Plenty of good spots around the area for catching carp

• Carp are a finesse fish to catch. They are an extremely popular fish in Europe and growing in esteem here. Carp, the largest member of the minnow family, is a much harder fighting and difficult-to-catch species than any bass, trout or pike. I am far from an expert in this realm, but at one time did a bit of fishing for them in the Thames River and a few other spots in this area.
• Spinelli has tried the Connecticut River, where the big coves and backwaters would be the place to look for them. The Thames River's major coves and pretty much all the impoundments along the Shetucket and Quinebaug Rivers hold populations of these fish.
• Trading Cove and Poquetanuck Cove both fill up with carp at various times of year. The pool and stretch of river below the Greenville Dam is a popular and productive spot for local carp fishermen.
• The most common method to catch carp is with oatmeal, wet and compressed into bite-sized balls and whole kernel corn, strung on a on a light wire hook with minimal weight.
• Some of the catalogs are selling commercially produced carp baits that would probably be worth trying if catching the biggest minnow on the planet is your goal.
• Striper fishing: Right now is a great time to get out on the water. It is right around the peak of the 2007 spring striper run. There are tons of fish around. As usual, most are small schoolies, from 18 to about 24 inches, but the percentage of much larger fish is on the increase and usually peaks during the first week or so of July.
• We have had reports of 50-pound fish chasing bunker in Narragansett Bay. There are big bass in the 30- to 40-pound range being caught in the Race, off Block Island, along the Rhode Island beaches, and along the Connecticut shoreline, wherever there are menhaden to attract and hold them. Last report, there were still some bunker in the Thames River with keeper bass to 40 inches or more chasing them around with every change of the tides.
• Because of the recent cooling rains and last week's chilly evening temperatures, there are still some stripers well up inside the major rivers munching on menhaden, herring, American shad and hickory shad opportunistically wherever they may be encountered.
• Captain Eric Covino has been doing well for stripers around Fishers Island as well as inside Long Island Sound and Covino's son, Jimmy, caught a 43-inch, 35-pounder during their traditional Father's Day fishing trip last Sunday. (Bob Sampson Jr, Norwich Bulletin)