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Kingfisher Fishing Charter CT

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  Boat preparation has begun for Kingfisher Fishing Charters in Connecticut for the 2026 season. We provide CT fishing charters in Long Island Sound out of Old Saybrook, CT. We are a top-rated private fishing charter fishing in area's close to Clinton/Westbrook, Niantic, New London, and Mystic, CT. We specialize in using live bait and artificials while primarily drift fishing for Striped Bass, Bluefish, Sea Bass, Fluke, Scup, and Blackfish. We have over 26 years of charter fishing Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island waters. We fish in the most productive area's including The Race, Plum Gut, Connecticut River, and Six-Mile Reefs. The Boat is a 28ft Hydra Sports walkaround with 2024 twin Suzuki 250 outboards that includes a cabin and full bathroom. The fishing equipment includes the highest quality conventional, casting, and trolling gear made by Diawa, Penn, and Shimano, combined with custom designed terminal rigs and lures. Visit www.charterfishingconnecticut.com for more ...

Kingfisher Fishing Charter CT Blog Report

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 Not a lot of change in the fishery since my last report, except that more BIG Bluefish have arrived in The Race and Plum Gut. Striped Bass have begun to be harder to get to with the influx of Blue's, but they still are around as of this past weekend. The bunker situation (lack of numbers) in the river has remained the same. We have been able to use them on a few occasions. The fish in Plum Gut prefer 3 wayed Bucktails over Diamond jigs in the 100'-70' foot zone, if you target that area. We caught some nice keeper Seabass yesterday, however the ratio of keepers to shorts is frustrating at this point. Using larger offerings (jigs, smaller live eels) can help weed out some of the shorts when Seabassin. The Race has continued to be most productive during the Ebb tide for Stripers, Blues, and occasional keeper Seabass with Bucktails and Diamond jigs. Noteworthy: The troll bite during the slack tide in The Race has been slow, so we have been using this window to target Seabass (...

Kingfisher Fishing Charter Blog Report

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 The past 2 weeks have seen excellent Striper fishing, mostly in The Race (on the Ebb tide). The past couple trips Bluefish have finally started to mix in with the Bass (some very large as well). We have not targeted bottom fish, except on 1 trip (all short Seabass) in our area. We have been using some Bunker, as well as soft plastics on 3-way rigs. For daily up dates visit  Kingfisher Charters on Facebook  or my website at  https://charterfishingconnecticut.com/

Kingfisher Fishing Charter CT Blog Report

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 This past week witnessed a transition in the Striper migration as our July stock of summer stripers have begun there arrival. During this time the Stripers that have been occupying The Race and Plum Gut began to thin out as they continued north and large numbers of Hudson river fish began arriving. This was evident as we encountered big numbers of fish around Six Mile reef in the Clinton/Westbrook area. Many of the fish we caught had the tell-tail red blotches from being in the river. They were chasing schools of bunker that were present, as the fish finder indicated, as well as bunker being chased on the surface boat side. The Bluefish still have not presented themselves, as we have only caught a few large ones so far this year! The Seabass bite continues to be poor compared to years past, even with the opening of New York waters. Fluke are still not worth targeting, even though we landed a few while Seabass fishing. The Connecticut river has produced more fish this past week, bu...

Kingfisher Fishing Charter CT Blog Report

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 Striped Bass fishing has remained very consistent in The Race and Plum Gut. There has been an large influx of Slot sized Bass and a some large Bluefish (Race) this past week. We have been targeting the Stripers with 3-wayed live eels and soft plastics. The Bunker have started to show in the CT river, but have been hit or miss with cast netting them. We did see pods of bunker in the sound off of Hatchetts Reef while Fluke fishing yesterday. The fluke fishing has been best off of Isabella beach at Fishers Island this past week with fish up to 5lbs, slow between Black Point and Hatchetts. Striper fishing in the CT river has shown some improvement as the water begins to clear up. We have not been Black Seabass fishing the past 10 days as the reports coming from Clinton/Westbrook have not improved greatly. We will wait until next week when the NY side opens to make the run that way. With the arrival of warmer humid weather the foggy season has begun! As usual, a disturbing number of sm...

Kingfisher Fishing Charter Blog Report CT

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 This past week and weekend continued to produce consistent Striped Bass fishing with plenty of slot (28-31") sized fish, as well as unders, and overs being caught in The Race and Plum Gut. The numbers of larger size Stripers have decreased a bit, but an increase of smaller school fish have replaced them. The Kingfisher Fishing trips have yet to encounter any Bluefish as of this report. The Black Seabass fishing off of Clinton/Westbrook (only CT waters) is showing some signs of life finally with mostly smaller fish, some keepers (16") and Scup mixed in. This year has been the slowest start for the seabass bite that I have experienced. It was also the coldest Winter/Spring in almost 10 years, I think there is a correlation. I'm hoping things kick into high gear soon! The CT river is starting to recede a bit and the first signs of bunker around the mouth occurred as elevated Osprey activity indicated. Visit  charterfishingconnecticut.com  for previous reports and details on...

Kingfisher Fishing Charter Blog Report

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 This past week/weekend the Striped Bass fishing went into high gear with big numbers of Stripers in various class sizes (24-43") pushing into Plum Gut and The Race. Three-waying bucktails, soft plastics, and live eels all produced very well. We experienced numerous drifts with multiple fish on every pass throughout the tide cycle. Both areas were loaded with bait that should hopefully hold the fish for a little while before they continue on the migration. Word has it that a large body of fish from the west is also not far behind! Bluefish have been absent from the scene as of this writing, but they are probably going to start showing soon. On the other hand, the Black Seabass and Porgy bite has not been so good on the spawning grounds off of the Clinton/Westbrook area. We took a trip on Memorial day (new moon tide) that saw everyone wondering were the fish were?? Last year at the same time the area was loaded with hungry keeper sized fish. The cold winter/spring has definitely pu...