Striped bass push into the Race as Connecticut's porgy bite stays hot

What's biting

What's next

With a new moon in play, expect stronger-than-average tidal swings over the next few days — the moving water that both J&B Tackle's Race striper action and the shoreside porgy bite are keying off. If the pattern holds, look for the topwater bite at the Race to stay lit through the strong tide stages, with dawn and dusk on the outgoing tide the highest-percentage window; slack water has been the slower patch this week, with Tartan II noting their afternoon trips have produced the bigger bass.

Porgy and scup action should keep building through the weekend as water holds in the low-to-mid 70s per buoy 44025 and buoy 44065 — warm enough to keep bait active around structure without pushing fish off the bite the way a sharp heat spike sometimes does. Fort Trumbull Pier, Avery Point, and Pleasure Beach remain the named hotspots per AW Marina's report, and nothing in this week's data suggests that changes soon; expect bait shops to keep restocking sandworms, squid, and clams.

Regionally, The Fisherman (Northeast)'s Long Island video forecast flags striped bass as the headline from Montauk into Long Island Sound, with fluke, porgies, and bluefish providing steady action around the Island — a pattern that should keep bleeding into CT's western Sound waters as bait pushes through on the tides. Offshore, that same report notes tuna fishing improving with more boats connecting on yellowfin and bluefin, plus a bluefin push reported south of Montauk — not a direct Sound play, but worth watching for anglers running offshore from eastern CT ports.

Black sea bass should keep mixing in steadily alongside the porgy bite rather than becoming the headline species; nothing in this week's reports points to a sudden pickup. Fluke is the one soft spot to watch — Black Hawk's Thursday trip underperformed relative to their bottom-fishing results, and the region-wide 'steady' fluke language elsewhere is a lower bar than what stripers and porgies are doing right now. Anglers planning a weekend trip should prioritize dawn/dusk moving-water windows at the Race for stripers, and daytime bottom fishing at the CT piers for a reliably filled cooler of porgies, with sea bass as a bonus.

Context

Late July in Long Island Sound typically marks the shift from spring migratory patterns into a settled summer rhythm, and this week's reports fit that mold closely — nothing here reads as unusually early or late. Striped bass holding strong at the Race into mid-July, rather than pushing to deeper, cooler water, is a normal seasonal pattern for CT's eastern Sound structure, and the 'best topwater action of the season' language from J&B Tackle suggests this year's bite is running at or above a typical midsummer pace rather than lagging.

The porgy and scup bite booming at shore structure like Fort Trumbull Pier and Avery Point is textbook mid-summer CT fishing — scup push into the Sound's rocky structure as water warms, and bait shops reporting strong sandworm, clam, and squid sales is a reliable seasonal indicator rather than a surprise. Black sea bass mixing in alongside porgies on the same bottom rigs is also standard for this time of year in the Sound.

CT Sea Grant's recent note on sugar kelp from Long Island Sound farms is a reminder the Sound supports meaningful aquaculture alongside the fishery, though it isn't a direct fishing signal this week.

There isn't a strong comparative data point in this week's feeds to say definitively whether 2026's bite is running ahead of or behind a typical year — the reports read as solid, on-schedule summer fishing rather than a standout or lagging season. Treat this as a normal, productive mid-July stretch on the Sound rather than an anomaly in either direction.