WELCOME 2021!
We wish you and your family
all the best this coming year
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2021 Fishing Licenses are Available Online |
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Fishing Fuels Conservation!
100% of your investment funds fish and fishing
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CT DEEP Fisheries Division Covid-19 update web page
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SOCIAL DISTANCING WHILE FISHING IS A MUST!
Fishing is a great way to spend time outdoors, reduce stress, and possibly catch a tasty meal. The Fisheries Division along with the CDC, State of CT DPH, and the DEEP strongly encourage social distancing and not fishing with anyone other than people living in the same space.
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Connecticut Fishing COVID-19 Updates
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Latest Updates from the Fisheries Division |
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Circle Hooks Required for Striped Bass. Effective December 1, 2020 it is mandatory to use inline circle hooks whenever fishing with bait (live, dead, or cut) for Striped Bass. Please view our web page for the latest information and details.
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Tiger Tamer Campaign was awesome! Thank you to everyone who submitted their photo and became a "CT Tiger Tamer". We gave out over 300 Adult-Sized T-shirts. Be on the look out for how to get our youth engaged during spring 2021 with more T-shirts specifically for the kids.
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ICE! We are still in the very early stages of ice formation on many lakes and ponds. Please take extreme care and caution, checking the ice thickness very frequently if you venture out. A reminder that the DEEP does not monitor or measure ice thickness.
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Safety first: A rule of thumb for ice safety is “there is no 100% guarantee”. Ice thickness and strength will vary from place to place. Be sure to “test” the thickness as you go – do not assume. Generally, four to five inches or more of clear ice is acceptable for a small group ice fishing. Learn more about ice safety.
Ice formation depends on the combination of many things including:
- the size of the water (small pond versus large lake),
- the depth of the water,
- objects sticking out of the water like boulders and logs,
- proximity to moving water (like the inlet and outlet),
- amount and angle of the sun,
- recent weather conditions (air temperatures, wind, and precipitation).
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Ice Fishing is a great and safe way to beat cabin fever and spend quality socially distant time with family and friends outdoors.
ZOOM Dates (All classes start at 6:00pm):
January 5th (Tuesday)
January 14th (Thursday)
January 20th (Wednesday)
January 26th (Tuesday)
February 1st (Monday)
February 10th (Wednesday)
February 16th (Tuesday)
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For more info about the many benefits of ice fishing here in CT, check out these great articles found in past editions of Connecticut Wildlife Magazine.
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Circle Hooks Now Mandatory - Striped Bass |
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"We're trying to help conserve a stock of fish that is in an overfished condition and needs help. By using inline circle hooks, people are pitching in to that effort."- Justin Davis, Assistant Director, Marine Fisheries Program
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From December 16, 2020, through March 31, 2021, the daily creel limit for Atlantic salmon will be one. During the open season in the rivers, the legal method for taking Atlantic salmon is limited to angling using a single fly, or an artificial lure with a single free swinging hook and no additional weight can be added to the line above the fly or lure. Also, from September 1st through March 31st, fishing for other species in the designated Atlantic Salmon "Broodstock Areas" is restricted to the gear legal for Atlantic salmon.
On the Shetucket River, anglers can fish for salmon downstream from the Scotland Dam (Windham) to the Water Street Bridge in Norwich (the first bridge upstream of Norwich Harbor). The salmon are stocked into one designated Atlantic Salmon "Broodstock Area", from the Scotland Dam to the Occum Dam.
For more on this program, please visit our Atlantic Salmon Management Area webpage.
It is important to understand that these fish are not part of any restoration effort, they are produced specifically to provide a unique recreational fishery. The Fisheries Division can only stock these fish in waters outside of the Connecticut River Watershed (it is illegal to fish for Atlantic salmon within the CT River Watershed).
For the lakes, the daily limit is one salmon per person per day. A trout and salmon stamp is needed to keep these fish.
Anglers are allowed to fish for salmon in the Naugatuck River from the confluence of the East and West Branches (Torrington) downstream to the Housatonic River (Derby). Anglers may also fish for Atlantic salmon in the Housatonic River downstream of Derby Dam. The salmon are typically stocked into two designated Atlantic Salmon Broodstock Areas on the Naugatuck River, the “Campville Section” of the upper Naugatuck River from Route 118 downstream to the Thomaston Flood Control Dam (Litchfield-Thomaston) and the “Beacon Falls Section” of the lower Naugatuck, from Prospect Street (Naugatuck) downstream to Pines Bridge Road (Route 42 bridge, Beacon Falls). From September 1st through March 31st, fishing for other species in these designated Atlantic Salmon Broodstock Areas is restricted to the gear legal for Atlantic salmon.
