CatchWindow fishing intelligence

New London, CT Daily Water Report — September 5, 2026

New London’s water today is built for canvas and hulls, not for a breaking face. Sailing leads at 8.1 and boating sits at 7.9, the day’s decisive pair, on a forecast of empty skies, a light north-northwesterly, and waves that stay between 0.2 and 0.4 meters. That combination is what those scores actually use: modest, usable wind, tiny sea, and no cloud to speak of. Surfing is the honest 4.7: height and a five-second period never organize, and the 0.2-meter swell from the southeast is background, not a ride. Fishing is a middling 5.8, a notch below the 6-to-7 stretch CatchWindow carried from late August through yesterday, even with a rising barometer near 1010 hPa. The best working window is mid-to-late afternoon. Waves reach their daily minimum near 16:00 at 0.24 meters, just ahead of the 17:01 high at 0.96 meters, with air in the low-to-mid 20s C under a wide 29-kilometer atmospheric horizon. That visibility is air, not water; diving’s 7.6 rests on light wind, small waves, and marine surface water at 22.2 C (about 0.6 C above average), and it matches the steady 7.3-to-7.6 band of the past week rather than promising a gin-clear column. Kayaking is a 6: the same quiet surface helps, but an eastward set near 0.7 meters per second is the tax, and it is not a safety stamp. Wildlife holds at 6 on solunar timing, the low-tide hours, and wind. If you fish anyway, the major solunar periods are 06:47–08:47 after sunrise and 18:47–20:47, with lows at 10:44 and 23:50. Treat the evening slot as a tradeoff: a rain window is forecast 18:00–19:00 with little accumulation, and gusts can reach 15 knots around 22:00 after a daytime range mostly under 8 knots. Compared with yesterday’s lighter breeze and similar boating, today’s extra air is the sailing upgrade. Sunday cools into the mid-teens to low 20s C with still-small waves. Monday and Tuesday stay quiet and mostly dry before wind and seas build toward a meter midweek. Best bet: take that 16:00 millpond into the afternoon high and sail or motor while the sky is still blank, then be in before the gusts and the one-hour rain tease.