Blackfishing season is over, bass season begins

Written by Leon Sylvester Jr.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011 00:00

With Blackfishing season now officially closed, and safe, fishible ice still quite some time away, fresh and saltwater anglers are turning toward targeting our local tributaries wintering Striped Bass populations.

These fish move into the tidal lower sections of our area rivers during the months of November and December to feed on schools of herring, shad, shiners and other small forage fish. Anglers will find large numbers of fish ranging from 14 to 22 inches which are hitting a variety of soft plastics and flies ranging from 3 to 7 inches in length.

While most of the fish are schoolie size, anglers willing to put in their time and pick through the smaller fish will find some keeper-size fish in the 30 to 40 inch class. The Thames, Connecticut, Saugatuck, Quinnipiac, and of course the Housatonic, all have bass to be caught

this time of year.

Jim Micinilio of Stratford has landed bass up to 39 inches this season in the Housatonic, but has found the fishing to be slow compared to past seasons. He recently had an opportunity to take out his nephews, 12-year-old Sam and 7-year-old Max of Trumbull, and in just a few hours of fishing, Jim got the boys on some fish, and they each landed several bass up to 10 pounds

I recently talked with another local youth angler who is quickly making a name for himself as a freshwater bassmaster.

Michael Toohey, 13, of Shelton, is an avid bass angler who has won the title of Bass Federation of Connecticut Champion (ages 11-14) and has been for three years running. This past season he also took third place (ages 11-14) in the Bassmaster junior Divisional Championship and was a valuable member of the championship Connecticut team which took first place.

Michael is a well spoken young man who absolutely loves to fish, and for his passion and accomplishments so far on the water and the many great things in his fishing future I am happy to name Michael Toohey this week’s Go Fish angler of the week!

That is going to do it for this week. Send me your reports and pictures of your trophy catches to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Go Fish is available online at hersamacorn.com, and on Twitter (@fishingreporter).

Until next time ... Tight lines!