TheDay - It's The Season For Fluke

• Large porgies can be caught right from shore between the Niantic bridges plus around various navigational markers in Niantic Bay. Hickory shad move in and out of the river along with a school of bunkers that arrive one day then disappear for the next two or three tides.No big bass were weighed in the last few days, said Richard at Hillyers Tackle, but he did see fluke on the scales, including a real doormat of 13.14 pounds caught by Krista Rokicki of Hebron off Misquamicut on a rig consisting of two bucktail jigs each sweetened with a strip of squid.
• Al Golinski of Misquamicut took his wife out for a day of successful fluke drifting on Sunday at various spots off Weekapaug and Charlestown. The next day he used live bunker on the Watch Hill reefs for three stripers from 15 to 25 pounds plus two blues. In the morning he fished a 30-foot section of gill net to get bait in a local river. While waiting for bunkers to hit the net, he and his partner cast snag hooks to pass the time. Besides adding a few bunker to the live well, Al's friend managed to snag a 10-pound bluefish with the snagger.
• Capt. Don's in Charlestown said medium and large scup are on most any rockpile between Watch Hill Passage and Fresh Pond Rocks. Tautog season reopens in Rhode Island waters Saturday. If you arrive off Quonny Breachway at first light you might be able to catch hickory shad with a small lure and light rod then use then for striper bait off the rocks east of the breachway or maybe the outer reef at Charlestown.
• Surf anglers, some of them from Connecticut, caught small blues and schoolies between the Fire District Beach and Blue Shutters at sunrise on some mornings, very little on others.
• Capt. Al Anderson has yet to make an offshore trip for sharks, saying the weather has been keen against such plans ever time he's been scheduled to go. The water off to the east is very, very cold, even for sharking. It's been much better from 30 fathoms south of Block Island over to the Butterfish Hole.
• Bass charters to the North Rip and southeast corner of Block Island produced over 100 bass total tagged and released along with bluefish; all caught trolling small tubes on umbrella rigs meant to imitate all the sand eels in the water. On the Saturday evening trip they found the North Rip solid with bass the whole four hours, seeing lots of surface breaks and ending up with 28 stripers caught both casting and trolling.
• Fluking has been good and steady, said Don at King Cove Outfitters in Stonington. He rated the south side of Fishers as better than running to Rhode Island, saying the latter spot has a much higher ratio of short to keepers as of this report. Striper fishing was productive for the steadies on the Watch Hill reefs, trolling parachutes jigs on wire line or weighting a whole, live bunker and drifting it near the bottom in many of the deeper holes between the reefs.
• Joe Gilbert went out for fluke and returned on two consecutive trips with keeper fluke along with three nice sea bass per outing. Small blues and schoolie stripers can be caught at sunrise from shore from Stonington Point over to East Beach. The catching though is up and down, fair one day, very little the next time.
• Capt. Allen Fee was minding the store at Shaffer's Marina when I called. He and his wife fished off the Pink House on Tuesday, settling for three keeper fluke but lots of shorts. Porgy numbers are good to excellent for both rental boats and slip customers at many of the rocky humps from outside the Monastery to the Napatree Point bell. Striper numbers were down the last couple days from previous weeks said Allen.
• Bob's Rod & Tackle advised all readers in small boats to try for keeper fluke on either side of the Thames River before running down to Rhode Island. Bunkers are in the Thames, keeping bluefish in the river along with some keeper bass. Find the bunkers and the fish will likely not be far away. Blackfish were caught on crabs and worms around the rocky haunts on either side of the Thames River mouth.
• Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat is like clock work with his e-mail on the fishing since last report. The daily bluefish trips have been “excellent” and the bass numbers “not too shabby either.” The afternoon fluke outings produced both sizes and numbers past what they expected said Brad, one of the trips so good they came close to limiting out on keepers. Biggest fluke of the week was 8 pounds with quite a few close to that and the biggest striper of the week, 17 pounds caught by Eric Westerly of Brewerton, N.Y.
• Capt. Jack Balint took time wrestling with some boat gremlins to tell me the bass numbers dropped down from what they were. The best catching was three-waying with 1-1/4 to 1-1/2-ounce bucktails. He recommended Seaflower or the east end of Fisher Island in 40 to 60 feet of water for fluke this coming weekend. Blackfish were landed off Junk Island and the school of bunkers in the Thames continues to hold bass to 40 inches and some big blues as far at times upriver as Norwich. The fishery is attracting a following said Jack, adding they are selling dozens of snag hooks per day in his tackle store.
• Capt. Kerry Douton at J&B Tackle said their charter boat is catching lots of blues in The Race and bass at times though they did have to deal with some slow periods due to very weak tides. You should be able to locate keeper fluke from the entrance of Niantic Bay over to Two Tree channel. Sharking is good right now off Montauk with lots of blue sharks though very few makos at this time.
• Canyon fishing is slow to sporadic, many holding back until firmer news comes in due to the high price of fuel needed to make the long run. A few bluefin were sighted on shark drifts off Montauk but nothing yet to plan a day around. (by Tim Coleman, org. published by the Day)