Norwich Bulletin

• Striped bass: The summer heat appears to have slowed catches of larger striped bass from the lower Connecticut River to the west, though there are still some big fish chasing schools of menhaden.
• Bluefish: The Race is full of bluefish as it should be this time of year. Hillyer's noted the head and charter boats were taking some big fish of 10 pounds or more on a more consistent basis lately.
• Fluke: The Rhode Island beaches are definitely producing the best fluke catches numbers-wise, though during the last week more fluke have pushed their way into the east end of Long Island Sound.
• Scup: Porgy fishing is not in the reports lately, because most anglers are chasing the other more glorious species. But as the summer progresses, their numbers will increase.
• Black sea bass: Captain Morgan of his namesake shop in Madison said he began to see 4-pound to 5-pound sea bass in the shop over the last week or so.
• Crabs: Crabbing in the lower Connecticut River and Oyster River was hot for big stuff a couple weeks ago. Recently, the number of big crabs has dropped off, though there are still many shorts around that will grow up by fall.
• Bait: Menhaden continue to school in the lower Thames River and in most of the estuaries along the coast, though numbers have thinned out in some areas.
• Freshwater Bass: Fishing continues to be very good throughout the area. While fishing with my buddy, Captain Eric Covino of Playing Hookie Charters, on a busman's holiday for him last Thursday evening, he caught a 5-pounder along with a few other largemouths ranging from 2 pounds to 4 pounds, on a Sloppee Pig Jr. in a shallow, weedy Rhode Island Pond.
• Pike: This time of year, waters are warm and pike will only be active early or late in the day and during cooling rains. They can easily be stressed when caught so, like trout, it's probably better not to target them until the water cools back down into the 60s.
• Walleye: There hasn't been a great deal of talk about his species in area lakes, with Gardner Lake being particularly quiet this season. A couple people I know who live near Gardner Lake have taken fish to 8 pounds this year.