You’re guaranteed late-summer action by fishing around this Peconic hot spot.
Hard to believe that the summer of 2024 is nearly in the books faster than shaking a stick. Fall blackfish will soon be stacking up on all the local rockpiles and wrecks. But before you hang up those light baitcaster and spinning outfits, there is still a strong showing of weakfish, porgies and kingfish in none other than the calm, sheltered waters surrounding Robins Island where late summer and early fall continues to provide plenty of fun fishing while still wearing shorts and tee shirts.
Welcome To Robins Island
Located between the pristine waters of Great and Little Peconic Bay, the privately owned 435-acre Robins Island is a diamond in the rough often overlooked for more popular areas. The waters surrounding Robins is chock full of giant boulders, compliments of the glaciers working their magic thousands of years gone by. Most of the boulders are settled close to and on the island. Add in water depths to 25 feet and strong currents creating rip lines on both the south and north sides of the island which are the proper elements for some ideal fishing throughout the year.
Porgies typically fire out of the chamber in early May, surrounding Robins into the end of September, early October. Summer weakfish in the 1- to 4-pound range settle in the same areas of their older siblings that did their spawning until the end of June then moved out of the area for deeper cooler waters of the Atlantic. Kingfish to 3 pounds also arrive in good numbers in August and sticking around until early October. With the deeper holes holding most of the northern white (kingfish). Bycatches include blowfish, sea robins, sea bass and the ever popular sand shark better known as spiny dogfish.
Later in the season especially during the fall there are frequent attacks by bluefish, school stripers and false albacore terrorizing the bay anchovies, squid and spearing as they begin to depart through the Shinnecock Canal and out through Shinnecock Inlet before water temperature become too chilly.
Hot Spots
During the late summer through the fall the deep holes are your best shot of catching a variety of species without moving around too often. Anchor up and put some chum down in these depressions and you should be able to catch what you would like to put in the cooler. Gladly there are many holes around or near Robins Island and an official Nautical chart will certainly be a benefit as such holes with their names and locations are listed which are lightly fished and extremely productive. Starting with searching out such spots. To help get you started, I have included two spots with their names and location.
KINGFISH HOLE
Starting along the northwest side of Robins Island is Kingfish Hole, which is a narrow deepwater drain, surrounded by relatively shallow water that is fed by the currents from both the South and North Race. When conditions permit, it is here that local sharpies will draw away from the often too crowded traditional spots, for this tranquil and productive piece of water. Kingfish Hole runs vertical of buoy 4 starting about 1/4 mile north of the buoy along the North Race and extending south about a 1/2 mile where it meets the deepwater located dead smack in the middle of Great Peconic Bay. Water depth in the hole averages between 20 and 25 feet with the surrounding depth averaging approximately 10 feet. This hole will produce weakfish, scup and kingfish starting in early August through mid-September.
SHARKS HOLE
Next is Sharks Hole located north and east of Kingfish Hole in Little Peconic Bay east of buoy “22” south of Nassau Point which is a 60-foot hole surrounded by 25 to 30 feet of water during high tide. Sharks Hole, frankly speaking, is a great summer run weakfish spot that rarely produces much of anything else. The bottom is exceptionally soft here which weakfish just seem to love. The beauty of fishing Sharks Hole is that it is a great anytime of the day spot. In fact, having a good steady drift across the hole is far more vital than the time of day or the stage of tide. A wind against the tide can often produce poor results; however, a perpendicular drift will work fine. Therefore, try to fish the hole on days that the wind is out of the north or south, or on days when a west wind and an incoming tide coincides with each other. An outgoing tide and an east wind can be impressive providing the east wind has been blowing less than 12 hours; otherwise, expect the bite to be slow. Although you can anchor over Sharks Hole, drifting across the hole is far more productive.
BOUY 25 & 26
Aside from the holes, you may want to make a few drifts along the southern tip of Robins Island, (South Race) buoy 25 and buoy 26 which at times are chock full of blues, stripers and weakfish. Drift this area near the buoys where the contour will drop or rise (depending on the drift pattern) from approximately 18 feet to 30 feet of water. The current can really rip through here so fish this area as the current eases and especially on a tide change.
