New moon springs push fluke into the inlets, porgies stack up off Black Point

Last week the bay water finally got hot enough to matter. Niantic Bay's been running warm all June, and by the weekend it pushed into that uncomfortable zone for fluke — call it mid-to-upper 70s on the flats inside the bay. When that happens every summer, the same thing follows: the fluke slide out of the open bay and stack up in the current lanes where the water stays cooler and better oxygenated. That's exactly what the guys running out of Waterford and Niantic have been finding — Twotree Island Channel and the mouth of the Niantic River have been holding fish that the open bay gave up on. This week that pattern should hold, maybe sharpen, because we're heading into new moon on Thursday and that means building spring tides through the weekend, with the strongest current — and the best flush of cooler water through those inlets — lining up Saturday into Monday, July 11-13.

That same new-moon spring tide is the other big story for my zone. The stripers have been quiet for stretches this summer, but there's a PM flood-into-sunset window that's been setting up west of here on these building tides, and there's no reason it doesn't work the same way at Black Point and Hole-in-the-Wall. High water lining up with last light is about as good as it gets for resident bass working the rocks — this is the first setup like it since the full moon back in June. If you've got one evening to burn this week, Friday through Sunday around sunset on the flood is where I'd spend it.

On the fluke — the bite's been honest, not spectacular. Guys drifting Twotree Channel on the last two hours of the outgoing have been picking at fluke to 4 and 5 pounds, mixed in with a lot of short fish that make you work for your keepers. Depth's been 18 to 25 feet over that hard sand-to-mud bottom where the channel necks down. White and chartreuse 4-inch Gulp Swimming Mullets on 3/4-ounce bucktails are getting it done, dragged slow right on bottom, with a little snap on the rod tip to make that tail kick. Squid strips on the hook add some scent when the bite's sluggish, which it has been more mornings than not this week. The river mouth off Niantic has been similar — smaller sample size but better average size, a few fish pushing 6 pounds have come out of the deeper hole just inside the breakwater on the dropping tide.

Porgies are the one thing you can count on right now, and they've been genuinely good. Black Point and the reef structure off McCook Point are loaded — this is peak porgy season in the eastern Sound and the boats know it. Anchor up on the structure, bait up with sandworms or clam on a simple high-low rig, size 6 or 8 hooks, and you don't need much finesse. Fish are running 10 to 14 inches with enough jumbos mixed in to keep it interesting. Best bite's been on the slower current around the tide changes — dead high and dead low — rather than mid-tide when the current rips too hard through there and you're re-baiting more than fishing.

Sea bass have thinned out some compared to June, which tracks with the warm water pushing them to deeper structure. The party boats working the reefs off Black Point and out toward the Race are still connecting, but you're picking through more short fish than a month ago. Squid on a bucktail teaser dropped to the bottom, worked in 30 to 40 feet, is still the standard play. Keeper ratio's been maybe one in four or five — not bad, but nothing like the wide-open action from spring.

Bluefish have shown up in patches — nothing consistent, but there've been reports of choppers working bait pods off Hole-in-the-Wall in the early morning, and a few boats have run into blitzes chasing peanut bunker along the Black Point shoreline on the outgoing tide. If you see birds working tight to the surface out there, don't wait — that bite can shut off in twenty minutes. Diamond jigs or a Kastmaster in silver, worked fast through the school, has been the ticket when it's happening.

Blackfish are mostly an afterthought right now — warm water this time of year pushes them off the shallow rockpiles and onto deeper structure, and without a real cold snap there's not much reason to target them specifically. I'd leave that one alone until fall.

Looking at this week, the two things I'd build a trip around are the new-moon spring tide flood at sunset for stripers around Black Point and Hole-in-the-Wall — Friday through Monday is the window — and the outgoing tide fluke drift through Twotree Channel and the Niantic River mouth, which should keep producing as long as the bay stays warm and the fish stay pushed toward the inlets. If the wind stays out of the southwest and light like it's been, the porgy bite off Black Point is about as sure a thing as you'll find in this zone right now. Bring bug spray, bring patience for the short fluke, and don't sleep on that sunset tide — this is the best alignment we've had for bass since June.