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Need Help With CT River "Spring Stripers"

15K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  Jimmy Z 
#1 ·
Hi, this question pertains specifically to the CT River in the May Striper season. I've only seen large stripers pulled out using live alewives, but I want to avoid this completely because of regulations. I catch plenty of juvenile stripers here, and probly one keeper every other year. Someone suggested to me to drift eels from the shore. I've tried this for an entire striper season. I sent out a 3-way rig, attached to 6 oz weight and 2ft of fluorocarbon leader with a live eel rigged at the lip. I was always told by the locals to just let it drift with the strong current, and set my rod down and wait for the reel to scream. I've NEVER caught a single striped bass this way, even tho I've moved myself to different locations on the river. I was there every other day, from morning till midnight, and nothing. I mainly fish the Charter Oak landing, and this coming spring I may have a boat to use. I was wondering if anyone knew why this method of eeling didn't work, and what would? Should I have just plugged them with a weight slowly like I would anywhere else? Should I not have any weight at all and plug them? Should I liveline the eels? I've never had so much as a single hit just drifting them from the shore. I feel like I have to go about things differently in the CT River, because of the large numbers of juvenile striped bass that I'd like to avoid. There are definately large stripers in this water, because I see people pulling them out consistently using alewives. Can anyone (Even if you've never fished CT River) help? It's a strong current, and stripers flood the waters in May to spawn. How should I approach this with eels or anything else?
 
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#2 ·
Ive fished it and while I have heard of guys getting a larger sized fish once in a while it seems to me that most just fish for the schoolies just for fun....regarding the eel's I am not sure what to tell you except with the herring running they won't go near eel's even at night from my experience....

I think you might be better off throwing a chunk....
 
#3 ·
That's a good question, I'm not sure I the know the answer but I'll throw my .2 cents in anyway. I'm not familiar with the Connecticut River, I'd assume it's a good distance from shore to shore though you say moving water so maybe not all that far??? Striper's begin their migration north off the coast of Carolina/Virginia (Chesapeke Bay area if I'm not mistaken) in early spring. Some fish will spawn up river and then begin their journey north while others start right away chasing schools of shad and Herring. As water tempatures rise stripers will head north feeding on schools of baitfish that are also migrating until they reach an area holding a sufficient supply of food as well as comfortable water tempatures. As water tempatures drop and schools of baitfish thin out, stripers will feed more on clams and worms. Later in the season as they prepare for the fall migration (or the fall run as it's referred to) they'll gorge on anything readily available to fill up for the winter months. Save the eels for later in the season, fish them at night using a sloooooowwwwww retrieve and you should have better results. Personally, I've tried floating eels and found it to be more of a hassle, but to each his own. Depending how far of a distance you need on your cast, use a foot to a foot and a half of fluorocarbon for your leader and hook the eel through either both lips or up through the jaw and out the eye socket. I prefer the latter because bones in and around the eye sockets make it much more difficult to fling your eel into the distance. If your not getting enough distance on your casts use a 1 oz. egg sinker. This will not only add distance to your cast but get the eel to the bottom quicker where the majority of the "cows" reside. Larger striped bass are older and wiser than "schoolies," usually staying close to the bottom and feeding on anything they don't have to work hard for, like a slowwwwwwwwwwwly retrieved eel or leftovers from blitzing blues or smaller stripers above them. Eels, when fished on bottom, will instinctively seek cover like rocks and other debris to hide from predators, making them unsuspecting targets of large striped bass. Stripers swat their pray with their tale, stunning it for a few seconds and then eating it head first. Anyway, I hope this helped ya man, and good luck down there.

StriperHyper ~ Will
 
#4 ·
Columbianrico said:
I sent out a 3-way rig, attached to 6 oz weight and 2ft of fluorocarbon leader with a live eel rigged at the lip. I was always told by the locals to just let it drift with the strong current, and set my rod down and wait for the reel to scream. I've NEVER caught a single striped bass this way,
WRONG!!!
You probably wont unless your bouncing it directly off the bottom from a boat in deep current. You need to keep it in the strike zone. When the current speeds up you need more weight.
Get rid of the fish finder for an eel if casting from shore. And use a three way from a boat.

If your casting from shore. - Tie on a snelled bait-holder hook around size 5/0 with about 20 inches of leader. No weight. Cast it out - let it swim by itself to-wards the bottom. They want to naturally head down. Reel it in very very slowly and dont let it sit for any length of time. keep tension on the line otherwise they will ball on you.
Cast rinse and repeat. Find some eel grass or a creek mouth - muscle beds or bogs of some kind.
Do some reading around the site. it will take a little time but once you hook up you will start to gain confidence start focusing more and pay closer attention to the little things.

Also dont limit yourself to live bait and eels. Try some smithwick type lures - jointed thundersticks - smaller jointed red fins and crippled herring lures. Match the bait and size.
 
#5 ·
Hey SJ, are you at all familiar with the Spurwink River here in Maine? I've had great success live-lining eels in a narrow stretch of the river opposite the Scarborough marsh. Using an 8' or 9' rod with a simple set-up of mono line to barrel swivel (no leader needed) and a 6/0 hook right through the cranium, I've pulled a good number of fish out of there more than once. There's a dock that jets out and a small beach beside it that ya have to be careful on cause the tide will sneak up behind ya. At about the 12 o'clock position out from the dock on the opposing shoreline, there's a small grouping of rocks which creates a little rip/tidal pool. If the fish are in there, whether ya dead stick or slow retrieve, you'll do well. When fishing with eels I'd also recommend a hook removing tool, of which the proper name eludes me right now, but it's a necessity IMO. When a striper takes the eel head first it'll often be half way down it's throat by the time ya get it in. And if ya can't reach the hook for Pete's sake cut your line, DON'T force it as you'll do severe damage to the fish, if not kill it. The hook will rust and within a few days the fish will be be able to spit it out.


