As Long Island waters warm, anglers should move to deeper water
Go deep. That’s the usual mantra for late summer fishing on the inshore scene and it’s a solid game plan for anglers heading out through the end of August. With water temperatures in South Shore bays and even Long Island Sound pushing the 80-degree mark, fluke, stripers and even scup and sea bass are backing out of the shallows.
Fluke, in particular, really seem to be on the move. Late summer usually sees a steady bite develop in 40- to 50-foot ocean depths, and 20 to 30 feet of water in Long Island Sound. While you may connect with a fair number of shorts and small keepers in this range, the bigger fish are now firmly established further out to sea. At Montauk trophy doormats in the 6- to 10-pound class continue to be a daily occurrence but some are now being taken as deep as 70- to 90 feet of water. It was in 80-foot depths on the Frisbee Grounds on Sunday that Rich Kaufman caught 10.5-pound doormat aboard the Orient Point charter boat Jenglo.
Even on the Long Island Sound, where short fluke are in abundance outside of Port Jefferson and Huntington Harbors in as little as 20 feet of water, the keepers are responding along ledges and slopes in 40- to 50-foot depths. “There’s been a good number of fluke to 5 pounds,” said Brad Rummell at The Campsite Sports Shop in Huntington Station, “and the deeper you go, the more big fluke and jumbo porgies you’ll find.”
While deep has been the key for bottom species, Rummell noted that a fresh set of bunker recently moved into the Huntington area. Most are still out in the open Long Island Sound but some pods of the big, silvery baitfish have begun to slip inside Northport Bay and Huntington Harbor. Savvy anglers dunking bunker or tossing bunker flies around the schools are starting to work up a few stripers and blues. “That action is just getting started,” said Rummell, “but it’s worth investigating.”
On the South Shore, fluke action is clearly best in ocean waters at this point, but there is a mix of shorts and an occasional keeper to be found inside Shinnecock, Moriches and Great South bays. “Fluking has been pretty good,” said Capt. Walter Czekaj of the Captree open boat Fishfinder II. “We’ve been drifting in 65- to 70 feet of water for fluke to 7 pounds, plus a fun assortment of sea bass, porgies, mackerel and triggerfish. Evening trips inside the bay have produced some 2- to 5-pound bluefish, a few school bass and an occasional 5-pound weakfish on Bass Assassins."
Mark Keller at Bay Park Marina also liked the ocean for steady fluke scores. “It’s been good around the Atlantic Beach and Hempstead reefs,” he said. “The anglers who score the best are the ones who really put in their time and work the structure thoroughly. There are legal seas bass being caught, too.”
Indeed, as Keller spoke at 5 p.m. Thursday Capt. Nick Savene of No Time Charters in Oceanside, a skipper with a well-known reputation for persistence, pulled into the dock. He had been on the water all day and his charter iced eight keeper fluke to 6 pounds, plus a mess of tasty sea biscuits.
