April is here and so too with it the start of another open-water fishing season in Southern New England. This was a very mild winter by most standards with, as of the writing of this month’s piece, zero accumulation of snow at my house for the entire winter! Some might look happy upon this occurrence, but while I despise shoveling, I do truly enjoy a snowy winter on many levels. With a 10-year-old son, snow days are full of outdoor fun between sledding and snowball fights and making snowmen and snow forts and so on. Add to it as well the snowpack to the north that comes from a snowy winter and spring fishing too benefits, especially for someone who targets spring-run bass on the Connecticut River!
First and foremost, for me, and this should be of no surprise if you’ve been following along with my reports for the past year, I am most excited about the opening of the spring blackfish season in my home waters of Connecticut on April 1. The spring season is short, closing on April 30, and only a 2-fish bag limit is in place, but I wholeheartedly feel that a pair of sub-20-inch keepers (the minimum size for harvest remains set at 16 inches) is more than enough! Both Massachusetts and Rhode Island have recently implemented regulations on blackfish which only allow for a single larger fish per angler’s bag, and I hope that Connecticut and New York soon follow.
Ok, on to the fishing. If there was a silver lining to the nightmare that was the COVID 19 pandemic, it’s that it got people back out fishing. In the early part of 2020, we had a rather mild spring and anglers decided to give blackfish a shot. In the years leading up to 2020, a narrative was in place that spring fishing was not worth the effort despite a look back into the past showing that there had in fact been a viable local spring fishery. While I do not have any hands-on evidence to support this, I have access to an extensive archive of fishing reports courtesy of my previous employment that covers the 1970s and 80s to support the theory. Thumbing through the pages of the weekly reports reflects a dedicated fishery in times of the season when many modern fishermen say there would be no bite even if the season was open. So, with anglers setting out in early 2020 for April blackfish, they not so surprisingly found cooperative fish. Granted many of these anglers had to learn new ways and locations to target them as this isn’t the same fishery as we see in the fall, but with a few minor adjustments, success can be had.
One of the biggest factors in my spring blackfish success comes in the form of the bait being used. There is a longstanding theory that spring blackfish prefer soft baits because their mouths go soft over the winter. I have found ZERO evidence for this softening of the mouth idea and feel that it just might have been the easiest explanation for an increased success found in the spring on soft baits such as mussels, clams, sandworms, and the like. My theory on the soft bait concept is multi-faceted, but in short, I believe the success is a result of two factors: fewer undesirables present to steal the soft baits and more scent provided by the softies. Take, for example, a fresh clam as bait. Put that offering down on some hard structure any time from mid-May through early fall and you’re fighting off porgies, sea bass, fluke, cunner, and about 100 other species. In the early spring, most if not all those fish are still offshore on their over-wintering grounds so it’s more likely that a blackfish will find your bait before it gets eaten by a different species.
The second part of my theory on the success of soft baits like clams in the spring is related to scent. There is no denying that spring blackfish are a bit more sluggish than those caught in the summer and fall due to the cooler water temps. The first thing I notice every year with my first landed fish of the season is how they physically feel cold in the hand. The temperature of the water near the bottom where they reside is often still in the upper 30s to low 40s this time of year, and with fish being cold-blooded they simply do not move as fast. With this in mind, bait that emits a scent trail down the current for a long period is more likely to get bitten as it has time to be found by more fish.
Last spring, I had a downright exceptional outing fishing clams in early April. I was using a light jig set up while fishing off a mid-Sound breakwall, and for bait, I was using long, gooey pieces of clam. These were not the salted varieties that see time on the porgy grounds, but instead fresh clams with plenty of juice and ooze. When a bite would begin, I swear I could feel the fish mouthing their way up the bait until the entire meal was in their mouth at which time they’d sometimes just sit there chewing away. By using an exceptionally light spinning rod, I could feel and often see the bite and set up on a fish while those around me on the boat went fishless on crabs. That is until I eventually tipped them off to my secret and everyone began to find success. This is not to say that crabs will not work in the spring, because they do, just that sometimes you must think beyond the standard to find success.
April should also begin to see striped bass, bluefish, and even weakfish action kicking into gear, especially if the mild weather continues. If you’re fishing the oceanfront, better success is generally found in the late afternoons for all these species on sunny days when high tide occurs in mid to late morning. Targeting shallow flats, bays, and estuaries will also increase your chance of success. Holdover striper fishing was consistently good this winter, so working the same rivers and surrounding waters outside the rivers is a good option as well. April will see the end of the alewife run followed by the arrival of blueback herring (both collectively referred to as “river herring”), and as waves of this prime baitfish come into and exit rivers, expect to see improving striper fishing, but more on that next month as May is when things really get going and bigger fish can be caught with greater consistency.