TheDay End Of The Season Is Getting Closer

• Al Golinski took out his brother Richard and friend Bill Woods from Cape Cod on a striper trip to the Watch Hill Reefs where Bill caught his first ever bass, a 47-pounder and Richard, a 40-pounder. The trio also landed six other fish from 20 pounds into the low 30s, all on live bunker fished in about 50 feet of water.
• Good blue fishing out in The Race was the news from Capt. Joey Devine of the Mijoy. Joey said they caught good counts of bluefish during the week past and had a pick of striped bass on a few days plus some incidental catches like two eight-pound fluke that took the whole herring and a sea bass over five pounds.Al also took out his wife Emme for some fluke this past Sunday. Fishing in deeper water off the Rhode Island beaches the pair landed limits from 20-24 inches plus some porgies over two pounds. One of Al's fishing sources was drifting a live scup meant for bass off Watch Hill when a 30-pound bluefin tuna grabbed it instead.
• Surf fishing is very good right now, said Capt. Don's in Charlestown. People out after dark during the full moon and early in the morning caught stripers to 20 pounds and lots of blues from 6-9 pounds. One of his regulars, a fellow visiting from Florida, caught 19 blues and four bass, fishing from 2:30-7:30 a.m. on Tuesday on popping plugs and small plastic lures.
• Bonito were thick at times off Watch Hill, missing on others, plus some bass were caught on the east side of the light on a foggy evening last Saturday. Trollers using only a red tube, no sandworm, caught larger blues in Quonny Pond and fluking is holding up outside the beaches in deeper and deeper water.
• Capt. Al Anderson reported the offshore fishing is good along the canyon edges but much less so from 50 fathoms back inshore. He tried a few times this week shy of the 100-fathom curve to land a few mahi, a few yellowfin and some skipjack when he found schools of krill within 50 feet of the surface. If the schools of krill were much deeper you trolled over them all day without a hit.
• Inshore there are blues on the East Grounds and Camelback and a few smaller stripers in 60-80 feet on the outermost bar at North Rip. On the one shark trip they made, they saw a huge tiger shark come under the boat but Al elected not to try and bait it with the tackle they had on board.
• There is a bite of 600-800-pound giant tuna as of this report in the Mud Hole east of Block Island. One boat harpooned a fish just at dusk but lost the ball in the dark. The next morning a boat coming back from Atlantis Canyon saw the ball moving over the surface, retrieved it and boated the giant that weighed over 700 pounds. The tuna fishermen on the two different boats involved in the combined catch got together over the phone and reached an agreement over the fish that was very, very skinny.
• Capt. Allen Fee at Shaffers weighed in a 13-pound fluke caught by a fellow in a 15-foot boat at buoy 7 at the mouth of the Mystic River, the only hit the man had all day long. There are lots of blues on the surface at times around the east end of Fishers and Middle Clump. Big porgies are on most of the humps in Fishers Island Sound like the two jumbos caught by Griffin Motherway Christian, age 5, at Red Reef on trip with his grandfather, Dave. “Griff” we were told is a future high liner, working his way up from snapper blues to big scup and obviously bigger game later on.
• Black fishing will close down on Sept. 7 in state waters and reopen on the 20th, a date Allen said will be marked on the calendars on many at the marina.
• We were into blues all day, said Capt Jack Balint of the Fish Connection, reporting on the results of a charter on Tuesday. They found the fish three miles south of Watch Hill and stayed with them all the way to South Beach off Fishers Island. Jack also found a few bass, bluefish and a few bonito on the surface early in the day around Race Rock and Race Point.
• Tubing on the south side of Fishers was good if the surface bite faded as the sun got higher. In three trips they boated about 30 keeper-sized stripers. Blue crabbing is also good along the Thames River with some customers getting 30 in a day just walking the bank and scooping up the crabs they see in the water.
• Red at Bob's Rod & Tackle said people along the banks of the Thames River got lots of small porgies last week on worms on the bottom along with some keepers. Bluefish continue to chase after the bunker schools. On Monday they were thick up in Norwich Harbor. Stripers were caught in the river trolling the tube and worm or casting live eels into the rocks on shore or just outside the river mouth.
• Snappers are pleasing the kids and fluke anglers getting in their last week of fishing before the season closes on Sept. 5, the last day of fishing allowed until the new regulations come out for 2008.
• Capt. Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat said they had a good week for blues and bass, fishing in four days of straight easterly winds that turned on the fish and kept a lot of smaller boats off the grounds. Fluke trips are done for the year, ending on a good note on this past Saturday. Big fish of the week was a 21-pound striper caught by Claude Vinhaterio who subscribes to theory “if you want to catch a lot of fish, fish often.”
• Richard had the duties at Hillyers Tackle when I called. He reported weighing in a 55.9-pound bass caught in the Sluiceway with live eel in the middle of the night. Shore anglers were treated to a bluefish blitz on Tuesday evening at Harkness Park. Fluking is slowing down, just in time for close of the fishery in a week.
• Schoolie bass were on the surface some evenings in close to Black Point or just out in the rip not that far from the beach. A school of bunker is in Niantic Bay as of press time, moving around a lot not doubt chased by blues. Hickory shad can be caught above the Niantic Bridges in the early morning or at dusk or maybe snagged down deep in the middle of the day.
• Capt. Kerry Douton at J&B took time from a busy workday to say the offshore fishing is good out along the canyon shelf but much, much slower from 50 fathoms on inside. Boats making the long run from the Dip to Atlantis caught a mix of yellows, long fin and some big eye, trolling and at anchor at night.
• Sharkers are getting a few fish for a much shorter ride but settling for one or two bites per trip. Scup fishing is excellent on all the humps and striper fishing is in its usual August position, big fish after dark and a pick in The Race during the day, usually at the end of the tide.
• Pat at River's End reported he was getting ready for the long weekend with weather going into the northeast after a front passes through on Friday evening. From last Sunday through Wednesday morning a large school of blues were chasing bunkers of all sizes from Westbrook to Old Lyme. The fish were in close enough at times to reach from shore for people with access to the beach.
• Fluking is going down hill unless you fish in 120-160 feet off Niantic and Waterford. Porgy fishing is very good but most people interested in them want them only for striper bait. The live bait crew is taking some large fish during the day; working over what is left of the summer residents said Pat. (Tim Coleman)