The regulations for Atlantic salmon released into lakes and ponds are different from the regulations for salmon on the Naugatuck and Shetucket Rivers. In each lake, the regulations for methods, seasons and minimum lengths for salmon will be the same as for trout in that specific water body but the daily creel limit will be one salmon per day. (Please refer to the 2020 CT Angler’s Guide for trout regulations).
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Take A Friend Fishing - Win Great Prizes |
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This is a great time to enter our Take A Friend Fishing contest. All you need to do is find a friend who has not been fishing (or has not for a very long time), take them out, and send us a short blurb on your fishing experience. You could be our next winning pair. Here are the official rules and good luck!!!
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Learn to Fish Videos on YouTube |
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Let's Go Fishing YouTube playlist: To enhance our very popular "Let's Go Fishing" workbook, we have created a short series of instructional fishing videos on DEEP's YouTube channel. These videos are a DIY way to get the instruction delivered during our Introduction to Fishing classes, which have been suspended indefinitely due to the Corona Virus Pandemic.
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This Month's Mystery Fish |
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Fishing Challenge - For YOUth |
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Fishing is the perfect family activity during this time of "distance learning" and being "socially distant". CT's FREE Youth Fishing Passport is your child's ticket to all of the amazing outdoor discoveries fishing has to offer. Fishing involves knowing about habitat, environmental quality, food webs, life history of species, and so much more. You can get a Youth Fishing Passport, for those 15 or younger, using our online licensing system. Register your child as a new user. If you have questions please contact us.
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Fishing Challenge Scorecard |
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The Youth Fishing Passport Fishing Challenge is a year long fishing scavenger hunt. To have your catch count, simple snap a photo of your fish (from our scorecard) and email it to us. The top four anglers (who catch the most different types on our list) receive a prize pack full of fishing swag.
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Fishing Guide - Access Online Anytime |
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The 2020 Fishing Guide is available in English and Spanish. The best and fastest way to get your copy is online. We have a couple of options for you:
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The DEEP Webpage as a pdf
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In digital book format at the e-regulations page
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2020 Fishing Guide in Spanish: The Fishing Guide is now available in Spanish via digital book format, |
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Connecticut's Fisheries Division is pleased to announce a SURPRISE stocking of LAKE TROUT! Lakers have not been stocked in CT for well over 75 years.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) reached out to the Connecticut Fisheries Division to see if we would want to make 490 Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) available to our anglers as a bonus fishery this fall.
We have said "yes" - So, we want to let you know that there was a one-time stocking of 490 Lake Trout (5.3 average lbs.) into select waters here in CT! There is no expectation that these fish will holdover for an extended period of time (years) or that they will reproduce. The intent of stocking them into Connecticut waters is to strictly provide a specialty fishery. The following waterbodies were stocked earlier this week to enhance late season and winter recreational fisheries: Winchester Lake, Coventry Lake, Tyler Lake, Squantz Pond, and Bigelow Pond.
From the completed surveys, we will select five people at random on March 1, 2021 who will receive their choice of the Pictorial Guide to CT's Freshwater Fish or the Guide to Lakes and Ponds. There is no limit to the number of times you can complete the survey, we want to know each time you go fishing for Lake Trout.
As residents take to the water for this unique fishing opportunity, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is reminding boaters of the perils of cold water immersion and the importance of heeding safe boating tips. Please wear your life jacket! Also, follow the law, don’t paddle alone, dress for the water temperature and not the air temperature, share your Float Plan, and maintain a proper lookout.
These fish arrived from the USFWS Berkshire National Fish Hatchery out of New Marlborough, Massachusetts where they raise Lake Trout for restoration efforts in the Lower Great Lakes.
Historically, Lake Trout used to be reared by the state of Connecticut and stocked into a handful of lakes around the state; stocking ceased in the 1967 and was likely attributed to poor survival in the wild. The current harvest state record hails back to WW I (1918), was caught out of Lake Wononskopomuc, and weighed a whopping 29 lbs. 13 oz.!
While these recently stocked fish won’t break the state record in the harvest category (the largest fish by weight), they should provide for the catch of a lifetime to many, and for the possibility of filling the state record in the “Catch & Release” (the largest fish by length) category created just this year. For more information on state record fish and the trophy fish award program.
As Lake Trout are considered trout along with brooks, browns, rainbows, and tigers, there will be no special rules or regulations applied with this specialty stocking. Therefore, the standard statewide regulation of 5 trout per day applies to all stocked Lake Trout as well (EXCEPT, in Squantz Pond during the month of March when there is a 16” minimum length daily creel limit of 1 trout).
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Información disponible en español
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