CT Fish Nerd

09/03/2026

Minutes into the flood tide, we found a scattered wolfpack of nice sized fish willing to eat live, dead, and soft plastic eels dragged along bottom, just ahead of the rough conditions basically kicking us out of the spot. This 46" slurped up a Game On! 13" Duratech Eel on a 1/2 oz jig head. September is off to a great start!

09/02/2026

Matt reached out to me because he was considering getting into inshore kayak fishing. After this morning, I'm certain he is definitely getting into inshore kayak fishing. We did a kayak stripers 101, and discussed hull designs, various pedal drive systems, motors, fishfinders, and all the other stuff that goes along with choosing the right setup and accessories as well as being safe on the water. We had somewhat snotty conditions that got even worse, which, in my opinion, was great because you don't learn anything on glass calm water. We even had a big grey seal who threw a monkey wrench into our original plan, but luckily, our Plan B spot paid off.

08/27/2026

Double trouble.

The pike stole the show on today's "smallie trip". Normally, I don't condone the use of a fish grip of any kind on a pike's lower jaw, but Clay wanted no part of putting his hands near the teeth or gill rakers. Luckily, his fish was docile throughout the handling process and bolted off like a rocket, followed by a clap of thunder that sent us straight to the launch. Not a bad way to end it. Both of these fish were handled on Woodstock Line Company Wicked Slick 20 # braid, which I've been very impressed with so far. They are a Connecticut based company with great products. Give them a follow and support your local!

08/24/2026

Plenty of "fun size" bass around heading into September. If you're looking for fast action on light tackle (or fly rod) from a pedal kayak, it's time. Albies are only a couple weeks out locally! Plenty of availability on my schedule for guided kayak trips for up to 3 guests.

08/22/2026

It's been a while since I've seen whitewater like this, and it's nice to see some bass from schoolie to just over slot size as opposed to all giants. Lots of fish inshore now, seemingly out of nowhere, keying in on the small bait and willing to eat bigger offerings after dark. I guess you could say the fall run has begun!

08/21/2026

I finally got my nephew Brady out on the kayak to show him the ropes, and he did great! My Dad, the master Texas rigged ribbontail worm angler of the family, joined as well for moral support and to catch a few. I forsee more trips with these two.

08/14/2026

Atlantic tomcod that was spit out by a striped bass caught on a recent trip. Judging by how in tact it was (aside from the missing tail), I'm guessing a small bluefish disabled the tomcod, and the bass took care of the rest, only minutes before being caught.

08/13/2026

I used to be a big largemouth guy. At one point, I was in love with the cold water period (late fall thru early spring), patterning movements with bait, lake turnover, and harsh conditions. Looking back on some of these older photos puts me right back on those bodies of water, and it makes me want to go bass fishing. The last couple seasons in the salt have required an extraordinary amount of scouting to stay on any kind of bite, and when 90% of my guests want inshore saltwater trips, that's where my focus needs to be. No urchin baits, FFS, or electric motors were used in the making of these photos. Lots of jigs, though...

08/12/2026

Andrew with some August surface feeds and a fish on an eel-like plastic while fishing the structure on last night's "After Work Special" trip. We were only out there for 2 hours, and we stumbled upon some fun stuff. Thankfully, no sign of brown sharks around these fish. We also found a tagged schoolie in the mix that I will be reporting today. Lots of small bait around, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of this happening leading into to albies showing up in about a month.

08/11/2026