Bad weather gone, big fish appear
Following a spat of unsettled weather last week, local bays and oceans calmed down over the past few days allowing anglers to get back out and check their favorite hot spots. What they found was that some impressive fish had used the down time to slide within reach.
Doormat-sized fluke, especially, seemed to restock across Long Island with double-digit fish decked in Long Island Sound, at Montauk, and even in Jamaica Bay. An increased showing of mini-doormats weighing 5 to 7 pounds has also been pushing into the lock-and-load mixed-bag catches of porgy, sea bass and triggerfish around most South Shore reefs. Striped bass action resumed its torrid pace with fish topping 40 pounds not uncommon at Montauk. Oversized bass have entered The Race and Plum Gut as well, and the sea bass fishing there is excellent.
“We had a brute of a fluke on Tuesday ,” said Capt. James Schneider of the Huntington open boat Capt. James Joseph II. Weighing slightly over 13 pounds, the big flattie ate a 2-ounce white Spro bucktail for Paul Albanese of Oyster Bay on the boat’s 12 noon trip. The boat was drifting slightly southwest of buoy 11B in 70-foot depths.
“Big fluke are on these ledges but biting mostly on the slower tidal stages,” noted Schneider. “We target ledges and the edges of rough bottom for doormats each day. There are plenty of smaller fluke in shallower water but our customers seem to be enjoying a shot at the trophies. We aren’t limiting out the boat, but every trip sees a fluke weighing five pounds or more. Most days see several.”
As is often the case during late July and August, big fluke have begun to feed with more abandon at Montauk. Captain Marco DeStefano had a banner Tuesday sailing out of Gone Fishing Marina on his charter vessel Misty Dawn II. Working south of Montauk Point in water ranging from 70 to 100 feet deep, he combined with Andrew Chase from Manhattan and Mike Owen from Saint James to put nine keepers on ice. Chase had the hot hand with his top three fish weighing 10.4, 8.4 and 7.4 pounds. He drilled the big one on a bucktail that was tied by Owen and tipped with an Otter Tail jig strip and Gulp! bait. The 8-pounder struck a teaser sporting a strip cut from a legal-sized porgy. Sea bass to 3.5 pounds, plus some jumbo scup, added extra fillets to the cooler.
Like Schneider, DeStefano noted fluke fishing has been good, but not easy. “You’ve got to put in your time and do your homework to find doormats,” he said. “We relied on information from a network of good captains and covered a 10-mile stretch of water. We also took advantage of a by-catch consisting of mackerel and legal-sized porgy to make fresh strip baits. If you want to catch the big ones, be prepared to put in the work.”
Offshore, action with tuna seemed a little off since last week, but some very large sharks have put in appearances. On Monday, what may be the biggest shark landed this year was hauled back from The Deep by the crew of the Stick ‘Em Up. It officially tipped the scales at 886 pounds at Bergen Bay Docks in West Babylon.
Email: Outdoortom@optonline.net
