Porgies and sea bass are filling up coolers of Long Island anglers

This may be the dog days of summer, but August has opened up with a pretty good bite on the saltwater fishing front and it holds a lot of promise for even more fun to come.

As is usual this time of year, porgies have provided the most fillets with sea bass helping to fill coolers, too. Over the next two weeks snappers should begin arriving at local docks in sizes big enough to harvest and blue claw crab catches should improve as well.

On the striper front, the most reliable places for action have been the South Shore inlets, Montauk Point and the Middle Grounds of Long Island Sound. Montauk offers your best shot at a keeper, with live eels accounting for some fish up to 30 pounds after dark. Throwing live eels on the midnight shift has also been the ticket for bass at the South Shore inlets with Shinnecock offering the best results on a regular basis. North Shore bass fans have scored best by fishing bunker chunks on the bottom around structure.

While still spotty in most areas, fluke scores have improved significantly of late with word of doormats drawing many anglers to the waters around Montauk Point. Concentrating their efforts in 65- to 105-foot depths, those using whole small squid or 6-inch, salmon-colored Gulp! grubs have been rewarded with many fish in the 4- to 7-pound class and a surprising number even larger.

Capt. John Halkias of Just Fishing Charters put fares this week on two fluke weighing more than 11 pounds and also pulled a 9-pounder. “Montauk fluking has been ferocious,” he said, “On both of our charters everyone caught their personal best fluke! Even better, we released the biggest ones and still had plenty of fillets to take home at the end of the day. That’s good fluke fishing.”

Halkias and his customers have been using bucktails tipped with salmon Gulp! grubs. “Jig them slowly across the bottom,” he advised, “and don’t rush any big fish you hook to the surface. A slow and steady retrieve will get them to the top without ripping out the hook. The best of the action has been an hour or two either side of slack tide.”

Another area where the fluke seem to have awoken of late is in the waters south of Jones Inlet. “The summer flatties have picked up at the McAllister Grounds and Atlantic Beach Reef area,” said Alli Barry at Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside. “The best scores are being made in 40- to 50-foot depths. There are also plenty of porgies and sea bass mixed in as well.”

The artificial reef outside of Fire Island Inlet is another area where August potential seems to be coming on line. “We’re catching plenty of porgies and black sea bass on every trip.” said Capt. Ken Higgins of the open boat Captree Pride. “Even better, we’re seeing increasing numbers of keeper fluke daily. It’s fun, mixed-bag action and you never know what might come up next.”

As for those snappers, most are still tiny, measuring only 4- or 5 inches. Still, they can grow up to an inch per week at this point. With any luck, they’ll be a viable option in another week or two.