Hello, time once again to get the cover off the boat and dust off the fishing tackle. Another season has begun, though perhaps a bit slowly, buoyed by the fact that we have warmer weather predicted for the weekend.

Roger at J&B Tackle in Niantic said the cod fishing at Block Island, while good this past winter, is very iffy right now, not warranting burning a lot of gas to make the run over and back. On the home front, there are small bass in the Mystic and Pawcatuck rivers plus the usual run of larger bass up in the Shetucket River.

I put in a call in to Captain Al Anderson of Rhode Island, who took a charter party out to Block Island last weekend looking for cod on the grounds to the east and southeast of Southeast Light. Al said they made seven drops using fresh bait and crushed mussels and cracked shells for chum but landed only five cod and two choggies. When he got home, he canceled the rest of his cod trips, switching his parties over to striped bass or other, more promising species.

Over at Hillyers Tackle in Waterford, Captain Howard Beers told me you have a decent chance of landing a few winter flounder for supper in the Niantic River up from the Route 1 bridge. You could also try the lower Connecticut River, casting for schoolie bass, reports from there this past week were encouraging.

Red at Bob's Tackle said the striper fishing in the Thames was fair to good, depending on the source, from the Sub Base up past Norwich. Customers used Zoom Flukes on lead heads, worms on the bottom or were trolling the red tube with sandworm. Niantic is the best bet for winter flounder; there were few if any caught in the lower Thames.

Captain Allen Fee at Shaffers said people casting small lures or dunking worms on the bottom along the Mystic River were catching short striped bass along with the first small keepers. Chris Simmonds of Mystic, fishing worms on the bottom from his property right along the river, caught the first official keeper bass of the new year. Two locals tried for winter flounder in the river but caught nothing - a depressing report about what was once a stable of our waters that is now reduced to a skeleton of what it used to be, a victim like our cod of gross fishery mismanagement.

Our last stop on our first report of 2010 is at the Fish Connection in Preston, where Joe Balint said locals and visitors were catching bass over 35 inches in the Shetucket River on 8-inch Sebile plugs, large Slug-Gos and Zoom Flukes. You also stand a good chance of landing a bass over by Indian Leap Falls.

Topwater plugs are working around Brookside at high water with others catching small bass at times by the Poquetanuck railroad trestle, fishing the outside of the trestle on ebb tide, the inside of the spot on the flood tide. Bluff Point holds a few winter flounder and all the heavy rains of a few weeks ago washed so many largemouth bass out of the Groton reservoir so now they are being caught in the Poquonnock River on lures meant for small striped bass.

Fluke season will be opening in the next few weeks. Our sources for weekly news said the Connecticut season will run May 15 to Aug. 25 with a three-fish limit at a 19.8-inch minimum. New York will open its season on the same day but will close on Sept. 6, allowing anglers in their waters to keep two fish at 21 inches. That includes the ever-popular spots on the south side of Fishers Island.

Tim Coleman is The Day's saltwater fishing columnist.