Just because a fish is legally caught in New York or Rhode Island doesn't mean it's OK in Connecticut.
A fishing report issued by a Shoreline tackle shop after the Connecticut fluke season closed September 5 advised that the Rhode Island and New York seasons remained open and that doormats were being landed off Montauk. Solid enough information but what was left out could get an angler who brought one of those doormats back to Connecticut in trouble with the state's EnCon Police, the guys we used to know as "game wardens." The regulations of the state in which you present while in possession of a fish, not just where you catch it, determines whether it is legal or not.
To make an analogy, a Connecticut permit to carry a handgun, does not make it legal for you to do so in New York or Rhode Island. Many Connecticut anglers who would not willingly break the law do not realize that fish caught legitimately in the waters of neighboring states may not necessarily be legal at the dock in Clinton or Stonington. Advisories from tackle shops and the media sometimes ignore this fact. Indeed, a recent article on fluke fishing in a major Connecticut newspaper failed to stress this point, says David Simpson, director of the Connecticut DEEP marine Fisheries Division. "It bothered me," he says.
Simpson notes that it can be difficult for anglers in our waters to err along maritime borders in Long Island Sound and adjacent waters. He is right. You can fish inside of Fishers Island within swimming distance of the Connecticut shore and be under the jurisdiction of New York. Similarly, there is an area just west of Rhode Island's Napatree Point and south of Stonington where you might literally dunk a line in three states from the same boat.
Read the complete story from the Killingworth-Durham-Middlefield Patch