Your best chance for a bass or blue in The Race right now is the ebb tide, and if you pick the right spot in our waters, you have a chance of a keeper fluke, maybe a sea bass and loads of porgies on most of our near-shore rock piles.

Captain Jack Balint gave me this report from out on the water on a charter. There's been some bigger blues on top plus bass in the Middle Race on the ebb tide. Blues and some bass also popper up on the top to the south of the Sluiceway, out in the middle of "no where" said Jack.

You can troll keeper bass and more big blues on the south side of Fishers Island in the evening with a tube and worm sometimes in very dirty water. There is loads of scup back there, taking the worms just like the bass. Misquamicut had some good bites of fluke and sea bass, at times in the morning plus Jack got two reliable reports of keeper fluke off Seaflower and Vixen; a limit catch for a second boat there.

Captain Evan Douton told me their charter boats had some fair to good trips for daytime bass and a few more blues in The Race on the ebb tide, by far the better time right now.

A mix of sea bass, big porgies and fluke were caught at the West Grounds off Block Island, the same for anyone that wants to run down to Nebraska Shoal off Rhode Island. Tuna fishing is best for the larger boats in West Atlantis Canyon.

Karen at AW Marina reported lots of interest in fluke fishing, some customer coming back with keepers, others with not much at all. Three-waying eels are producing bass on the ebb tides at Valiant Shoal at low light or after dark and some big porgies are on the south side of Block Island. They recently weighed two scup from a trip to Block that weighed 2.35 pounds apiece.

Hillyers Tackle said they weighed in some larger fluke, all caught from state waters, the biggest 10.4 pounds on Saturday. Bass and some blues were feeding on the surface at times at first light or late in the afternoon at Bartlett's Reef. Some larger sea bass hit fluke baits drifted off Block Point, and not surprising considering our warming water a Spanish mackerel was caught in a net in the lower Connecticut River. This writer expects more southern fish if our warm summer continues.

Red at Bob's heard about one school of bass one day around the Mohegan Bridge, taking cut bunker and plugs. Sparse schools of bunker show up flipping on the surface of the river at first light then disappear for the day. You can find keeper fluke close to home if you look around. If you stick to just one spot, you'll likely toss back short after short.

Don at King Cove reported the wind and big swells tore the can off Napatree Point lose from its anchor, sending it over on the East Breakwater of Stonington Harbor. Sea bassing is fair to good, improving by the week off Misquamicut. The same boats also landed keeper fluke, culling through numerous shorts, fishing in shallower water than the week prior.

Tommy "The Turtle" Valyo got a surprise while trying for fluke, a 60.2-pound electric ray that grabbed his bait and took quite a while to bring to boat on his fluke rod. Porgy catches are excellent around the Watch Hill Reefs and Fishers Island rockpiles. Bass catches were up and down: last Saturday a good day trolling the tube and worm in the deeper water of Lord's Passage versus in the rips on the top of the reefs.

Down at River's End Mark said the fluking around Old Saybrook is better. One angler that didn't want to give his name nor give out any specifics of his catch had a fluke limit from 6 to 9 pounds. There are some school bass along the local beaches for those with shoreline access and some bunkers in close at times then gone for the next two days.

Single catches of large blues where chunked in the lower Connecticut River plus some keeper fluke from the shore at Saybrook Point. Porgy catches were fair and on the rise along with a few sea bass. Blue crabbing isn't bad but some of the more popular places get picked over. The first of the summer's snapper blues arrived around docks and marinas in the lower Connecticut River.

Tim Coleman is The Day's saltwater fishing columnist. He can be reached at thewreckhunter@aol.com