Color of the week on the water is blue ... and they're everywhere

We had some nice reports indeed this week: the blues finally moved into areas around The Race in good numbers, best on the ebb tide, popping up here and there, caught on a variety of methods from Race Point over to the Sluiceway. On a down note the fluke fishing in eastern Long Island and Fishers Island Sound is not producing a lot of keepers unless one fishes out in very deep water.

Captain Jack Balint at The Fish Connection starts us off this week by reporting a couple shore anglers came in for frozen bait at 7 a.m. yesterday and were back at 8:30 for more, catching blues at buoy 27. The Race now appears to have blues up to our usual high standard, our area maybe offering the best blue fishing on the east coast?

Jack trolled up a few bass to 35 pounds on the tube and worm on the south side of Fishers in very dirty water. There are also porgies to three pounds along that stretch, best right now off the castle at the east end and the reef off Isabella Beach. Chunkers caught some bass on the Watch Hill Reefs and at spots close by in Fishers Island Sound. There were also some bass on top on the WHR for casters during the middle of the tide, not much the first hour.

Down at River's End in Old Saybrook, Mark Lewchick said one of the regulars has been catching large fluke from 7-11 pounds fishing big baits in water as deep as 150 feet. To tend bottom at those depths during the strength of the tide he employs as much as 36 ounces of lead (20- and 16-ounce sinkers fished together).

Bunkers were thick in the lower Connecticut River as of yesterday morning. Live baiters landed a 52-inch bass from just outside Cornfield Point rocks and a 52-pound bass from Goshen Reef along with some large blues from the latter rock pile. A mix of large porgies and small blackfish are coming from most of the better-known reefs from Old Saybrook to Clinton.

Roger at J&B said people with larger boats, leaving from Niantic, caught yellowfin and bigeye tuna in West Atlantis canyon during the week. Blue fishing in Middle Race picked up along with bass at Valiant Shoal. Roger has been heading over to Sugar Reef when the boat traffic is down, casting eels into the curling rip, catching stripers.

Porgies are big this year, available on most near-shore rocks. Fluking is hit or miss with today's larger minimum sizes, better over at Block Island along with much better sea bassing than is available in the eastern Sound.

Al Golinski of Misquamicut reported some good trips for sea bass on the rocky humps off Misquamicut. One day they headed out to deeper water, fishing a wreck in 95 feet, landing jumbo porgies two at a time. He also made one striper trip, taking out two friends that landed 10 medium bass, a couple on weighted dead bunker in the deeper holes around the reefs, the rest on chunks on the bottom from his anchored boat.

Red at Bob's Tackle told me his customers are catching some keeper fluke in the Sound but working "like hell" for them, culling through lots of shorts. The porgy fishing though is good and getter better, keeping lots of people happy, including those fishing from shore in the lower Thames River. Blues moved into The Race, competing with bass for lures and drifted bait. Block Island is good for sea bass, two seven-pounders reported by store customers this year.

Hillyers in Waterford noted the fluke report from the eastern Sound is one of mainly short after short unless you fish in very deep water off Black Point, to name but one spot where you can catch a doormat if you put in the time. A few locals and visitors are catching summer blackfish but overall not many are targeting this fish right now.

Snapper blues showed up in the Niantic River but so far this summer there hasn't been any showing of either hickory shad or bunker, those both good for striper bait and also drawing fish close enough for shore anglers to catch them around the road and train bridges.

Tim Coleman is The Day's saltwater fishing columnist.