New England - New England Freshwater Fishing Reports

Aaron at Fisherman’s World in Norwalk had not heard much from Saugatuck Reservoir regulars other than a few reports of trout being taken in the north end. He has been focusing on weeds and rocks from the middle of the impoundment south toward the dam and catching smallmouth and largemouth bass on soft plastics including Senkos and swimbaits. With weather cooler and water temperature dropping, trout should be cruising close to shore any time now.

From Colin at Fishin’ Factory 3 in Middletown we learned that fishing for Atlantic salmon in the Shetucket River has been all right, a couple of fly-casting customers reporting a few on flies. Other patrons have been enjoying steady action with recently stocked trout at the Salmon River in Colchester. Along the Connecticut River catfishing at Harbor Park in Middletown and Eagle Landing State Park in Haddam is still steady as is carp action on Mainline and Carp Maxx boilies and pop-ups at Wethersfield Cove and Harbor Park.

Last week Jeff Sullivan in Bristol caught largemouth bass to 4 pounds and yellow perch and white perch on inline spinners and Ned rigs at Cook Pond in Massachusetts. He also landed rainbow trout on a white, ¼-ounce Yakima inline spinner at Carbuncle Pond in Rhode Island. Jeff revealed that the largemouths he has been contacting lately have been relating to white perch schools, isolated rocks, and rip rap.

This week’s report from AJ at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay remained unchanged from the week before. He is still selling night crawlers, PowerBait, and small jerkbaits to people targeting trout in waters on and just off the Cape with Long Pond in Plymouth, Fearing Pond in Plymouth, Marys Pond in Rochester, and Peters Pond in Sandwich being the most popular venues.

Rick in Milford shared the following with us: Gavin and his father did very well with largemouth bass to 3.5 pounds from shore at Lake Maspenock (North Pond), and Mike shore-fished Pratt Pond for a few trout on PowerBait. Ron Powers went back to Wachusett Reservoir and beached a couple of decent smallmouth bass along with several smaller ones, and Danny Southwick picked up a pair good-size largemouths at an undisclosed pond on Cape Cod. Not to be outdone, two young anglers caught largemouths to 3 pounds on shiners at different locations in the Central Wildlife District.

Roger Aziz, Jr. in Methuen told us despite autumn trout stockings not that many fishermen are chasing trout in the Northeast Wildlife District. A few guys fished Plug’s Pond and Forest Lake from shore, each site yielding a couple of stockies on bait. The Merrimack River remains the area’s most consistent venue. Bob Langley and son Andrew fished there recently, Bob tallying a 3.5-pound largemouth; Andrew, a 36.5-inch pike on a shiner.

Skip at Saunders Boat Livery, Inc. in Southwick let readers know that Mario won Thursday evening’s bass contest at Congamond Lakes, something he has done often in recent years, this time with a 3.5-pound largemouth. He also captured first place in a tourney on the Connecticut River out of the Oxbow ramp in Northampton. Water temperature in the river registered 54 degrees, and the bite was slow. A 5.5-pound largemouth captured the lunker largie award, and a 3.25-pound smallmouth proved the biggest bronzie. Skip had a three scorable bass, none of remarkable size, all on finesse plastics drop-shotted in 25 to 30 feet of water.