ROGERS ROCK
Lastly, located a mile south west of Robins, is an Obstruction Buoy indicating that the area can be hazardous at low tide with a tremendous rock that can be exposed on the surface during mean low tide or the rock is submerged by only a foot or less. This rock is known as Roger’s Rock. The area that surrounds Roger’s Rock is chock-full of rocks and strewn bottom and is tailor-made for scup. Since this is a relatively large area, you can run into a school of porgies at any given time. If you are looking for a starting point, try just east and north of the obstruction buoy or along the edges of where the rocks meet the sandy bottom in 20 to 25 feet of water along the north side of the rock. Anyone heading to Roger’s Rock for porgies should anchor on the backside (east side) of Roger’s in the 10 to 15-foot depths. A couple of chum pots filled with frozen blocks of clam chum should keep the action fast paced.
Bait Of Choice
Three favorite scup and weakfish baits should be included in your choice of entrees: sandworms, fresh skimmer clams and fresh local squid. The frozen stuff just won’t cut it as well, particularly if you are looking for quality-size fish. Squid should be cleaned of its innards, skin and tentacles and sliced into pennant shape strips approximately a 1/2 inch wide, down to a taper. The squid strip will suit best if placed on the high hook of the rig and will draw the attention of the weakfish and fluke. Clams sliced down to small strips and coiled on to the lower hook will keep you busy with porgies as well as a few blowfish and kingfish that often find their way on the hook. Sandworms work well on both hooks with both porgies and weakfish finding them hard to resist. While you’ll want to limit the size of worm to the bottom hook to just enough to cover the hook, it may be a good idea to place a whole worm on the top hook, especially if the weakfish are abundant and eating. Should the worm be a real snake, you may want to cut it in half instead of wasting the whole thing in one shot.
Another option would be switching to Fishbites “Bag O Worms” Bloodworms and the Fishbites EZ, Crab, EZ Shrimp, EZ Squid and EZ Natural which all come in assorted colors. These baits are ribbons that can be cut to any size you desire and work incredibly well on scup, weakfish, stripers, blues, sea bass and blackfish when applied to tog jigs and did I forgot to mention how grand they work on fluke, especially the 6-inch grub in pink, chartreuse and white. For more info and to order some packs visit their website at fishbites.com.
Chum Away If You May
Providing conditions permit, I strongly suggest staying with a drift through the holes. Not only will you cover more ground, but you’ll also catch more fish. However, many days during the summer months, mornings will start off calm and as the sun rises and air temperatures climb, the duo creates the wind to stir, which is usually always from the southwest. Should this be the case and you find yourself flying across the holes, then it may be feasible to anchor and chum.
Remember, if you are going to the hook and chum, two pots are better than one especially when set out from mid-ship, one from port and the other from starboard. Then again you may have to adjust depending if you are swinging or not. Whatever the case maybe, make sure that the chum is flowing behind your bait rather than in front of it otherwise the scup may be too far from the strike zone. Eight to 10 blocks of frozen clam or crushed mussels should be sufficient for a tide while employing two pots. Make sure to occasionally shake the pots to help break up and release the clam spat. Rest assured, with the assistance of the chum, it won’t be long before it’s put to work and the frenzy begins and the porgies and weakfish find their way to the boat. Make sure to keep the blocks of chum in a nice tight insulated cooler so that in case you don’t use them, they will stay well for the next time you call on them.
Light And Sturdy
Although you may be challenged with strong currents at times, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use bait caster outfits in the 10 to 20-pound class. What is paramount is that the rod is light yet has a strong sturdy backbone to be able to apply sinkers to 6 ounces. Most likely sinkers of 2 to 3 ounces will be sufficient. Braid of 15-pound test will also suffice. A Spro Power Snap Swivel tide with a Palomar Knot should be just dandy. To be perfectly frank, I do not trust an Improve Clinch Knot to braid as I have had it slip on me with certain brands of braid, I trust a Blood Knot or a Palomar Knot. As for rigs, a plain standard hi/lo rig with number 4 baitholder hooks works well on the trio. I’m not truly fond of a 1/0 or 2/0 baitsaver hook as I find the smaller hooks are more difficult for a weakfish or scup to unhook themselves, however the choice is yours. As for jigs, again I suggest the Fishbites Grubs in 4-inch pink, natural and chartreuse. I was a Gulp fan however the effectiveness of the Fishbites Grubs and ribbons has me amazed and sold. The Fishbites Grubs and ribbons are also great for fluke when applied to Spro Prime and Power Bucktails.
There you have it. Please practice self-restraint as a good day of fishing doesn’t mean a cooler full of fish. Be sure to take a kid fishing with you. It may just change their life!
