New London, Tim Coleman, 6/10

1. From those waiting for improved fluke catches closer to home than Montauk, we have some encouraging news. Within the last week numbers and sizes of summer flounder from both the backside of Fishers Island and the Rhode Island beaches is on the rise. Unfortunately, we still have but a dribble of fish coming from the waters inside eastern Long Island Sound.
2. Al Golinski of Misquamicut took his boat east of Watch Hill on Monday for a fluke limit that included an 11.65-pound doormat that took a very large strip of fresh mackerel on a bucktail worked slowly up and down near the bottom. He also landed three stripers around 25 inches apiece.
3. Allen at Shaffers in Mystic reported Bob Kearney with an 8.8-pound fluke from the Rhode Island beaches on a trip with Larry Troutman at the wheel of his boat. They also weighed a summer flounder of 8.12 pounds, that also somewhere around Misquamicut. On the bass scene, people buying eels told of lots of medium bass but not too many over 25 pounds.
4. Tom C. and friend fished the shallow water on the south side of Race Point casting eels for a catch of stripers and Allen fished last Saturday evening with a popping plug for a 36-incher on the south side of Ram Island just off where someone stuck an upright oar (as in rowing) into one of the shoreline rocks. This writer got out on Wednesday morning just after sunrise with Dave Jermain of Manchester, Mass. We fished the last two hours of the ebb tide in The Race for nine stripers from 5-12 pounds and six blues on diamond jigs.
5. Don at King Cove in Stonington weighed in a 9.30-pound fluke this past Sunday caught off Isabella Beach. Smaller boats had a few keeper fluke just outside the line of pot buoys off the East Breakwater. Randy Ziano came back from an early morning trip to the Watch Hill Reefs with a 38-pound striper fooled with a live eel. John Syrus used a spinning rod and popping plug around sunrise yesterday for a catch of small and medium bass to 25 pounds at Sugar Reef. Shore anglers landed schoolies from time to time at the Monsanto jetty and Stonington Point. Flyrodders at Lamberts Cove early or late in the day were sometimes rewarded to find themselves right in the middle of a worm hatch.
6. Sherwood Lincoln of East Lyme fished Isabella and other beaches on the south side of Fishers Island for most of a day for catch of five keeper fluke and six shorts. He used two rods: one with squid strip and shiners drifted from a rod holder, the other with bucktail and squid strip worked slowly near bottom. On the way back to Niantic he stopped in The Race to bucktail a couple medium stripers.
7. Jack at Ocean House Marina said one of their dock customers came back Thursday morning for two bass in the 30s and two in the 40s, caught with live shad not too far outside the breachway. Chunk bait, either herring or mackerel, is also working on larger bass if you can't find hickory shad for live bait. Best fluke of the week was a 9-pounder landed down toward Point Judith. On Wednesday the boats came back with fluke catches including two that weighed 4.80 and 5.60 pounds.
8. Capt. Al Anderson of Snug Harbor had good numbers of bass to 42 inches fishing both the Sub Buoy rips and Endeavor Shoals along with some 3 to 5-pound blues, all feeding on small silversides and all hitting parachute jigs on 300 feet of wire line. He also made some trips to the North Rip, one foggy morning using diamond jigs in the deep water by the IB1 bell then two evenings, using spin and fly tackle in 10 to 15 feet of water on the inner bar on the flood tide.
9. Capt. Brad Glas of the party boat Hel-Cat sent in his first e-mail of the season saying they are now running seven days per week for bass and blues to The Race, leaving at 9 a.m. and returning around 3 p.m. Blues were more plentiful as week wore on and the bass action was “inversely proportional to the number of small boats orbiting us.”
10. Stephanie Cramer was on one of the trips with Capt. Anderson to the inner bar of the North Rip, landing several bass to 31 inches on trolled squid flies. Casting along the upper reaches of the Thames has been pretty poor even for people dunking chunk bait along the bottom.
11. Capt. Kyle Douton of J&B Tackle said the pros had some good trips for bass and blues in The Race but also some off ones depending on the strength of the tide. On a couple night charters the fish didn't really get into gear until after dark and then took bucktails better than eels. You might also try trolling at Inner Bartletts just at dusk to pick up a few bass that way. Fluking is best by far at Montauk compared to Niantic Bay but be advised you'll need a full day in the former spot to put together a decent catch.
12. Hillyers Tackle reported more blues in the area, both in The Race and also in the shoreline rips taking trolled bass lures and diamond jigs. You can still come up with a flounder or three in Jordan Cove and off Sandy Point by anchoring and chumming then baiting with pieces of sandworms. Black fishing opens on June 15 in state waters; porgy season on July 1.
13. Bringing up the end of the column was Pat Abate of River's End Tackle who said there is a dribble of fluke coming back from the Connecticut River, Sand Shoal and Sound View. There was also a small number of winter flounder caught around The Brothers and off Harkness State Park. Diamond jiggers had blues in The Race during the day and also some better bass on the flood tide at Pigeon Rip.