Noreast.com, Eastern CT, 7/15

• Sporadic, short-lived summer heat waves and fluctuating weather patterns have created a moderate striped bass slowdown along the eastern Connecticut shoreline, forcing anglers to “turn and burn” from spot to spot until they find their prey. On a positive note, fluking is still fairly strong in many of the popular locations and the porgy bite has been very good from Niantic, east to Stonington.
• Jack from Shoreline Bait and Tackle in Old Saybrook reported “so-so” action along the immediate shoreline. The striper bite has definitely experienced a decrease in action, even along some of the more popular reefs, such as Southwest and Six Mile. Despite the slowdown, it certainly didn’t prevent Keith Salisbury from cashing in on some big fish. Salisbury managed to haul two beautiful cows over the transom that tipped the scales at 44 and 41 pounds while working an un-named local reef. Warmer water temps and the lack of bait may be two major contributing factors for the slowdown, according to Jack. For anglers hunting fluke, there is more encouraging news. Long Sand Shoal has been fairly productive with a decent pick of keeper flatties for those in the know. The blackfish bite continues to be very strong, highlighted by Dave Holland’s 11.25-pounder caught at Crane’s Reef. Holland mentioned he had to work through some enormous porgies before landing the aforementioned monster tog.
• “Q” from Rivers End also agreed the striper bite has been a bit “off” over the last week. “Q” actually fished on Friday morning and worked a lot of humps and bumps along many of the more productive local reefs and was a bit discouraged by the quality of fish. “Even when we found pockets of fish, they were generally smaller fish in the 18-25 pound range, whereas last week the exact same locations were yielding bass in the 30-40-pound class.” He also mentioned that last week’s productive nighttime bite at the mouth of the Connecticut is over.
• For folks in search of bunker, there are still small pods in the mouth of the Connecticut as well as the mouth of the Thames. Fluking has been solid, but the action, according to “Q”, has been spread out evenly all along the eastern Connecticut shoreline. Black Point, Sound View, Isabella, and some of the other local haunts have all provided a steady pick of fluke over the last five or six days.
• J&B Tackle in Niantic was hopping with customers, so Kyle could only provide a brief report. Fluking is strong at Isabella and along the mouth of the Thames River. Evidently, there are a couple of flats on either side of the river producing at a steady clip. The striped bass bite along the local reefs have been decent if you are looking for one or two good sized bass, but in terms of numbers, local charter captains have been forced to work extremely hard to meet their quotas. Bartlett and Hatchet’s Reef have yielded a decent pick of large bass, with some fish topping the scales at 40 pounds.
  
• On the other hand, The Race has been simply “okay” with regard to the striper bite. On some days, the bass are slamming bunker chunks, eels, and three-wayed bucktails, while on others the bass aren’t incredibly interested in anything you place in front of their noses. Conversely, there is no shortage of bluefish. These line-cutters have been consistently displaying their typical voracious appetites at The Race, Sluiceway and The Gut.
  
• Sharking has been solid along the Horns and Rangers. Local anglers have landed a good number of blues and threshers, as well as a 125-pound mako over the three or four days. On a side note, Captain Bill Brown of Billfish Charters out of Snug Harbor got one of his customers onto a thresher that weighed well over 400 pounds. Congrats to Captain Bill, absolutely one of the very best in the industry!
• Hillyers Bait and Tackle checked in with the following report. Black Point and Millstone Point are producing consistently with a mixed bag of blues and bass. It is not uncommon for local anglers fishing these two popular locations to pick up the occasional cow bass on a slowly trolled tube or three-wayed bucktail during the day or a drifted eel during the nighttime hours.
  
• The rocky shoreline around Harness Memorial Park has also provided some anglers fishing in small boats and kayaks with a couple of thrills with bass up to 21 pounds. Fluking has been a bit more hit-and-miss at Isabella, but still productive, while Falkner’s has emerged on the scene as this week’s top producing stretch of flat, sandy bottom. For doormat fluke, Misquamicut or Isabella is still your best bet, but you will have to deal with the heavy boater traffic to find your table fare.
• Further east, the Stonington shoreline continues to hold a vast amount of sand eels, lending credence to the great number of reports detailing a consistent striper bite throughout the area. Inside the harbor, light tackle anglers are having a blast catching small to medium sized stripers at the mouth of the Pawcatuck and along Sandy Point. The cut at the northern tip of Sandy Point has also produced bass up to 35 pounds. Stripers can also be had near the outer breakwall and up inside the harbor north to the railroad bridges, as well as the shallows near Elihu Island.
• Napatree has been a major disappointment this year as most fish taken from this hallowed ground have been of the schoolie variety. Making things even more difficult is the strong presence of small to large chopper bluefish working the whitewash along the Point. The rip along Watch Hill Light continues to provide local anglers with the best chance of hooking into a large bass. Over the last week, Sugar Reef has yielded a couple of cows exceeding 35 pounds, but overall, a majority of the catch has been unspectacular.
• On the charter front, Captain John Groff of Benmar Charters offered encouraging news from the reefs near Mystic, Connecticut. Fishing went from good to better to excellent as we went through the week. We were very happy to see some big cow stripers in some of our favorite haunts and fell prey to our intrepid anglers.
• The other big fish of the past few days was a 43-incher caught by Scott Staschke. His group ended up with 5 keepers and about 15 throwbacks plus a few blues and porgies. During the week we also had several other bass in the 36 to 39-inch range. We saw some very large schools of stripers on top but couldn't tell what they were feeding on. All in all, it was a very good week! (Roland St. Davis)