Proposed Bill No. 6248 & The Housatonic Problem

 During the January session, CT's 33rd district representative Brandon Chafee introduced Proposed Bill No. 6248, referenced to the Committee on Environment. It is titled "and act establishing a moratorium on fishing for striped bass in the lower Housatonic River", and reads "That the general statutes be amended to establish a moratorium on fishing for striped bass in the lower Housatonic River until the populations of striped bass recovers". 

I commend Rep. Chafee for making an attempt at bringing this issue into legislation, because the Housatonic and especially it's holdover striped bass are a source of problem and controversy. Poaching is rife there, as a plethora of undersized male stripers make their way up the river in December and spend the winter, filtering back out in March and April. There are some large fish and some females that come in as well, but it is known mostly as a place to go in the winter and do what I often call "beating up toddlers". With a spinning rod and paddle tail on a jighead  you can, many days, catch as many 14-20" striped bass as you like, with people bragging about catching into the triple digits. I did it once too, and it left a sour taste in my mouth as soon as I really thought about it. It's gratuitous and unnecessary, and frankly isn't even all that fun after a while. But the real problem is the sort of poaching these easy targets encourage. Just this December CT EnCon officers and their K9, Luna, sniffed out a haul of 34 undersized bass. 

This isn't an isolated incident, as many anglers that have spent time on the Housatonic will tell you. It's enough of a problem that legislating a solution makes sense, but what of Bill 6248? Would that work? 

I'd argue that no, it will not. One problem is that "striped bass fishing" is not legally defined. This means that all one needs to do to be legal is simply not be in possession of a striped bass. Boats illegally targeting striped bass in the EEZ, where it is illegal to do so, routinely play that game. As long as they don't have a striper on board, they aren't likely to be prosecuted. To make that moratorium on striper fishing work effectively, legal definitions would need to be drawn up.  I'm not against that, necessarily, but it does leave wiggle room and wouldn't be any easier to enforce than the current situation. 

Arguably, a better strategy would be a full blown closure, and ideally a seasonal one. The problem time is typically from December to March, and the problem area is from the Derby Dam to Washington Bridge. A total closure of fishing, regardless of species, in that time frame and stretch of river. This has precedent. When we had trout seasons (and I personally really wish we still did) most rivers were closed for a month and a half or so. Under this case, anybody fishing for the vulnerable holdover bass, and that's really all that's worth fishing for down there that time of year, would be breaking the law, regardless of tackle choice. There isn't a way to sneak around the legal definitions and pretend you're targeting something else. 

Another strategy, and one that would have benefits outside of the Housatonic, would be hiring new EnCon Officers and increasing the fines for environmental infractions. As it stands, the fines and ramifications can often be equated to a slap on the wrist, and judges have tended not to take them seriously. This is a system failure, in my opinion. We should be placing higher value on our resources, and penalizing higher when people abuse them. These actions could take significant strides towards reducing the poaching problem and fishing mortality that occurs on the lower Housatonic. We can push for this, and we should. Find your representative here: Find Your Legislators- CGA, and email or call them to encourage a more enforceable, stronger version of Proposed Bill No. 6248, with emphasis on a closed winter season for fishing the lower Housatonic, and increasing fines for poaching infractions. 

In Winter's Grip

 It was a damp, dark February night. Garth and I parked at a muddy pull off on a quiet New England back road and quickly geared up. I was going wader-less but warm, with long johns and sweat pants under a well weathered pair of khakis, thick wool socks under my leather work boots, and multiple layers on top as well. We both dawned nitrile gloves and pulled rods out of the car before disappearing silently into the woods. We wore no headlamps, as neither of us are inclined to pollute the darkness with artificial light during our nocturnal striped bass hunts. This particular outing was well into a long bender to decipher after dark feeding patterns of large holdover fish. The conditions, we thought, were ideal this time. We'd carefully put together puzzle pieces over the course of the winter: light, moon phase, barometric pressure, tide, frontal conditions... it was starting to fit together. It had been a long road to success, starting years prior for me with multiple failed after hours attempts. I'd eventually come to the conclusion that my holdover spots just weren't worth night fishing. Reinvigorated efforts came as a result of complete disbelief that that could actually be the case. These fish had to eat in the dark too. Holdovers in other places did. Eventually, with a push to be more patient and observant one night thanks to Garth. It would have taken longer to catch anything if one night he hadn't insisted that we sit for a while and let things settle. A condition change occurred as we bantered on the marsh bank and suddenly our discussion was interrupted by the sound of stripers gently swirling on bait. 

