The Day, New London 7/8/05

1. We have good news and bad news about the fluke scene in eastern Long Island Sound. It has improved with some large fish landed but there are so many dogfish, at times it's hard to get through to the fluke. Or, put another way, some people's patience with landing too many dogfish wears thin and they go off to other pursuits.
2. Sherwood Lincoln of East Lyme reported one of his good friends who specializes in doormats from the eastern Sound made three trips in the last week. He got six fish total to about 12 pounds but had to catch numerous pesky dogfish to do it. There are fluke in the Connecticut River offering some respite from the dogfish but many are shorts and then there's the boat traffic on the weekend which makes drifting all but impossible. Porgies are showing up on most of the local rockpiles and many of the striper sharpies are using them for live bait for jumbo bass. Remember they must be 10.8 inches long before you can keep them even for bait.
3. Al Golinski of Misquamicut fished with his wife Emme on Sunday for two sea bass of 3.8 pounds each and a single limit of fluke along the Rhode Island beaches. He went back by himself on Monday, catching another fluke limit to 4 pounds but encountered loads of dogfish. Striper anglers are using live porgies on the Watch Hill Reefs for bass to about 25 pounds.
4. Jack at Ocean House Marina in Charlestown reported the boats that went offshore over the long holiday weekend had small bluefin on light tackle south of Block Island plus a mix of mostly blue sharks plus a thresher or mako for those that went drifting for sharks. Bass were caught off the local rockpiles on live shad or scup. Sea bass and scup are on the rough bottom now. Hickory shad and small blues could be caught along the surf line early in the morning. Those looking for bass bait caught them with a small Kastmaster with a small dropper fly or silver tube ahead of the lure. Fluking was steady the last seven days but nobody weighed in anything over 5 pounds.
5. Capt. Al Anderson of Snug Harbor fished the North Rip of Block Island from Sunday through Wednesday, roughly from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for 20 to 30 bass per trip to 38 inches trolling squid flies, swimming plugs or jigging parachute jigs on very light wire line outfits. Offshore the fleet is starting to troll up school bluefin to about 40 pounds south of Block Island. There are a loads of blue sharks in the Fingers northwest of the Dump and over the weekend a 220-pound mako was pulled aboard a boat drifting south of the Suffolk wreck. The predicted northeast winds for the next couple days will probably not do the offshore scene much good.
6. Don at King Cove in Stonington observed the fluke boats now scoring off the Rhode Island beaches are doing so in 40 to 60 feet of water versus 20 to 30 feet the week before. Porgy action isn't bad at Latimer Light.
7. Three-waying eels at night or casting flies was the way to catch medium bass on the Watch Hill Reefs. Hickory shad can be caught around the mouth of the Mystic River or Stonington Harbor.
8. Shaffers Marina in Mystic weighed in fluke to 7.8 pounds over the long weekend, those caught off Misquamicut. Smaller boats landed some between Gates and Enders Island and on Wednesday, shore anglers from the dock below the Route One drawbridge caught a mix of fluke, porgies and blues from the Mystic River. Tube and worm and live eels are working well on small and medium bass at Ram Island Reef.
9. Allen Fee used a popper on the north side of Masons Island early on Wednesday for a 35-inch striper. Porgies are on the usual hard bottom spots in Fishers Island Sound but not in large numbers just yet.
10. This writer just got information back from the American Littoral Society about a tagged bass.
11. It was first caught and tagged off Sag Harbor, N.Y. on May 9 then recaught in The Race on June 13. A year ago I caught another tagged fish in The Race in June, that one tagged in March in Delaware Bay.
12. Joe at the Fish Connection talked about fluke to 8.8 pounds caught in close from Seaflower to Seaside and some 40-inch bass trolled up on a tube and worm on his son's charter trips.
13. Small blues can be caught along the Thames and schoolie bass landed early in the day on fly patterns that imitate a sand eel off Sandy Point.
14. Stephanie Cramer continues to travel from eastern Connecticut to fish with Capt. Al Anderson in the North Rip of Block Island. He and a fellow member of her fly fishing club, Bill Kreuger, totaled 21 stripers with the biggest 32 inches. On the way back to Rhode Island they watched a “delightful” fireworks display all along the horizon.
15. Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat reported the bluefishing in The Race was excellent with several people tossing back their excess. There were bass mixed in, waiting until the blues backed off for a good showing one trip.
16. They might be their all the time, just waiting for the bluefish to give them slack to get to the baits first? Biggest fish of the week was a fine 30.8-pound striper by Richard Desaulnier of Waterford.
17. Jeffrey Frechette sent in another e-mail, this one about a trip to the Butterfish Hole off Montauk where they landed five blue sharks and missed others that ran off with the bait but didn't get hooked. On the way home they trolled green Tuna Clones and cedar jigs for five schoolie bluefin to 33 inches and two blues.
18. Capt. Kerry Douton at J&B noted boats are hooking many more schoolie bluefin now between the south end of the Butterfish Hole out to the Ranger wreck.
19. Porgy catches were good but not excellent. Fluking is best along the Rhode Island beaches but be ready for dogfish too.
20. Blue sharks are now prevalent offshore with a few makos and threshers hooked on a weekly not daily basis. One local boat ran down to Atlantis Canyon and got into a bite of white marlin. They raised 10 of the billfish, had seven grab the baits and released one.
21. Saturday's weather forecast doesn't sound so good for long runs out unless the remnants of Cindy take a different track than predicted.