Our waters are famous for producing outsized striped bass and we have another one to report, this one a potential world record. On the evening of Aug. 4, perhaps into the early morning of Aug. 5, Greg Myerson drifted a live eel in deep water at the end of the ebb tide on a rock pile off Westbrook and landed an 81.8-pound striper.

If this is accepted by the International Game Fish Association, it will become the heaviest bass ever caught with rod and reel, surpassing the 78.8-pound fish caught by Albert McReynolds off a jetty in Atlantic City, N.J., on the night of Sept. 21, 1982. Greg's catch has to be considered one of the top accomplishments in the sport fishing world.

In more everyday news, Captain Jack at The Fish Connection told me the casting is better now from Race Point to the Sluiceway, both small to medium bass and blues of various sizes are chasing one to four-inch butterfish around, sometimes on the surface. There has also been more surface feeding under birds around the west end of the Watch Hill Reefs.

Best chance for keeper fluke continues to be in deep water, maybe 80 feet on the south side of Fishers and even deeper off Black Point. Scup are on most of the rock piles from Fishers Island Sound down to Black Point and shore anglers along the Thames caught blues on chunk bait on the bottom.

Al Golinski took some people on Tuesday evening in the rough weather before the rain started, catching two small bass and two 12-pound blues casting small plastic lures in the rips on the west end of Watch Hill Reefs. Al also said they lost lures to bluefish biting through the light mono leaders.

Mark at Hillyers Tackle said people are casting to bass on top at times around Bartletts Reef, both inner and outer parts, the bass and blues chasing schools of butterfish. Fluking for keepers is still best in deep water from Black Point to Outer Hatchetts. Porgies catches are good, black fishing, very slow. Scup can be caught from most rocky high spot from Goshen Reef to the east side of Black Point, the latter a spot for small boat to often duck into the lee of a southwest wind.

Captain Kerry at J&B Tackle is still busy fishing offshore along the canyon edges. The catch has been small yellowfin, some medium yellows, a few bigeyes and of late, mahi to 34 pounds. Most of the catching has been during the day, the night bite was very slow except for some small swordfish caught from the Hudson to Hydrographer Canyons, both a long ride from Niantic.

Kerry also had a report of cod caught on clams on the south side of Cox's Ledge then the people in that boat spied a nearby poly ball that had small mahi under it. They used unweighted clams tossed to the fish under the ball with spinning rods and landed about 15 of the small dolphin. How's that's for an unusual catch, cod in the bottom of the cooler, mahi on the top?

Pat at River's End said there are a "few more" keeper fluke in shallower water off Soundview but overall the deeper water off Black Point is best for summer flounder big enough to take home. During the day the local reefs are producing blues and at night some bass on live eels on a three-way rig. Schools of butterfish are providing some casting to small and medium bass around Race Point and The Gut.

Shore anglers are finding a few stripers after dark from Old Lyme to Waterford but persistence is the name of that game. You must overlook the nights without a bite, coming back for another try when you do catch a fish or two.

Captain Brad Glas of the Hel-Cat closes out our report with news the blue fishing is about as "good as it gets." There were a couple days when the fish bite at one place on a certain tide and a different place on the next tide but some traveling around "got the job done." Fish are taking both bait and lures, the customers have their choice of methods. Big fish of the week was an 18-pound bass by Paul Levesque from Connecticut who had the touch to get a striper through all the blues.

Tim Coleman is The Day's saltwater fishing columnist.