Those had been small fish though. I was adamant we could get something larger. We were hell bent on doing so. The appeal of putting up a 20 pound or bigger striped bass in the winter months and doing so on foot in the middle of the night with a fly rod was multifaceted for me. I've been an intensely devoted nighttime angler since I was a teenager and my comfort and confidence navigated all sorts of waters at night is very high. To do so for arguably my favorite target species in a time of year I hadn't figured out yet was very appealing. Add to that the difficulties of sub-freezing temperatures, ice, and even snow, and it gets more interesting still. There's also a patience and subtlety to targeting large holdovers in lower yield locations that demands focus and time. The fish eat delicately and infrequently, and though there isn't complexity to the flies required to catch them there is to the presentation. There's also a lot to be said for being able to blind cast as far as you can in the darkness with limited back-cast for hours on end for just a handful of subtle blink-and-you-miss-it bites. Throw in gobs of frost collecting in your guides and icicles forming in you beard on the worst of nights and you've got a recipe for a lot of guys staying home. And that's probably fair, it really isn't everyone's cup of tea. But f*** man, it sure is mine. I absolutely love it. 

This particular night we were on the cusp of a front and it really wasn't all that unpleasant out. The water was closing in on 40 degrees and the air temperature was a bit over that even after 1:00am. We covered ground briskly on our way to the river, almost but not quite capable of doing this walk with our eyes closed now. Eventually the trees gave way and the ethereal reflection of the clouds off the water's surface came into view. We quietly assumed or first casting positions and began to ply the dead still waters. 

Bites didn't come with any notable frequency that night, but my mind recorded the one that mattered like a bit of grainy super 8 footage. Some winter bass bites are barely a flutter. Others load up on it. This fish slammed the fly hard, as though it had come at it head on. My 6wt flexed under the weight and I uttered "big fish" and Garth hastily made his way over. The fight was a significant one, The fish had a fair bit of energy for being in that cold water. It was a little while before we did get a glimpse at her when we did, it was a moment of exceptional satisfaction. It was the sort of fish we'd come for. 

With new found confidence, we'd push ourselves to the limit the rest of the winter. In the end, we didn't best that fish though both of us just about matched it numerous times. Inevitably, we came out of that season with new questions. Chief among them being just what exactly out upper limit could be. Could we get a 30 pounder in January or February? How about a 40? There's really only one way to find that out. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, and Sammy for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version

Last Stripers of 2021

Trotting through a marsh in December often feels solemn to me. Maybe that's just because everything is very dull. There's a general lack of vibrance in the winter salt marsh.  Everything is some form of grey or tan. Winter holdover stripers offer just a little more color than the scenery, too, as they are often more pale and lacking in spunk than they were just a month or two before. Most of the water I cover is devoid of fish and may only have the slightest evidence of any life at all. Perhaps what makes winter striper fishing enjoyable. Walking up to a deep cut and seeing a swirl or casting a Clouser and feeling the dull thump of a striper eating the fly are very much in contrast to the overall apparent dead-ness of everything.

Catching fish where fish aren't generally expected to be or at a time of year they aren't generally a prime target can be fun. Of course some of the CT holdover striper fishing is far from a secret anymore, and that has just lead me to wander further afield, in marshes and creeks where actually encountering my intended target species feels a bit more improbable. I find just enough to keep me interested, and sometimes as the day comes to a close I realize that the dead winter marsh isn't all that dead at all. It's just in a light sleep.

Winter is taking hold little by little in bits and spurts. It doesn't feel like it every day, but the salt marshes and their resident bass are taking naps. They'll wake up again for real in April. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.

A Blitz Before Christmas

 December isn't really a blitz month in Connecticut. There were times when it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect substantial striper blitzes in these parts but in recent years they've been present but exceptionally rare. Not non-existent but not at all easily found. So when Noah and I pulled up to a spot to fish for holdover bass moving into their winter holes and saw fish busting and birds diving in the backwater... on December 10th... we got excited. 

Though the blitz itself was unreachable since we were on foot, we quickly found ourselves a pile of fish in a key bottleneck. Noah and I were using typical winter striper strategies, a jig and plastic for him, a pair of Clousers for me. Hits came just about every cast, and after I doubled the second time and broke off one fish, I opted to shed one fly. Catching them two at a time was just overkill. 

