07-28-2009, 10:50 PM
[size 2]August is prime time for fluke fishing on the East End and the fish seem to have gotten the memo.
Lots more big fluke were coming over the rails of boats from Moriches to Montauk this week after a lull in the action when a big body of small fish moved in during the new moon cycle.
The ocean bite off Montauk continued to be the best bet for lots of keepers and some of the bigger fish. The ocean off Moriches and Shinnecock is still a hit-and-miss proposition, but the quality of the fish in the bays got much better this week, so most boats were content to stay in the calm shallows.
In Shinnecock, the East Cut and the channel off Rampasture are the best bets. In the ocean, small, whole squid (or fresh jumbo sand eels if you can find them) are the trick with the huge schools of loligos lurking about a mile off the beach.
In the bay, smaller bait is more prevalent, so matching the hatch will produce. Plain spearing or live killies are taking lots of fish, but the biggest specimens seem to be falling for actively fished bucktails tipped with either spearing, sand eels or squid strips.
Bassing is still easy as pie. There are tons of schoolie and small to medium keeper-size fish around the backs of the inlets. Off Montauk, the broad rock flats around Great Eastern and the Elbow are chock-a-block with big stripers. Fish in the 30-, 40- and 50-pound classes littered the docks every night this week. Props to 12-year-old Brendan Obraitis who scored a 30-pounder and a 47-pounder aboard one of the Viking Starship’s night bass trips.
A few big stripers and lots of jumbo bluefish were taken off the sand beaches in Southampton and Bridgehampton on Friday after Thursday’s storms pushed schools of adult bunker into the surf line. The fish were biting on just about anything you threw in the water, plus the feet of a surfer or two. Judging from what a bluefish does to a live porgy, that’s gotta hurt.
The offshore bite is showing signs of getting back to where it should be this time of year. The packs of peanut yellowfin that had been covering up just about every trolling spread put in the water the last two weeks have thinned out and a few bigger fish are getting to the lures. Most trips offshore this week produced at least a couple fish in the 50- to 60-pound range. Some white and blue marlin are starting to filter inshore, too, on the warm side of the good temperature break sitting just inshore of the edge.
Shark fishing is red hot, if you’re so inclined. It seems just about every boat that puts out a chum pot anywhere from 15 to 25 miles off the beach is getting at least a shot at a keeper mako or thresher these days.
Win a Boat, Win a Truck, Help a Kid
Raffle tickets for the Contender center console and a Ford Escape truck are still on sale at East End Bait and Tackle and White Water Outfitters in Hampton Bays and Haskell’s Bait and Tackle in East Quogue. Tickets are $100 each, but the tackle shops are giving away $25 coupons for use in their stores with each ticket sold. Special thanks to White Water Marine and Otis Ford for subsidizing the outstanding prizes on the block this year. The drawing will be August 23 at Oaklands Marina during the big party for the Shinnecock Marlin and Tuna Club Offshore Invitational. Proceeds go to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island.
Catch ’em up, folks. See you out there.[/size]
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Lots more big fluke were coming over the rails of boats from Moriches to Montauk this week after a lull in the action when a big body of small fish moved in during the new moon cycle.
The ocean bite off Montauk continued to be the best bet for lots of keepers and some of the bigger fish. The ocean off Moriches and Shinnecock is still a hit-and-miss proposition, but the quality of the fish in the bays got much better this week, so most boats were content to stay in the calm shallows.
In Shinnecock, the East Cut and the channel off Rampasture are the best bets. In the ocean, small, whole squid (or fresh jumbo sand eels if you can find them) are the trick with the huge schools of loligos lurking about a mile off the beach.
In the bay, smaller bait is more prevalent, so matching the hatch will produce. Plain spearing or live killies are taking lots of fish, but the biggest specimens seem to be falling for actively fished bucktails tipped with either spearing, sand eels or squid strips.
Bassing is still easy as pie. There are tons of schoolie and small to medium keeper-size fish around the backs of the inlets. Off Montauk, the broad rock flats around Great Eastern and the Elbow are chock-a-block with big stripers. Fish in the 30-, 40- and 50-pound classes littered the docks every night this week. Props to 12-year-old Brendan Obraitis who scored a 30-pounder and a 47-pounder aboard one of the Viking Starship’s night bass trips.
A few big stripers and lots of jumbo bluefish were taken off the sand beaches in Southampton and Bridgehampton on Friday after Thursday’s storms pushed schools of adult bunker into the surf line. The fish were biting on just about anything you threw in the water, plus the feet of a surfer or two. Judging from what a bluefish does to a live porgy, that’s gotta hurt.
The offshore bite is showing signs of getting back to where it should be this time of year. The packs of peanut yellowfin that had been covering up just about every trolling spread put in the water the last two weeks have thinned out and a few bigger fish are getting to the lures. Most trips offshore this week produced at least a couple fish in the 50- to 60-pound range. Some white and blue marlin are starting to filter inshore, too, on the warm side of the good temperature break sitting just inshore of the edge.
Shark fishing is red hot, if you’re so inclined. It seems just about every boat that puts out a chum pot anywhere from 15 to 25 miles off the beach is getting at least a shot at a keeper mako or thresher these days.
Win a Boat, Win a Truck, Help a Kid
Raffle tickets for the Contender center console and a Ford Escape truck are still on sale at East End Bait and Tackle and White Water Outfitters in Hampton Bays and Haskell’s Bait and Tackle in East Quogue. Tickets are $100 each, but the tackle shops are giving away $25 coupons for use in their stores with each ticket sold. Special thanks to White Water Marine and Otis Ford for subsidizing the outstanding prizes on the block this year. The drawing will be August 23 at Oaklands Marina during the big party for the Shinnecock Marlin and Tuna Club Offshore Invitational. Proceeds go to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island.
Catch ’em up, folks. See you out there.[/size]
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