No images? Click here
September is one of the best times to fish Connecticut. Seasonal Trout Management Areas return to catch-and-release fishing September 1, snapper blues are providing fast action along the shoreline, and fall fishing is just getting started.
Thank you for being part of Connecticut's fishing community. Whether you fish every weekend or only once each year, we appreciate your support of Connecticut's fisheries.
100% of your investment in fishing license fees come to the DEEP Bureau of Natural Resources to support your passion for the outdoors- Thank You! 👍👍
September 2026
This month at a glance
🎣Seasonal Catch and Release Starts September 1
🐟 Chasing Snapper Blues
🎏Meet the Fisheries Staff
🐟 Mystery Fish Challenge
Seasonal Trout Management Areas go Catch and Release from September 1 to 2nd Saturday April
Beginning September 1, eight sections of Connecticut rivers designated as Seasonal Trout Management Areas (TMAs) switch to catch-and-release fishing. These are referred to as "Seasonal Trout Management Areas (TMAs)". Harvest is allowed in these seasonal TMAs from the second Saturday of April until August 31 as these waters have limited, if any, capacity to support trout during summer months (water temperatures become lethal). The Fisheries Division "re-stocks" these waters in the fall when water temperatures are suitable for survival. For the specific boundaries for each of these sections please refer to the fishing guide.
Seasonal TMAs are found on the:
- Farmington River and West Branch Farmington River, Intermittent sections from Hartland downstream to Unionville
- Hammonasset River, Killingworth, Madison
- Mianus River, Greenwich, Stamford
- Mill River, Hamden within Sleeping Giant State Park
- Salmon River, Colchester
- Saugatuck Fly Only area, Westport, from Dorr's Mill Dam to Merritt Parkway
- Yantic River, Bozrah
Saltwater Blitzes
Fall feeding frenzies are common on Long Island Sound. The productive waters of the estuary support large numbers of several forage species, which are sought by larger predatory gamefish and birds. These "blitzes" where larger fish pin and feed upon massive schools of baitfish can get the attention of anglers. If you are lucky enough to encounter a "blitz" it is an amazing event. The chaos of the churning water and diving birds is sure to get your heart racing. Most of the time a small metal lure is all that you need, cast into the blitz and bam! Fish on!
Snapper Blues: Small Fish but Big Fun
If you want to catch a fish whose attitude may be bigger than its body, grab your freshwater spinning rod and head to the shoreline to join in the snapper blue frenzy.
Snappers are young bluefish that move into Long Island Sound and Connecticut’s tidal rivers during the summer. By late August and into September, they are usually large enough to put up a surprisingly good fight on light tackle. Best of all, you do not need a boat or a tackle box full of expensive gear to catch them.
Look for snappers from docks, piers, beaches, tidal rivers, harbors and other public shoreline access areas. Keep an eye out for schools of small baitfish. If you see bait scattering across the surface or birds working over the water, there is a good chance snapper blues are chasing them!
A light spinning rod and reel is about all you need. Small shiny spoons, such as a Kastmaster, are excellent choices. Cast beyond the fish and retrieve the spoon with enough speed to keep it moving and flashing. A "snapper popper" rig is another favorite lure. The small popping float attracts attention at the surface while the lure trailing behind it looks like an easy meal.
Part of the fun is keeping things simple. Make a cast, keep the lure moving and be ready. When a school of snappers comes through, the action can turn on quickly.
Snapper fishing is a great way to introduce someone to saltwater fishing. The gear is simple, the fish are aggressive and there is always the possibility that something bigger will grab your lure. If you use your freshwater gear in saltwater, it’s a good idea to hose it off when you get home to remove any salt and prevent rusting.
There is still plenty of fishing left in the season. Grab a rod, a few small lures and spend an evening along the shore. Sometimes the simplest fishing is the most fun.
Snapper bluefish are excellent eating! Remove head, internal organs, roll in flour, and fry in butter for an easy, local, delicious fish dish. Daily limit is 5 per person.
The video below demonstrates some simple techniques for catching snapper blues.
Don't Lose Fishing Time — Renew Your License in Just a Few Minutes
Meet the People Working Behind the Scenes to Improve Connecticut's Fisheries
Each month in 2026 you will get to meet one of the highly dedicated and passionate staff of the Fisheries Division. Each member of our team brings skill and professionalism to make CT's fisheries the best they can be.
Meet Rodrigo Pinto
Rodrigo (or as he likes to point out the fishing in his name ‘rod-rig-(g)o’) started as DEEP's Urban Fishing Coordinator in January of 2025. He coordinates the Community Fishing Waters program, managing what is to happen or ‘go’ on in it. Rodrigo also coaches with a CT Aquatic Resources Education (CARE) program, teaching how to fish with a ‘rod.’
Rodrigo enjoys swimming with his kids, playing beach paddleball and/or being in awe of waterfalls with my loved one, playing capoeira, snorkeling around CT freshwater fish, and ‘trolling’ a fishing line or spearfishing from an open-top kayak repurposed into a stand-up paddleboard.
Just prior to joining DEEP, Rodrigo worked as a CT Watershed Manager with the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA).
Education: B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Richmond, Graduate Certificate in the Tenure of Tropical Coastal Environments from the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil), and Ph.D. in Government and Politics with specialties in international and environmental politics from the University of Maryland.