One of the fish I caught was a rather unique individual. The left flank had the typical array of stripes but the right side was a muddled mess. On occasion, I've had people try to tell me that these are hybrids because the presence of broken lines is often used to distinguish wiper or sunshine bass -striped bass/white bass hybrids- from landlocked stripers in the same lakes. This makes no sense as white bass don't exist in these waters for stripers to hybridize with. We do have white perch, but the only documented cases of hybridization between stripers and white perch were under controlled lab and hatchery conditions. They likely have never occurred in the wild. These muddled up striper patterns on East Coast fish are instead indicative of healed injuries or genetic anomalies. 

Side A

Side B

At some point, Noah had to head back to the van to grab something and I stayed in place continuing to catch fish. Suddenly a school of silversides rolled off the flat into the bottleneck and the water in front of me filled up with boiling stripers. Frantically I changed to a gurgler, thinking this was surely my best chance at a December topwater striped bass. The blitz came and went without a hookup. I had several swirls but nothing more committed. I wish, as I sometimes do, that I'd spent more time with camera in hand. 

Though I didn't get what I'd have liked out of the December 10th blitz photographically, it was an exciting thing to be present for. It makes me yearn for the days of big Atlantic herring runs, rainbow smelt, and whiting, when winter saltwater fishing was actually good. December 10th isn't even winter, but it isn't far from it. I experimented a bit with winter saltwater fishing last year, and I intend to again this year. Not just stripers -white perch, tomcod, hake, and cod too. I know there's more out there to be found, I just need to be really diligent and persistent. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, and Geof for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

Holdovers

It's mid December now. The last migratory stripers have left New England waters and we are left with holdovers. These are schooling fish, overwhelmingly males, that chose to stick around in warmer rivers and mud bottomed Cape Cod tidal creeks and salt ponds. Some of CT's holdover bass make their way into tidal creeks too. It's fun winter fishing, but more and more over exploited every year. Finding a piece of water for yourself isn't always easy on warm sunny days. When you do get some water to yourself and the fish are there, it can be immense fun. During my latest holdover hunt Rick and I fished one hole with only a fish each, then found fish in a river bend further up. My first cast in that bend with my three fly rig resulted in three stripers landed.

That was never repeated, though I did have three fish on a number of times. Doubles were frequent. But with fish that are too big to move much with a short strong strip, in is hard to set the hook on the second and third takers. In one point I observed six different fish hooked at different times in one retrieve. Six different fish on in one cast and I landed two. More than anything, this shows how hungry these guys are. They aren't skinny, they're fat and well fed for sure, but they know it is only going to get colder. It isn't particularly necessary to fish more than one fly but I feel it increases competition and makes them more aggressive.

After the bite died at the bend we moved again and found more willing fish. After catching a bunch I decided to change things up and fish for them with my 5wt fiberglass rod, 7x tippet, and shad flies. Catching striped bass on that light tippet was a new challenge, mostly because they have fairly hard mouths and a strip set does not treat 2lb kindly. I worked around that by using fairly fine wire barbless hooks. The hook-set was just a gentle lifting of the rod. The fights weren't anything special. If you know how to work a fish correctly on light tippet you don't have to fight them to death. Besides, these guys were small enough to dead lift with that 7x.

There's likely to be an awful lot of these little dudes getting caught within the next few months. They don't really provide much variety, so I'm going to do what I can to keep posts interesting. I won't be fishing three fly rigs and 7x for them every time, but I might try to pull some through the ice. That should be fun. 

Slim Pickings

Pretty much everything seems to be a bit slow in my neighborhood lately, except a bit of the trout fishing. I've been out quite a bit this week but nothing special went down, really. I've been targeting walleye a fair bit, this has been a great time of year for me in the past, but I have not done as well as I would prefer. I'd really like to get more than 2 walleye this year. I've had some slow salmon fishing, some dead carp fishing, and some slow striper fishing. Basically, a bunch of days that were way to slow to warrant posts of their own. So... photo dump time.

In what is really a last ditch effort to get another big striper or two this year, I'm going to Jersey this weekend. I'm not positive I'll be able to get them on the fly based on what I'm hearing, but I'm sure some surf rats are in the cards. Regardless, I get to add another state to my very short list.