Connecticut’s Oct. 23 report: trout rivers stocked and fishing well, Sound stripers wait on the full moon

Connecticut trout anglers are having a better week than the striper crowd. The Compleat Angler, a fly shop in Darien, says in its Oct. 23 Northeast report that rivers across the state have been stocked and are fishing well, while a persistent northeast breeze and bluebird skies have made the bite on Long Island Sound tough.

On the Housatonic, Falls Village was running 456 cfs and the shop calls the fishing on most of the river fantastic, with big, aggressive browns hitting streamers and dries. Calm afternoons between about 1 and 4 p.m. have brought strong Blue-Winged Olive hatches, and stocked rainbows are in the mix. On the Farmington, flow below the Still River in the catch-and-release stretch was a medium-low 188 cfs, with Riverton below the dam at 145 cfs and 57 degrees in the morning. The shop says the whole river from Riverton down past Unionville is fishing, with tiny BWOs (#20–24) and tan caddis the main bugs and nymphs carrying the slower stretches.

The Naugatuck came up to 192 cfs and has been stocked along its entire length, including the trophy trout areas. Smaller Fairfield County streams such as the Mianus, Saugatuck and Mill rivers are low and clear, but fresh stockings have them producing for anglers who downsize their flies.

In the salt, the shop says striped bass are still around and feeding but sluggish under the sunny, north-wind pattern. Peanut bunker, adult bunker and silversides are the main bait, and the Norwalk Islands and river mouths from Greenwich to New Haven have produced as bass intercept moving bait. The report expects this weekend's full moon or a weather change to shake things up and counts about four to five more weeks of fall fishing in the Western Sound.

Photo: An angler on the bow at sunrise, from the shop's Oct. 23 report. Credit: The Compleat Angler.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: The Compleat Angler — Northeast Fishing Report 10/23/26 (Oct. 23, 2026).