TheDay, Tim Coleman 6/3

1. What a difference a week and some settled weather made in the local fishing picture. Since the three-day northeaster went by, bass catches in The Race jumped dramatically Capt. Kyle Douton at J&B said their charter boat is catching well every day, both trolling and diamond jigging on both tides. Best of the week was a 47-pounder. On Wednesday evening another boat trolled up a pair of 30-pound bass plus others at Inner Bartletts and the boats that fished in The Race that night with bucktails and eels did well also.
2. Fluking at Isabella and the Rhode Island beaches was spotty with one boat finding the fish but others not doing much at all. Montauk is better for larger fluke but be ready to fish in a fleet especially on the weekend. And, for you offshore people, we had news about a confirmed catch of six yellowfin tuna to 70 pounds and one mahi at Hydrographer Canyon in a warm eddy that broke off from the stream. However, since then the water moved west, degraded, turned green and cold.
3. Hillyers Tackle in Waterford weighed in a 50.10-pound bass for a surf angler, location unknown but it's suspected to come from a Rhode Island beach. A husband and wife team each caught a limit of winter flounder along the Niantic River channel and a shore angler had a flattie around 2.8 pounds right near the Sunbeam dock. Flyrodders landed some larger bass around the Seaside beaches and a kid who works in the store had a bass and bluefish between the bridges on a popper early in the day before the boat traffic picked up.
4. Al Golinski of Misquamicut nearly has his boat almost ready to fish. He heard about a surfcaster seeing bunker on the inside of Napatree Point so maybe there's some bass bait in the Pawcatuck River. The Race is loaded with fish for diamond jiggers and people three-waying eels after dark. Fluke results down along the Rhode Island beaches were OK for some but not for the majority.
5. Capt. Al Anderson of Snug Harbor fished around the Sub Buoy on Sunday morning before the tide started cranking. Using parachute jigs and long wires his party landed 15 keeper bass in 1 hour, 45 minutes. Once the tide peaked, the bite stopped and they went elsewhere. During the week he fished in the Salt Pond, trolling flies on lead core line for school bass plus a few weakfish to 24 inches.
6. Jack at Ocean House Marina said the bass catches in Ninigret Pond were good one day and very poor the next. Live baiters had large bass along the ocean beaches. Fluking is better for a few with fish now in 30 feet of water and loaded with two to three-inch squid. No scup seen just yet, ditto for any sea bass.
7. Things are picking up here, said Cheryl at Shaffers in Mystic. Bill Kelsey trolled a deep diving swimmer at Ellis Reef for 30 stripers, smalls and mediums and others came back from Montauk with large fluke. Allen Fee and his wife made a run over there on Wednesday, landing 10 keepers to 25 inches and one bluefish. Another boat tried in Fishers Island Sound between the Monastery and White Rock but only had four shorts. Allen also got out striper fishing, landing six fish to 37 inches on poppers and Slug-Gos at Six Penny Island and the backside of Ram Island. This writer fished The Race on the Wednesday afternoon flood tide for 13 bass from 5 to 24 pounds and one bluefish on six and eight-ounce diamond jigs.
8. The people at the Fish Connection said small bass and blues are scattered up and down the Thames River for those who don't want to fish in The Race. Fluking is still rated as slow along the Rhode Island beaches with bigger and better results from Montauk. Casting with spin and fly tackle on the Watch Hill Reef is still slow though some fish were caught around Race Point and Race Rock Light.
9. Stephanie Cramer said she caught five bass to 20 inches wading and casting in the upper Thames River. Her co-worker at the Mystic Aquarium continues to catch nicer stripers from the shore at a Rhode Island salt pond. He wades and casts plugs at sunset and into the night.
10. Mark Turek of the Connecticut Surfcasters was on his way to a weekend of surf fishing at Martha's Vineyard when I got a hold of him on his cell phone. He said members traveled to the West Haven sand bar for weakfish but found the action very sporadic. They did catch six fish to 13 pounds between four of them one evening but little else on other trips. The mouth of the Housatonic River continues to produce stripers from 24-28 inches. A third duo of members fished the middle of the Connecticut River in a small boat below the Enfield Dam for a 44-inch bass.
11. We also had news from various sources about some good surfcasting along the Narragansett shoreline. One of the regulars up that way landed 10 bass from 28-40.8 pounds after last week's northeaster on nine-inch black Slug-Go. He said it was the best night of casting he had from a beach since a trip to Block Island in the mid-1980s. The fishing was so good he stayed up most of the night, got one hour's sleep and headed off to work at a busy tackle shop on Memorial Day weekend. Two days later the school was gone, the big fish just a happy memory.
12. Pat Abate at River's End Tackle in Old Saybrook reported decreasing numbers of stripers in the lower Connecticut River but better sizes. Best time is at first light with an ebb tide. They landed some fish at dusk but the morning was better by far. Worm dunkers off the DEP Pier had schoolies of various sizes, and small boaters the first fluke of the season inside the river and others in 50 feet of water between Hatchetts and Black Point. Is this the start of a run of summer flounder on our side of the Sound? Trollers had bass to 46 inches on most of the local reefs with the old reliable tube and worm. Tim Coleman