Hi Folks,
I fish the Mill in Hamden quite ALOT and haven't seen any poachers during daylight hours, alot of fishing folks are watching for these poachers. Upper river used to get hit at night, I'd leave at supper time and come back early am and see beer bottles and chip bags with old line tossed aside knowing someone was there in the pm. But I haven't seen an evidence that is happening in recent years in the upper Mill, the dam pond near the mountain face is another past poacher spot.
The upper Mill hadn't gotten stocked in two years because of the mafia blocks blocking the access road from the bridge being out. The fish that were already there washed down from the golf course and beyond.
This year the Mill in Hamden was only stocked once in early April due to icy weather, trucks couldn't negotiate the icy access road. No stocking occurred a few days before opening day like years past for some unknown reason, I fished the CnR Friday pm before O.D. and no fish were caught. If it were stocked I'd be counting tens of dozens of fish. Because I caught nothing the day before O.D. I'm sure there were hundreds of disappointed folks and this was proven the next few days with complaints and grumblings about the lack of numbers and skunkings from an area that was richly stocked.
An unfounded rumor was going around that Gov. Malloy and Mayor of New Haven had a joint TV photo shoot in Hamden with the 2 local school system kids stocking Lake Wintergreen with trout rumored to be originally destined for the Mill River TMA. They needed trout for the TV cameras so fish allotments were taken from the Mill TMA and diverted to Wintergreen. Its a wild rumor and I have no facts to support that this happened but its been the talk of several fisherman I spoke with. These areas could be quite possibly stocked on different days as far as I know. I have no problem with the kids stocking fish as long as it is done humanely and other areas don't get unexpectedly short changed.
Usually the Mill and Wharton Brook get re-stocked together as this is what happened in years past but this could have changed. I haven't heard from anyone who fished Wharton to see if it was good or bad.
I limited out both sat in 3/4 of an hour, and Sunday in about an hour and a half but many fish were below legal size, I got a tiny salmon as well.
I think after the next restocking in about 2 weeks folks will be alot happier since the kids will be back at school and the streams will quiet down since many folks had this week off from work. I am looking forward to catching more fish!!! Wags