Hundreds of participants in this past weekend’s South Shore Surf Fishing Classic pounded the surf from Jones to Moriches inlets hoping to cull out a winning striper or bluefish. Based out of Captree State Park, the Classic is hosted by The Fisherman and Long Island State Parks, and co-sponsored by Captree Bait & Tackle. Many of the casters I spoke to at the well attended awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon reported finding fish at some point over the course of the tournament which ran from noon Friday to noon Sunday. The action was widespread with fish taken as far west as West End Two Jones Beach and as far east as Moriches Inlet. People I spoke to mentioned Green Island, Gilgo, Cedar Beach, Demo, the backside of Robert Moses, FINS and Smith Point. Most of the bass fell far short of placing in the top three, but the action kept anglers motivated and made for a good time. Even those who failed to find any cooperative stripers enjoyed the camaraderie, and many of those who attended the awards ceremony went home with a goody bag of assorted tackle from sponsors like Tsunami, Spro, KastKing, VMC, Sea Striker and Fat Cow.
]The top three stripers were all impressive, ranging from 35.64 to 37.08 pounds. Bluefish were scarce, but two big choppers, 16.56 and 13.66 pounds, did find their way to the scale at Captree Bait & Tackle. There was no shortage of entries in the striper release category, which continued a trend of an increasing number of entries for this division. Troy Bouchard’s 37.08 pounder placed first, followed by Allan Vollmer’s35.86 pounder, which narrowly edged out James Muchowski’s 35.64 pound bass. Vinny Cromwell ran away with the bluefish division with 16.56-pound slammer. Perennial bluefish winner Terry Marberger found a 13.66 pounder to take the second spot. In the Release Division, Brett Rainer beached a 41 incher, while his partner, Billy Fischer of Big Fischer Lures put back a 39.5 incher. Bill Smith took third with a 39 incher. Cedar Beach, which was open to all participants during the contest thanks to Town of Babylon, definitely had a monopoly on quality stripers. Five of the six winning stripers came from Cedar, and a number of fish in the 20-pound range also came from this stretch of shoreline. First place in the striper and bluefish divisions was worth $750. All of the other winners received quality rods from St. Croix, Tsunami (Bimini Bay) and Star Rods.
Kudos to the staff of Long Island State Parks, especially those from park headquarters, including Regional Director Wayne Horsely, Deputy Directors George Gorman and Brian Foley and recreational staff members AnnMarie Agostinello, Jessica Anderson, Kim Huhn and Brittany Gleason. The Captree/Robert Moses staff headed by Tim Byrne and Sean Cruikshank did a great job setting up for the awards ceremony and making sure everything went smoothly. Brenden and his crew at Captree Bait & Tackle weathered a storm of entries Friday into Saturday morning and handled weigh-ins as they remained open for the duration of the contest.
Up this weekend is the South Shore Surf Spectacular hosted by Jones Beach Fishing Station, followed by the Babylon Surf Fishing Cup October 28-30, Saltwaters Tackle Surf Tournament November 4-5 and the Jones Beach Surf Classic November 4-6. Details for these events can be found on The Fisherman’s Calendar of Events.
