Counting the arrival of spawning fish
http://www.telegram.com/article/2011...99/1009/sports
Friday, May 20, 2011
Outdoors: Counting the arrival of spawning fish
Mark Blazis Outdoors
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The season’s first major waves of spawning anadromous fish are now moving up the Connecticut River. As of last Monday, fish counts included six striped bass, 11 Atlantic salmon, 264 gizzard shad, 1,824 sea lamprey, and 77,344 shad.
As though a light switch had been turned on, Holyoke lifted 29,342 shad over the dam last Friday, 25,564 Saturday, and 9,347 Sunday. Herring were notable for their total absence.
With so much rain this week, fish lifts have been on hold. Fast, muddy water makes counting fish difficult in the passage tanks. Anglers can consequently expect shad numbers to build up below the dam, probably at least through tomorrow. The lack of water clarity, though, will make fishing tougher. Before all the chilling rains, the big river’s temperature had gotten up to 57 degrees, just about perfect to get these migrants moving.
A pleasant surprise has been the significant increase in the size of returning Atlantic salmon, which have unexplainably been a couple pounds heavier than expected.
On the Merrimack River, shad roe lovers are finally reporting good catches of females that have joined the early male vanguard.
Central Mass. trout stocking
Despite the rains, local trout stocking continued this week at Phillips Brook, Ashburnham; Millers River, Tully River, Athol; South Pond, Brookfield; Lancaster Mill Pond, Clinton; Fallulah Brook, Phillips Brook, Fitchburg; Moose Brook, Hardwick; Quinapoxet River, Holden; Comet Pond, West Branch Ware River, Hubbardston; Stillwater River, Princeton; Millers River, Royalston; Turkey Hill Brook, Howe Pond, Spencer; Stillwater River, Sterling; Big Alum Pond, Quinebaug River, Sturbridge; Webster Lake, Webster; Millers River, Winchendon; and Bell Pond and Lake Quinsigamond, Worcester.
Plentiful fish hauls
For boats that have been able to find a gap in the recent northeast winds, fish have been obliging. At Stellwagen Bank, Capt. Wayne Bergeron of the Janine B took four anglers out for four hours, hauling in 200 pounds of cod and 100 pounds of pollock. Gloucester boats going out to Jeffrey’s Ledge are doing well on cod, too. Spring 2011 is turning out to be a freezer-filler.
Blues invading the south side of the Cape perennially make Popponesset a hot spot now. But it can’t get much hotter than the west end of the Cape Cod Canal has been this week for stripers up to 20 pounds.
Rough winds also kept many boats docked last week in Rhode Island. Those that got out found peak squid fishing coinciding with the presence of small bass, fluke, and bluefish.
Saltwater captains who know their marine biology are well aware there are worms in these waters — most importantly sandworms, mudworms, and the now-emerging clam or cinder worms. They all can be very enticing, whether fished alone or at the end of a lure.
The few anglers who know how to fish the cinder worm “hatch” occurring in some of the area salt ponds can take advantage of a brief feeding frenzy that provides exciting, shallow-water sight-fishing on light tackle.
The action is often at night, from May on, when pond temperatures warm into the 60s. Size 4 orange wooly bugger-type flies imitate the two-inch mating morsels that swarm to the surface in huge numbers, becoming a bouillabaisse of irresistible protein to hungry stripers.
Down in Connecticut, some of the most notable striper fishing, including good numbers of keepers, is occurring at the mouth of the Connecticut River and up inside the Thames River, where action has been fast.
