TheDay

• Fluke, one of the summer fishing staples, especially for folks that don't like to climb out of bed in the early morning to catch bass, are around in fair to good numbers, and best of all there were reports of keeper-sized fish caught closer to home, good news for those in smaller boats or those on a budget with today's high fuel prices.
• Bob's Rod & Tackle in Quaker Hill told me people are now landing some legal fluke in Connecticut waters though the ratio of shorts to keepers in still about four-to-one. If you find a school of bunker in the lower Thames you just might find blues to 10 pounds or bass to 36 inches under them.
• Allen Fee at Shaffers Boat Livery reported long-time slip customers Bob and Shelly Bellrose had five keeper fluke on their trip over the long weekend, drifting between Ellis Reef and White Rock, Prior to the holiday, all the better fishing was centered on the backside of Fishers Island or a run down to Rhode Island, east of Watch Hill. The people catching around Fishers are drifting in anywhere from 35-50 feet from South Beach to Isabella.
• One of the marina's charter boats came back from Sugar Reef with 8 bass to 30-plus pounds and two blues, those all caught with squid and lead core line. Allen also said they sold diamond jigs for striper fishing around Valiant Shoal on the first part of the flood tide and the Middle Race on the ebb. The fishing platform on the Mason's Island Bridge is finished, ready for school bass in the early morning or snapper blues later on.
• Porgy season opens in state waters on June 1 but to date there hasn't been any of the tasty, silver panfish.
• Al Golinski of Misquamicut said he and his wife enjoyed good fluke fishing off the Rhode Island beaches on Monday, landing quite a few keepers, fishing from 8 a.m. until noon. He spied some bunkers in the Pawcatuck, some of them flipping on the top of the water at noon instead of the usual time to see them, around sunrise.
• Capt. Al Anderson said he had a good evening trip to the North Rip at Block Island on Wednesday, landing quite a few smaller bass to 31 inches, trolling or stemming the rip in shallow water in closer to Sandy Point. On other trips last week they caught between 15 and 30 bass per trip in the lower parts of the Point Judith Salt Pond, trolling small umbrella rigs or flies. Also included during the day were 2-3-pound bluefish and a couple fluke that took the flies as well the smaller stripers.
• Moving over to King Cove Outfitters, I spoke with Bill who said the fluking along the Rhode Island beaches has been good, judging from what he saw on the docks during the long weekend. They are nice-sized bass to be caught on the Watch Hill Reefs on wire and squid lures or squid fished from an anchored boat with lead core line. The light tackle boats found schoolies in the rips, willing to hit lures early or late in the day.
• Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat is back with us, sending in an e-mail stating they are now on their weekend trips for bass and bluefish after a winter chasing cod. Fishing last week saw a mix of bass and blues that hit during the right part of the tide. Over Memorial Day, the combination of slower tides and lots of boats made for some lower numbers. Big fish of the week was a 17-pound striper by Kevin Dudley of Hartford.
• Capt. Howard Beers, retired charter captain, was minding the shop at Hillyer's Tackle. He said the striper fishing in The Race and local reefs was very good, probably at a spring peak. Some of the people coming back from New York waters had a good day of fluking, others said they had a harder time landing any fish over the 19.8-inch minimum size now in affect over at Montauk and Greenport.
• Capt. Kerry Douton at J&B observed it's beginning to look more and more like summer. Their charter boat had excellent trips to The Race for bass along with a few blues. Kerry advised all not to consider this fishing the norm. Stripers will move through on their annual migration, leaving it tougher to find bass out there in July than it is now.
• He called fluking fair to good, not outstanding, as people must concentrate on bigger fish with the new size limits. To date nobody has gone sharking; the only offshore reports at all were some dockside rumors about a few bluefin tuna landed way down in Hudson Canyon.
• Mark at River's End in Old Saybrook closed out our report with news of small and medium bass caught casting in the lower Connecticut River early in the morning and later in the day. Daytime fishing is poor. Along with the stripers are blues that are chopping up a lot of the plastic lures so popular with today's fishermen.
• You might land one of the first few fluke now in the lower river or maybe a few out on the Sand Shoal. Pat Abate, owner of the store, chose to go to Greenport instead of staying in state waters, catching keeper summer flounder and also a couple of sea bass. (Tim Coleman).