[PECo]

After not finding any fish in the Connecticut River on Saturday, mep21 (aka Mark) and I decided to search for some on the lower Housatonic River on Sunday. When we arrived at the Sunnyside Boat Launch Facility in Shelton at 8:00 am, we found that the parking lot was almost completely full. In fact, we had to get in line to launch The Other Woman, Too, although the line formed only after we got behind the other boat. Low tide was at 6:07 am, high tide at 11:41 am and low tide at 6:32 pm. When we launched, the water level was still fairly low. The ramp at Sunnyside is very shallow, so it's a good idea to put in or put out at least 1-1/2 hours before or after low tide. At low tide, I have to back my Jeep down the ramp until the front wheels are in the water. We were lucky enough to get the last trailer parking spot:



The weather forecast was for air temperatures rising from 32 to 40 degrees and south-southeast winds rising from four to nine miles per hour throughout the day. We started fishing in the channel between the ramp and Two Mile Island. Although sunrise was at 7:10 am, the hills to the east cast a cold shadow across the river. The chill didn't stop Mark, though. I think he thought we were there to film the second episode of The Fishing With Mark Show. I'm going to post the time that I took each photo. 8:17 am and 8:30 am:



I decided to catch some, too, at 8:40 am and 8:50 am:



It was cold enough in the shade that our rod guides iced up. I was fishing with straight fluorocarbon, but Mark was fishing with a fluorocarbon leader on braid, so his was worse. Thankfully, the sun soon rose over the hills:



Ahhhh, that feels good! 9:03 am and 9:11 am:



9:18 am and 9:27 am:



10:03 am and 10:13 am:



11:01 am and 11:03 am:



Unfortunately, a schoolie almost swallowed my jig 11:27 am:



As you can tell, the bite was slow but steady throughout the morning. However, when the slack high tide hit, we decided to do some sightseeing and motored into the cove on the downriver side of Two Mile Island. We found just a bit of skim ice in the back of the cove at 11:48 am, but it was completely gone when we came back at 2:43 pm:




We didn't mark many fish in the cove with the finder, so we decided to head downriver. Here's a photo of the fishing fleet looking upriver toward Two Mile Island at 11:52 am:



We didn't mark any fish with the finder around Country Club Island, so we headed for the cove in front of Pine Rock Park. As we approached it, however, we unexpectedly discovered a second fishing fleet at 12:20 pm:



We did a quick circle of the cove, but didn't mark any fish with the finder. So we decided to join up with the fleet. The fish finder showed why they were there; we saw a thick school of fish on the bottom. And we saw a few fishermen pull up stripers that were still schoolies, but larger than the schoolies we saw up by the ramp. I saw a fisherman fighting what was obviously a big fish for a few minutes only to lose it. And a few minutes later, he had another big one on for about 30 seconds before he lost it, too. Yeap, he was a little pissed about that. Mark got into the swing of things, though, at 12:25 pm:



I hooked into a big schoolie that pulled drag for about 30 seconds. Just when I thought I was beginning to pull it to the surface, it spit the hook. Sonofab*!@# I did, however, boat something at 12:45 pm :



Mark Googled the writing on the bottle. It was an antique and he actually found one for sale on eBay for $7.99. Unfortunately, the one that I boated was broken, so I just packed it out with the rest of our trash. The second fishing fleet began to disperse as the school disappeared. Don't ask me; I have no idea where it went. I wanted to show Mark the Inland/Marine line, so we headed down to check out the piers of the Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Bridge. Along the way, we passed Sikorsky Aircraft Headquarters at 1:17 pm:



We didn't mark any fish near the bridge, so we decided to head back up to the fishing fleet near Two Mile Island. It wasn't long before we started catching more schoolies. 1:50 pm and 2:06 pm:



2:22 pm and 2:55 pm:



2:59 pm:



After 3:00 pm, I called "Just One More". Mark quickly got his at 3:11 pm:



I thought that I got mine, too, at 3:16 pm, but quickly realized that I had snagged it :



It took a while, but I finally got mine at 3:52 pm:



After waiting a while for another boat to put out, we got off of the water at 4:00 pm. I had been wondering why the boat ahead of us was waiting by the ramp for so long, when I saw a truck and trailer coming down the road that leads to the parking lot. I figured that the boat might have launched at Derby and been unable to put out there, but when I asked, the boater told me the lot was so full that they had to park up the road by the park at the top of the hill. Oh, well, I guess I couldn't have Sunnyside to myself for the whole year.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Crest Daddy]

That bleeder would have been dinner if it happened to me.
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Trust me. Use waxworms !

[DirtyDawg10]

Fun day of CATCHING fish.

[fishfinder]

Cant believe you guys arent getting any keepers at all! Glad to see you catching fish though.
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There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

[Crest Daddy]

[Michael]

Nice job Phil and Mark

[mep21]

Thanks guys. I didn't see anyone catch anything that looked close to a keeper all day long, but it was still nice catching anything. I did see one fisherman lose his balance though and fall in off the side of his boat I think I was more surprised they didn't call it a day there. Couldn't have been too comfortable.....

[PECo]

[catch&release]

Maybe he was a little boozed up Phil lol
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Bad fish! Not like going down to the pond and chasing bluegills and tommycod. This shark, swallow ya whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', down you go.

[RaMPaGeBaSsMaN]

Awesome detailed report great pics !
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My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it...

[fishfinder]

Maybe he was jumping in after the keeper that got away? LOL
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There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

[Adimauro1988]

I've never fished the housitonic before, is that section pretty easily navigated? I got the GPS and all that stuff, I'd like to get out there and give it a shot

[PECo]

[PECo]

[SheltonTom]

I was fishing from shore on Sunday afternoon using sand worms. Nothing up at O'Sullivan's, so I moved down stream a bit to the Shelton/Stratfor border. Caught my first keeper of the year - just barely at 28.2 inches - and three other schoolies. The keeper damn near pulled me into the river and I got banged up a bit, nothing permanent. Snow boots are pretty damn useless on slippery rocks. Anyway, I was on the river from 3:30 - 6:30 so all in all a pretty good afternoon.