Striped bass explode at the Race as porgy bite booms across CT shore

What's biting

What's next

With a new moon in play, expect stronger tidal swings over the next few days — bigger water movement through hotspots like the Race should keep the striped bass bite active, since J&B Tackle already flagged that stretch as fantastic "throughout our region" with topwater eating best around tide changes. Anglers targeting the Race or similar current-driven structure should plan trips around the moving tide rather than dead high or low, per the pattern J&B Tackle described this week.

The porgy bite shows no signs of slowing. AW Marina and Black Hawk are both reporting strong numbers, and with sandworm, squid, and clam bait sales climbing at AW Marina, expect the shore-based scup crowd to keep piling into Fort Trumbull Pier, Avery Point, and Pleasure Beach through the coming days. If black sea bass continue mixing into those bottom catches the way Black Hawk and Tartan II both describe, anglers bottom fishing structure alongside the porgy grounds have a good shot at a mixed bag rather than a single-species trip.

Striped bass should stay a strong bet into the weekend. Tartan II is already producing boat limits of slot fish with larger bass mixed in, and afternoon trips have been particularly good there — a pattern worth planning around when scheduling a trip this week. Watch for that afternoon window to keep producing as water temperatures hold through the typical mid-July warm stretch.

Fluke is the one soft spot worth tempering expectations on. Black Hawk's most recent fluke trip underperformed relative to their bottom-fishing trips, so anglers primarily chasing flatties may want to treat porgy and sea bass structure as the more reliable target for now, checking back for fluke reports as the week progresses.

No fresh buoy or gauge readings came through this cycle, so anglers should check the latest NOAA buoy and USGS gauge data plus the local marine forecast before heading out, especially for wind and sea-state conditions around exposed spots like the Race. Given the strong tidal push a new moon typically brings to Long Island Sound, current speed at current-driven spots is worth watching closely for both safety and bite timing.

Context

Mid-July striped bass activity at pinch points like the Race is a fairly typical pattern for Long Island Sound — moving water through structure-heavy passages tends to concentrate bait and stripers as the broader Sound warms and fish push toward deeper, current-swept terrain. J&B Tackle's call of "the best topwater action of the season" this week suggests this year's push into the Race is running on the stronger end of normal rather than a lagging or early season.

The scup (porgy) bite AW Marina and Black Hawk describe — driving bait sales "through the roof" and producing boat limits — also tracks with the expected mid-summer pattern for Connecticut's rocky shoreline and nearshore structure, where porgies are a dependable summer staple once water temperatures stabilize. Black sea bass beginning to mix into those catches, as both Black Hawk and Tartan II note, lines up with the typical progression of species layering onto structure as the season advances.

Fluke lagging behind the other bottom species this week is worth watching rather than treating as a red flag; fluke fishing can be patchy trip-to-trip even in a normal season, and one softer outing at Black Hawk isn't enough signal to call a trend.

No direct buoy or gauge readings were available this cycle to compare against seasonal norms for water temperature or flow, so this context is drawn entirely from angler and shop reporting rather than instrumented data. Anglers wanting a harder read on where temperatures stand relative to typical mid-July conditions should cross-check the next data refresh once buoy and gauge feeds are back online.