 lbs mixed in. These are some great fall fish and these fish are in shore and if the small bait sticks around, they should remain that way.

Okay, I hope all of you are still listening because this is going to come quick…Bonito, Westport, Sea Rock Jigs…if you want out on a charter, give the shop a call (see recent catches)

Wednesday the Micinilio Brothers were back at it and had this to report. They went out in the wind and chop and Jim joked that he had to wear his wet suit for most of the day. He found some scattered bunker schools in Bridgeport Harbor that were hard to snag and nothing was working them. Struck out into the deeper water, but had some luck off Fairfield in 8-11feet of water. All in they had 3 big blues up to 34" trolling live bunker and 3 smaller blues on tubes. Ended up with over 20 bass including 3 keepers including a 31.5" 13lb, and 35.5" 16 lb toad on tubes (see recent catches).

Well folks, that is about it for this week. I love the fall even though it indefinitely leads to winter, but oh well. The water seems cleaner, the air fresher and the fishing even better. There is still a good push of snappers around as well as blue crabs so even though the kids are back to school, take them outside and get some fishingin. For the adults, the strong presence of bait should lead to a great fall so get on out, but before you do, don’t forget to send your entry form in for the Saugatuck Cup!!
Eric C. Johnson
Westport Outfitters, LLC
609 Riverside Ave.
Westport, CT
06880
www.westportoutfitters.com
www.allseasonsmarineworks.com
p-203.341.9490
f-203.341.9423
ejohnson@westportoutfitters.com
TAKE THE FAMILY FISHING