TheDay: Bluefish Strong On Charter Journey

• We start this week with an e-mail from Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat. Brad said the blue fishing in The Race improved this week after a prior period where the fish bit only during a very narrow window of opportunity. That window is now expanded and numbers improving, the situation very normal for this time of year, said Brad. In addition to the bluefish, the bass catch was strong on the Sunday trip. Big fish of the week was a striped bass caught by Kyle Schoessow of Clinton Corners, N.Y.
• Capt. Al Anderson of Snug Harbor has been fishing offshore as much as the weather will allow. On one trip he ran down to 14650 x 43575 for 9 mahi and two yellow fin to 44 pounds, all trolling in and around the high flyers. On the way back they hit a 72-pound bluefin that took a spreader bar near the Outer Butterfish Hole. The next time out Al and crew went south of the Dump around 43600. They trolled past 29 high flyers but landed only four small mahi for the entire day during a very stiff west-running tide.
• On a third trip they went back to 650 x 575 for two mahi and two small yellows. Radio reports from boats around 43400 told about a few more yellows and some long fin but several boats responded that they did not have a bite the entire day.
• In inshore fishing, Al trolled up smaller bass and lots of blues at times from Southeast Light to the North Rip of Block Island. A private boat from Snug Harbor fished the Southwest Corner of Cox's Ledge on Tuesday for 20 cod to 20 pounds on clams, also saying the dogfish were not much of a problem. August is one of two months, March being the other, were we seem to have a chance of catching cod on our once productive grounds.
• Al Golinski of Misquamicut was nursing a sore knee so he only fished once last week, catching a nice mess of sea bass to 4 pounds and medium fluke on rock piles east of the trailer part at Weekapaug. He saw a school of green bonito on the surface that day and also a school of small bass chasing very tiny bait when he went past Watch Hill light.
• Capt. Don's in Charlestown told me about small and a keeper bass caught in Quonny Breachway just at the top of the flood tide and also at the end of the east jetty early in the morning. Scup can be caught from shore along the breachway rip-rap and East Beach. Tube and worm trollers did well, including those using synthetic versions of both sand and blood worms on the red tubes versus the real thing. Best fluke catches were out in deeper water, maybe 60-65 feet.
• We heard about a school of bonito off Watch Hill on Sunday, said Bill at King Cove, the first such report of the summer. Porgies are biting well and bass also steady, the big fish taking live bait or live eels, the smaller fish up on the surface chasing very tiny forage, ignoring most lures except very small flies.
• Capt. Jack Balint of the Fish Connection just got back from his yearly, two-week vacation to Alaska, rating the trip as about average with the exception of one 24-hour period where they stayed inside during five inches of rain.
• Locally, there are reports of bonito between Pleasure Beach and Harkness with one or two landed on hook and line. Tuesday saw bigger blues on a morning charter trip to The Race. A school of bunker in the upper Thames continues to hold some 40-plus-inch fish in the river. While Jack was away the shop sold 375 snagging rigs of various kinds, indicating the amount of interest in snagging bunker then live lining one for a big bass.
• Some keeper fluke were caught between Seaflower and the Dumplings but the better action was off Misquamicut in deeper water on whole squid on a two-hook rig.
• Capt. Allen Fee was minding the store at Shaffers during a day that saw fog, rain and winds predicted to gust over 30 mph. Snapper blues have moved into the Mason's Island Bridge. Lots of smaller bass were sighted on top from Sugar Reef to the back of Fishers Island, chasing some krill-like creature, the 24-inch stripers hard to fool with standard poppers.
• Some larger bass were caught casting eels into shore around the Fishers Island airport, said Allen and also some landed drifting eels on a three-way rig at Valiant Shoal early in the day. There have been good fluke reports from the dropoffs on the east side of Block Island but lots of porgies in Fishers Island Sound made it harder and harder to drift for fluke. Don't forget, the fluke season in state waters closes on Sept. 5.
• Hillyers Tackle weighed in some better bass caught early and late in the day on live eels and bucktails from Outer Bartletts plus other bass chunked up from the south end of the productive reef. Shore anglers caught blues at times from Jordan Cove and also a few more from the beach by the Niantic boardwalk, a very popular place to catch a cooler breeze or talk a walk on a summer evening.
• Frozen smelt are working on fluke around the edges of any high spot. One gent brought in a 13-pound weakfish caught inside Niantic Bay, not the first he landed this season but didn't provide any more details. Big porgies can be caught on the rock piles around Black Point and the entrance to Jordan Cove. Snapper blues are in the Niantic River but not near as good as the last couple summers.
• Roger was minding the shop at J&B, saying he and others had good catches of fluke from 60-80 feet off the Rhode Island beaches. At times they added a high hook to the fluke rig and landed nice sea bass when they drifted past a rocky high spot. Bass catches have been OK to poor. Chunkers at times started off with some bass but ended up with lots of blues that moved in and took over from the stripers. Big porgies can be landed around White Rock and Ram Island Reef.
• Mark at River's End closes out the week with news of some large bass at Outer Hatchetts Reef on live bait and schoolies on the surface after tiny bait on the south side of Fishers Island. Some single larger blues were caught in the lower Connecticut River on chunks on the bottom and smaller ones popped up on the surface off Goshen Reef, gone the next morning.
• Blue crabbing is pretty good in the rivers that feed the Connecticut and you might find keeper fluke along the edges of the river's main channel if summer boat traffic allows you to drift in peace. (Tim Coleman).