Paul (cat_in_the_hat), thanks for the 411 on the Wall, it's much appreciated. One of the regulars said he had gotten a call yesterday from one of the Rocky Hill/Cromwell area regulars about conditions at the Wall.
He reported the water level and current was good, but the water was so turbid, and full of submerged debris that fishing was unproductive there.

On to today's report:
I had taken the day off for a morning appointment, so after lunch, I headed up behind Bart's. I arrived between 12:15-12:30 pm to find 7-8 people taking casting practice on the bank. Zero (Ø) shad, and only a couple of alewives C&R prior to my arrival. The water was down about 1' from my last trip on Tuesday, the current remained strong, and the water was only slightly turbid, with a surface temp of 56ºF. Bill said that I "should have been here yesterday," of course. He reported that he had spent 4 "productive hours perfecting" his casting technique, until about 2:pm. And that's when it got busy, the shad showed up. He said they caught about 12 altogether. He personally hooked 4 and landed 2, his first of the year.

As we cast, we watched a USFWS crew treating alewives for their depression with electroshock therapy. I, of course, mean they were in fact surveying the depressed numbers of alewives in the river systems. One of the officers came up to visit our silly selves, and take pix of fishermen for a (5 year?) report they are drafting about the findings of their research for the Marine Fisheries Council. He said that the alewife count is way down over last year. I wonder if anyone is doing research on menhaden, and other forage species, and if those numbers are down, too. He didn't say it, but anecdotally, the uninformed musings of my muddled mind think the diminished numbers of alewives (and possibly other species) has something to do with the bleak striper numbers, aside from by-catch mortality. Enough of my drivel on that ...

Before I headed out at 3:30 pm, 3 shad had been C&R by 2 regulars fishing the bank a little apart from the larger crüe of reprobates ignoring personal spaces on the rock pile. I'll be back again tomorrow after work. I remain, still, no fish today.

Terminal tackle: 1 oz. drail over 4', 10# flouro leader and willow leaves in bright colors.

And I have to tip my CTFisherman's hat to CTFer, Andy C, who joined the motley crüe on said rockpile. Tight lines!