Fish-stealing seals are nothing new to anglers who ply the northerly waters of Nantucket Sound and Cape Cod's Atlantic shore, where large seal colonies are a common sight. But now come reports that thieving critters are showing up in Long Island Sound.

While chunking for bluefish in 90 feet of water at wreck site off Branford last week, Jim Zimmerman of the Stratford Boat Owners Association hooked into what felt like a good-sized blue. When the fish was about halfway to the boat, he suddenly felt a tremendous weight on the line. Whatever it was, it was a lot bigger than a bluefish.

"At first I thought I might have hooked into a lobster pot or something else on the bottom," Zimmerman said, "but the line started going out faster and faster, so I knew I had something very large."

After a while, Zimmerman and his boat mates saw something surface far from the boat.

You guessed it. It was a seal with Zimmerman's bluefish clamped firmly in its jaws.

Zimmerman continued to fight the seal for 15 or 20 minutes, hoping it would get tired and release his fish.

"At that point, I didn't care about the fish," he said. "I was just praying that I would not hook the seal."

Because they lack sharp, cutting teeth, seals usually just rip a fish off a hook and swim away with it. As they pull on the fish, the seal can become hooked itself. When that happens, the angler's only choice is to cut the line as quickly as possible.

Finally, the

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seal released the fish, which, when finally hauled aboard, was very dead. But the seal was not about to go away. A few minutes later, it defiantly surfaced again, this time much closer to the boat, giving Zimmerman and the crew a good look at its features.

After returning to Milford, Zimmerman described the seal to a marine biologist at Norwalk's Maritime Center, who said it was likely a gray or horsehead seal, which can weigh up to 800 pounds and rarely visit Long Island Sound.

Oddly, while fishing off New Haven Harbor a couple of days later, another large seal, possibly the same one, surfaced near Zimmerman's boat. This time, however, it left his fish alone.

Zimmerman is no stranger to catching big things in Long Island Sound. In October 1994, he hooked and landed a 214-pound dusky shark in 40 feet of water back of Charles Island In Milford. He has the shark's toothy jaws on his mantelpiece.

FISHING REPORT -- If the weather ever breaks, there is still plenty of fishing opportunity out there. Some large bluefish have started to come inshore to search for bait. The mouth of the Housatonic has yielded some choppers in the 12-pound range taken on soft plastic jigs and poppers. Migrating fish hate staying put, so anglers hoping to nail one should not either. As water temps drop, the blues will soon be but a memory. A few keeper-sized bass are in the mix as well. Blackfish fishing remains fairly strong. Freshwater anglers will find the trout fishing in the upper Housatonic fantastic with water finally moderated to fishable rates. The Farmington and East Branch are also hot with regular daytime insect hatches. Locally, the Mill River TMA is holding wild rainbows. PROTECTING STRIPERS -- At its meeting last week in Newport, R.I., the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission wisely denied a proposal to increase the commercial harvest of striped bass. The proposal would have allowed commercial fishermen to add at least half of their uncaught commercial striped bass quota to their quota for the following year. Testifying before the commission, the Coastal Conservation Association cited disturbing trends in the striped bass fishery, including a decrease in the number of striped bass caught and released by recreational fishermen, the prevalence of the fatal disease Mycobacteriosis among the Chesapeake Bay striped bass spawning stock, and a Fish and Wildlife Service annual survey that encountered the fewest striped bass in the survey's history. Unfortunately, Connecticut's AFSME delegation was one of the three states that voted in favor of the rollover proposal; Rhode Island and New York were the other two. QUOTA CUTS -- The Department of Environmental Protection has cut the commercial limit for summer flounder to 75 pounds per day. In addition, commercial fishing for black sea bass in Connecticut waters was banned entirely for all types of gear. -- CHARLES WALSH