On the East End, cow bass have arrived in timely fashion and fed aggressively on this past week’s new moon. Look for the full moon on the 16th to produce some real good big bass action. The fish are settled into Montauk’s rips and taking live porgies and trolled parachutes during the day, and live eels after dark. Plum Gut, the Race and the Sluiceway are well stocked with stripers ranging from shorts to 20 pounds, except for the night bite when some better quality fish are in the mix. Fluke fishing has been good when conditions permit off Montauk’s south side and on the rough bottom east of Gardiners Island, it can be a grind under the wrong conditions. Shinnecock Bay’s shallows are producing solid fluking and the Shinnecock Star is locked in, with pool fish in the 6 to 7-pound range coming from five and six feet of water. This is making for some great light tackle action. Sea bass action remains good despite all the culling involved to put a limit together. Try fishing away from the fleets, where the chances of putting a limit of jumbos become greater. Find and drift some rough bottom in at least 50 feet of water and you may be pleasantly surprised. The eastern reaches of the Sound are chock full of scup and sea bass in all the usual haunts, while fluking remains uncharacteristically slow. Porgy wise, it appears a new body of quality fish have moved into Montauk waters, while North Fork waters remain consistently good when the current is not ripping.
Moving down along the South Shore, fluke reports continued to be encouraging with good numbers and more quality fish in the mix. In Great South Bay, most of the action has been from the inlet to the lighthouse where Captree boats are finding pool fish in the 4 to 6-pound range on a daily basis. Several 9-pound fish also hit the scales this weekend. Babylon Fishing Station checked in a 9-pound, 8-ounce fluke, Willie K’s put a 9.48-pound fluke on the scale, and a 9-pound, 4-ounce pool fish hit the deck on the Capt. Rod Sunday. Over in Moriches Bay, the fluke bite has really turned on at buoy 27, Forge River, the Elbow and in 30 feet of water in the ocean. Ocean reefs and wrecks are producing good sea bass action, and ling are helping fill coolers. Triggerfish are on local rock piles and jetties, and blowfish are in both bays on some docks. The first snappers have showed up but are really too small to make it worth targeting them.
Working our way west, Cholera Banks saw a noticeable increase in sea bass action and most boats focused their efforts in that area, but Hempstead Reef and the McAllister Grounds also got some play over the weekend. Ling fishing remains excellent as clam baits are producing full buckets on the Hempstead Reef, McAllister Grounds and other local pieces. While clams are doing the trick, bring along some green Gulp as insurance. Shorts continue to dominate fluke action but a few better fish came from the Hempstead Reef, McAllister Grounds, Short Beach Coast Guard Station, and the Wantagh, Meadowbrook and Marine Parkway bridges.
Up in Long Island Sound, there was an uptick in bass action. Matinecock Point came alive with many fish in the 30-pound plus range landed over the past week. Further west there was decent bass fishing at Execution Light, the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges and Glen Island. The top methods employed were trolled Mojos and bunker spoons, fresh bunker and bloodworms. The Middle Grounds also saw an increase in bass activity but most were schoolies. Porgies remain the most reliable and abundant species out there from one end of the Sound to the other with very good reports coming from City Island, Cranes Neck, Old Field, Eatons Neck and Centerport to name just a few.
The offshore scene continues to be all about tuna and sharks. Some changes are occurring at 30 fathoms. The bite to the west has slowed down as the water is in the mid-seventies. As bluefin push east expect yellowfin, mahi mahi and eventually wahoo to flow in. Shark fishing has still been good, with dusky and other warm water sharks mixing in. Some nice makos have been caught to the east by the Horns, and south of Block Island. The canyons have been decent with big eye, yellowfin and both blue and white marlin.
In the surf, warm weather conspired with the long holiday weekend to add to that “summer doldrums” feeling around most of the Island. Reports of quality bass were pretty much non-existent with the exception of a 37 pounder beached on the North Shore in the Miller Place area during the week. Beach access remains a problem due to plover restrictions at Shinnecock East, Smith Point and Democrat Point. Most of the bluefish action we are hearing about concerned cocktail size fish, although Montauk is seeing some bigger choppers mixed in at times. Many casters have set their sights on fluke and scaled down to light tackle, tossing bucktails or leadheads tipped with Gulp or bait. Shorts make up most of the action but it’s easy fishing and the fish are fun on the light gear. If you are dead set on stripers, even the schoolies seem to be more cooperative in the dark this time of the year. If you want to test your tackle on some bigger game, sharks are now prowling the South Shore surf.