StriperHyper ~ Will
 
#8 ·
I fish the river ever year for stripers and there's defintely big ones in there...I've always catch most of my (and the biggest ones) on a popper. I also use a big rapala, danny swimmer and slugo's...Overcast or rainy days seem to be the best for me...Early in the season when it's a little slow I use shinners (for the smaller ones) but I've also seen people pulling the big ones with Sunfish. I'm not sure of the regs. but no you can't use shad or herring for bait...I've tried eels before in the river but never had that much luck. Eels, for me at least, have been better in the summer and fall at night. Bunker will also be around the mouths of any river during the spring and if you see them snag em' and hold on...Here's a few I got this year...Nothing huge but better then catching trout through the ice all winter...:4923::4923:
 

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#9 ·
CT river. From shore. 2am_ Rocky Hill to Cromwell.
Bagged many other keepers there as well. Shad chunks off the bank. Just kickin' back in a chair snoozing the night away waiting for a nice fish. Last year was a little slow. I didn't get out there much. The year before the floods and rains made bank fishing a little slow. The year before that I was putting them back because I already had too many in the freezer by the end of May.
I have tons more pictures_ Who said you can't catch keepers off the shore? Forget the schoolies. Use a bigger chunk and bigger hook:)
That little 49 incher came in on 20lb test braid and took a long time to get up on shore in the current.

I fish the lower Farmington for shad with my 13 foot boat with a 15hp tiller motor. Typically nail 3 to 5 shad on and outting. I take one or two and keep one in the freezer for bait and fish the other one fresh that day. Nailed some 5lb plus shad in there this spring.
 

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#10 ·
Who said you can't use shad? You can't use herring but shad is not an issue. At least I see nothing posted against that. Shoot we use hickory shad all the time when I motor out of Niantic. The things are all over the lower river there and if you can keep them alive they work great live-lined out on the reefs. Actually you can use herring as well but you can't take them here in CT. I'm not sure if the ban was in effect in all parts of MA. So technically you could take herring and MA and use them in CT for bait but I don't think I would want to go around with the DEP guys on that one. Just pass on the herring. And I'll tell ya what_ Judging by the amount of them I hooked while shad fishing this spring it is about time to relax that ban a little. The last time I was out (for about 3 hours) I hooked more than 25 herring on my willow leaf before I finally found a shad. Seems to me they are on the rebound. They were so thick you could see clouds of them ripping by in the shallows. There were so many getting the lure down low enough to find the shad was almost impossible. Well.. to be fair that was on the tail end of the shad run. Most of the shad where already north of us by that time. But still seeing wave after wave of huge schools of herring ripping up river reminded me of how it was 20 years ago. 5 or 6 years ago I didn't see hardly any herring. Now? Seems like quite the come back if you ask me. Who knows. Maybe a couple more years like this one and we'll see that ban relaxed a little. At least for recreational guys.

Whatever_ Pass up the herring but if someone can show me a regulation that prohibits using shad I would like to see it.
 

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#11 ·
Oh_ In case anyone thinks I take more than my share I actually do mostly catch and release. Only take a few here and there and usually only fish that I pretty much 'hurt' in the battle. So_ The point is there are plenty of keeper sized fish to be hooked off the bank. Just a question of being there at the right time. I rarely bother to fish anything but the crest of the inbound tide on the upper CT. Top of the tide and a few hours off the back of peak. Best at night. So a top tide at 2am is perfect for me. I'll be out there by 1am putting the lines in. Everything else seems to be a waste of time. Seems like almost the opposite is true on the lower river. I seem to do better there on the first rising side off the bottom. Hey_ What do I know. I'm a novice at this. Seriously. I'm still so new at this I barely have a clue what is going on but on the upper river the tides seem to be a major factor. Now as for E. Hartford, the tidal influence is almost gone when you get up there. It is still major in RH. to Cromwell. About a foot of delta in that zone and a major shift in current flow. I think that all starts to sort of 'level' out by the time you are in Hartford.

Hey like I said I'm a newbee. Better to ask an expert_ But then again I do seem to be putting some fish in the freezer. :) Beginners luck I suppose.
 
#15 ·
Plugs should work well, herring pattern light blues and white swimmers would help. Topwater as mentioned could do the trick at certain times, and in the spring you have a chance of hooking up with pike larger than the bass in the pictures!


Good luck!
 
#17 ·
I have fished from the Ct river shore for a few years now. Rocky Hill to Enfield, and have had very nice bass every May, on plugs. Big swimmers, big Danny's, and two years ago I was killin' 'em on parrot bottle plugs, in the super fast water. IMO, with Ct and any river, that hold's the Alewifes in May, the big gals will be on 'em. thumbsup.gif
 
#19 ·
Fishing the dam's fast water requires surface types, but large. Pencils and Danny's. There are holes, where one can use deeper swimmers and Storm Shad's. But the pencils and Danny's can cover more area, if your fan casting. There is a deeper narrow rip that runs down from a hole, on the out skirts of the submerged rocks. I use big bottles, and Bomber types in this area.
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