What was the spark to get you interested in fisheries biology/management? It was an upbringing in the city of Recife in the state of Pernambuco (Brazil) where I could have amazing opportunities to be in nature by walking to coastal streams, wetlands and a seashore with a shallow sandbank as wide the mouth of the Connecticut River.
I had countless adventures there including one at age 5/6. I was kayaking after a seahorse, with a cousin who is a year older, when we realized we could no longer see land. My father waded and swam to us and we (including the sea horse) returned to shore.
From the age of 7 to 11, it was my being raised fishing and snorkeling around tropical reefs alongside my brother and cousins with my spearfishing uncle and godfather.
During ages 8-12, it was my being raised bodyboarding (boogie boarding) daily until the construction of a new harbor tipped shark habitat loss and degradation to the flipped out point of turning my city of origin—whose name Recife means reef in Portuguese and whose nickname echoes its rivers—into one of the select few shark-attack capitals of the world for bodyboarders or surfers, who look like sea turtles where viewed from underwater.
From the age of 14 on, it was following my mom’s footsteps as a radio producer while being mobilized into Recife’s world-renown Mangro(o)ve Movement (Movimento Mangue/Manguebeat/Manguebit) that has since then struggled to overcome ethno-racial discrimination through (estuarine) ecological approaches concerned with such matters as the resilience of and injustice to this low-lying tropical coastal city in the climate-change-induced faces of sea level rise and disastrous weather.
Favorite part of the job: Enhancing and witnessing how fish habitat, fish, fishing, and fishing-coach volunteers improve the lives of urban or similarly underrepresented and underserved groups.
Least favorite part of the job: Witnessing and for now being unable to do more to prevent how environmental and human-rights protection still underrepresents and underserves the same groups. To learn more please visit the Environmental Justice Screening Tool webpage.
Trivia/Favorites of Rodrigo:
Pizza Topping: Anchovies, clam, eggplant, mushroom and shrimp
Movie: Three-way tie between (1) “Life is Beautiful,” (2) “Quilombo” that means Maroon—i.e. forested refuge from enslavement—in Brazilian Portuguese and fictionalizes Palmares as the main Maroon community in Brazil straddling the State of Pernambuco where I was raised, and (3) “Waterworld” that features a CT-designed and CT-built aluminum trimaran that may have been inspired by an Amawonk which the Nutmegger while Afro-Algonquin activist and musician Lee Mixashawn Rozie had just prior to the film famously designed and been riding on the Connecticut River, across Long Island Sound and through the Cape Cod Canal
Favorite Fish: Pumpkinseed from freshwater and Sea robin (a ‘Lobster of the poor’) from saltwater, each for food with a guava for dessert
Favorite Concert: Each that I have witnessed by the Mangro(o)ve Movement’s foremost band (Chico Science &) Nação Zumbi—whose name recognizes the Maroon nation of the main Palmares leader Zumbi, so nicknamed as zombie in Portuguese for being immortally resilient to colonial violence.
Red Sox or Yankees: "Bro"—as my daughter would say—her softball team instead.
Phobia: Being attacked by a shark
Dream place to live: Connecticut during its three warmer seasons and then wintering in the Maroon-descendant fishing and shell-fishing communities of Engenho Siqueira in Rio Formoso and/or São Lourenço de Tejucupapo in Goiana, both of which are in the Brazilian State of Pernambuco and the latter of which has been home to my inspirational late ‘second mother’ or ‘mother of the heart’ whose name Lindomar—that translates as ‘Beautifulsea’—it in turn inspired.
Favorite animal: Saltwater and freshwater manatees for their peaceful wisdom as well as their folklore/sacredness including but not limited to that in the mermaid/siren/Deity forms of Afro-Brazilian saltwater Iemanjá and Indigenous-Brazilian freshwater Iara.
Fishing Challenge DIY Videos
To help budding anglers fill their Youth Fishing Passport (YFP) fishing challenge score card the Fish With CARE program has made a special playlist on the DEEP Video YouTube channel. The playlist will give you tips on gear, bait, and techniques on targeting each of the 33 fish species found in the YFP fishing challenge!
The fishing challenge is free for anglers ages 15 and younger. The challenge is a year-long fishing scavenger hunt to try and catch all 33 species on the scorecard. Catches are submitted online and results displayed on the dashboard. For more info, please reach out to mike.beauchene@ct.gov
This Month's Mystery Fish
Think you know this species 👀? Send your guess to mike.beauchene@ct.gov
Mystery Fish Revealed
Last month's mystery fish, the Longnose Dace (Rhinichthys cataractae), is a native minnow species and is a true DACE (unlike the larger Fallfish who many anglers call "dace". Longnose Dace are a very streamlined fish much like a shark.
Its hydrodynamic body is similar to that of the Atlantic salmon or sturgeon, with large pectoral fins and a head shape that improves its ability to hold near the bottom in fast water with little effort.
They prefer to live in the shallow fast moving sections of rivers and streams where they feed upon macroinvertebrates.
Longnose Dace are often found in the same streams as blacknose dace, but typically in areas of faster current. They can be caught with a small-mesh dip net or seine and are easy to keep in home aquariums, but need cooler water (below 65º F). They won’t thrive in the presence of larger fish.
Learn about all of Connecticut's Freshwater Fish in our mobile friendly application.
Access CT's Freshwater Fish Community Data in our interactive data viewer.
