Cherry Harbor - Gardiners Bay - The Fisherman

Cherry Harbor – Gardiners Bay

Cherry Harbor
Chart courtesy of Navionics.

N 41.089.822 / W 72.117.298

Located between the North and South forks along the southwest side of Gardiners Island in Gardiners Bay is Cherry Harbor, where from mid-June through mid-July the area holds hordes of jumbo porgies and a sprinkling of sea bass. Water depths in the Harbor average approximately 25 feet with the bottom primarily made up of soft sediments, which for the most part, is out of the norm for porgies since they generally prefer harder bottoms.

Cherry Harbor however, is a stopover for those sea porgies that may have not been able to spawn during the infamous spring run that occurs each May inside Great and Little Peconic bays just to the west of Gardiners. Therefore since porgies do their spawning on soft or muddy bottoms, Cherry Harbor is tailor made for this annual spring ritual, especially since bluefish tend to wreak havoc on scup inside the Peconics. Once the spawning cycle is complete, the sea run scup return into the deep ocean waters where boats from Montauk, Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut and Massachusetts spend the summer and fall chasing them and sea bass.

The beauty of Cherry Harbor is that it is sheltered from stiff winds out of the north and east. Keep in mind however that Gardiners Bay can get awfully ugly during a hard blow out of any direction, especially with gusty winds out of the northwest and northeast, and especially during periods of wind against tide. Use discretion when fishing these waters and if it blows over 20 knots and you have a lot of open water to sail to and from port, save it for another day. It can make for a very uncomfortable ride, especially in a center console.

As for the fishing, the standard high/low porgy rig baited with fresh clam, squid strips or sandworm will result in a pail full of big scup. Since both sides of the current is relatively mild, bank or dipsey sinkers of 2 or 3 ounces will keep the rig on the bottom. Both drifting and anchoring will produce. Should you decide to go on the hook, a couple of pots with frozen clam logs will go a long way in bringing scup to the boat. If you are looking for a starting point, you’ll find the old Dutch windmill a good landmark that consistently holds good numbers of scup in 25 feet of water. Motor along until the fishfinder starts to show concentrations of fish, and if you missed out on the May action, this is your chance to make up for lost time.

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