[Redneckangler]

First good, long trip of the season. The CT River is full of herring and stripers! Put in Friday evening at Rocky Hill around dusk. Lot was about full. Just north I hit the flotilla of boats catching stripers either anchored doing the soak and sit or casting. I hate fishing in big groups, so I decided to run north. Went as far as the Farmington before I began working back down. There were herring and stripers scattered the whole way. I was tossing a few different soft plastics, pencil poppers, Bomber A-Salts and some other similar type lures. Picked up a number of schoolies and fish in the low 30's. When I got tired of casting, I'd switch over to trolling a big jointed surface plug and a sub-surface swimmer in a herring pattern. Hits on those as well. I'd occasionally snag herring on the trolling lures, and as tempting as it was to liveline, threw 'em back.

The fishing wasn't the only interesting activity. Sometime around midnight at the mouth of Wethersfield Cove, I heard several sets of brakes lock for 2-3 seconds before a series of crashes on 91. By about 2:00 am, I arrived back at the Rocky Hill launch. There was one guy packing up on the dock, and mine was the only trailer left. I pulled my boat, stowed some gear, and crawled into the back for a nap before heading back out. I remember waking when the rain started a bit after three. It was loud as hell on the truck cap roof. I dozed off again. I was awakened less than an hour later by a door shutting, voices, and flashing blue lights. I couldn't see a damn thing through the fogged windows. I cleared a small patch and peered out at the three squad cars surrounding a vehicle not fifty feet from me. Cops were questioning the two occupants. Not wanting to just pop out behind them, I tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep.

Thirty minutes later, as as another fisherman was pulling in, I decided it was time to get back out. Pretty much took the same approach as earlier, with a lot less success. Caught some fish busting on top around Crow's Point, but otherwise it was pretty slow. A few schoolies. I talked with several guys who where getting shut out. When I returned to the launch, there where only a dozen or so trailers, and I probably saw most all of those boats on the river.

I haven't spent near as much time fishing north of Middletown, and I've got to say I'm far more comfortable in the lower part of the river. All this taken into account, it won't be too long before squid start arriving in the Watch Hill area, and I will say goodbye to the river until November. This is when the real striper fishing begins!
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[dogfishhead]

Friday evening was also good from Cromwell through Essex. My friend stopped at the boat launch in Cromwell after he left the hospital and said that just about everyone had at least one in the cooler.
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Got em!!