TheDay: It's Been A Tough Year For Casting In The Surf

• Our big news this week is two jumbo bass in one day caught on the Watch Hill reefs, presumably on live or yo-yoed large baits. One of the fish was ounces shy of 60; the other was 60 on the nose, landed by two different anglers.
• Capt. Don's in Charlestown weighed in bass of 27 and 28 pounds. The first was caught by Matthew Gaudio of Cheshire, trolling a tube and worm in the breachway, and the second, by Ian Snow Of East Hampton on a green surface plug at the breachway boat ramp just before low tide just before dark.
• Best fluking was out in 80-100 feet east of Watch Hill and 70-80 feet off Quonny. Tube and worm trollers had a good day on Wednesday fishing in 17 feet of water off the cottages. Blues were in and out of the surf, heavy at times, chasing small bait that is bringing fish in close after a very slow summer of surfcasting.
• Al Golinski of Misquamicut caught snapper blues with his cast net and used them for bait for 5-7-pound fluke off the Rhode Island beaches. He also caught some sea bass to 4 pounds when his drifts took him close to the many rockpiles in these spots. They made one trip for bass, landing five stripers to 25 pounds on live scup.
• The Fish Connection spokesman told me the bunkers are still in the Thames River, and they are still selling snagging hooks for shore and boat anglers that wish to snag a bunker and live line it for blues or maybe a bass.
• Fluking in local waters slowed down, not in numbers but sizes seem to be dropping with more shorts than keeper. Porgies are about every spot but a lot were on the smaller side, too small to keep according to many that came back for more bait.
• Customers are still seeing school stripers up on the surface from the south side of Fishers Island over past Watch Hill. These are very finicky fish feeding on small bait, turning up their noses at a lot of lures tossed at them. One item that is working was the 4-inch Super Fluke in white, rigged not on a lead head but just a hook. Bonito are around but showing up for a time then zooming off some place for the next couple days.
• Capt. Allen Fee at Shaffers Marina was counting worms when I called. He said Mike Mellow and his dad Jay, both from Mystic, were out trolling the tube and worm on the north side of Fishers Island, between the Castle and the golf course, for a 46-inch bass. Others from here landed large stripers drifting live porgies or shad at Valiant Shoal.
• Capt. Bruce continues to land medium and large bass on his charters, using lead line and chunks of mackerel or squid on the Watch Hill Reefs. Snappers can be caught from shore at the Masons Island Bridge and porgies from the Mystic River Park. Fluke season closes on Sept. 5.
• Red at Bob's Rod & Tackle was taking a moment after a busy week, as one might expect during the height of the summer rush to get on the water. He's heard about keeper fluke caught in shallower water, the fish coming in after the small bait around just like the stripers and blues. Tube and worm trollers caught blues and bass in the Thames. Shore angler using chunks or worms also landed some blues—if the porgies let the bait alone long enough for a bigger fish to find it. Black fishing is done until the cooler waters of the coming fall that isn't that far away.
• Capt. Brad Glas sent his regular e-mail saying the blue fishing picked up this past week just as predicted and the bass hit as usual at a certain stage of the tide. They also caught some nice fluke on the evening trips despite “some trying weather conditions.” The last fluke trip of the season will be Aug. 25. Big fish of the week was a fine 30-pound striper caught by Randy Lubinski, a very regular patron who usually fishes out of the port corner of the stern.
• Capt. Howard Beers at Hillyers said one of the regular striper anglers told him Wednesday night was very good for bass around the shoal, with the fish still hitting early in the morning for the charter boats out and about at that time. Fluking is holding up in very deep water for those with the patience to look for the doormats with big smelt and a strip of squid or just the smelt itself.
• Hickory shad were caught above the road bridge for sport or bass bait early in the morning or dusk but not much doing the day. Crabbing is good but snappers are on the small side.
• Capt. Joey Devine of the Mijoy reported blue fishing was good overall last week plus they caught a few bass on some of the days. In addition they landed a 27-inch fluke on whole herring along with a small number of others to 5 pounds.
• Roger over at J&B Tackle said if you put in your time drifting eels at Outer Bartletts on the ebb tide after dark you could come up with some larger bass. Blue fishing was good in The Race for the charter boats with bass mixed in early in the morning or at certain stages of the tide.
• They also got a reliable report of false albacore at Watch Hill, the only such report all week. Fluke were caught in 80-plus feet off the Rhode Island beaches or in very close like the 27-incher from Stonington Harbor along with some shorts. Tube and worm trollers had some medium bass along the shoreline plus some larger ones for those that used tubes so large they are called radiator hoses.
• Sherwood Lincoln of East Lyme took out a friend to deep-water fluke spots off Niantic, landing two limit catches to 9 pounds. He also took this writer and Dr. Frank Bush of Hebron for pictures for a magazine article. In three hours we caught stripers of 27, 37 and 43 inches, plus missed two others between Black Point and the Bartletts Spindle.
• We close with Pat at River's End Tackle who said there are more bunkers in the lower Connecticut River probably the reason shore anglers are chunking up more bluefish and smaller bass in the river. Every once in a while a shore chunker lands a bonus, a striper over 40 inches.
• Pat heard about one very good night of striper fishing in The Race (Valiant Shoal) and large fluke in declining numbers off the local shores in water over 80 feet deep. (Tim Coleman).