What's Been Going On In and Under the Water?

Peter Kaminsky, an outdoors columnist for the Times, went fishing off Stonington not long ago and described what he and his guide encountered near Fishers Island:

A red ball of bait — tens of thousands of bay anchovies — pulsed like a giant beating heart as bluefish, their sides flashing like metal, ate their way through the frenzied bait. They looked like a flowing skein of silver. We cast a dozen times but got no takes, which often happens when competing with so much bait.

And my favorite over-writer, Captain Morgan, had this in a recent column:

Schools of small to keeper-size striped bass have moved in and several of the tidal river entrances have been hot spots for light tackle action. These fish are aggressively taking live eels, other live baits, plugs, and soft plastics. Schoolie bass can be found throughout many tidal rivers including the East River. With much of the bluefish pressure gone from the upper reaches of these rivers, more striped bass are being caught from shore and small craft.

Both inshore reefs like Cornfield, Crane, Menunketesuck, Duck, Charles, and Brown’s are all seeing an increase in bass activity. A little farther out, Inner/Outer Southwest, Faulkner’s, Goose, and The Beacon were home to some bigger fish while trollers hit Six Mile for a mix of bass and blues. Slowly drifting eels along the edges of Long Sand Shoal and Kelsey produced memorable catches.