The time is right to gather stripers
If you are a fan of striper fishing, now’s your time to shine. A large set of big sand eels — slender baitfish stripers can’t resist — is sliding down Long Island’s South Shore as they migrate south. The thick clouds of bait have lured the bass tight to the coast with consistent catches in the surf and aboard the private, charter and party boat fleets.
Action between Westhampton and Jones Inlet has been intense the past several days and, weather permitting, should be set up well for the weeks ahead as reports from Rhode Island note even more schools of bass to the east of Fishers Island are heading our way.
“With the sand eels in place, diamond jigging has been the ticket for the past several days,” Capt. Joe Tangle of the Moriches charter boat King Cod said. “We are using plain silver 4-ounce jigs and getting crushed all day long. There’s a 30-mile stretch of stripers here right now with tons of chunky schoolies and plenty of keepers running 15 to 20 pounds, plus a few bass in the 30-pound class. Most days, we catch our limit within minutes, then enjoy catch and release action until everyone’s arms are tired.”
Capt. Neil Delanoy of the Captree open boat Laura Lee agreed with Tangle’s assessment. “Striper fishing is phenomenal!” he said, “Over the past three days nearly every customer on our boat has limited out and caught a ton of shorts as well. This is as good as it gets.”
On Thursday morning’s half-day trip, Delanoy’s boat limited with stripers topping 30 pounds in 50- to 60-foot depths just a short ride outside of Fire Island Inlet. With a stiff wind expected for Saturday, the skipper figures he’ll end up drifting around Robert Moses Bridge instead of heading to the ocean but he should be back on the big water for Sunday or Monday. “That’s OK,” he said, “because we are still catching some real good fish on clam chum when we stay inside the bay and inlet.”
While striper fishing on the North Shore hasn’t been quite as exciting as the recent south side run, it’s still been quite good. “Both boaters and surf casters are catching a lot of respectable-sized schoolies in the 20- to 26-inch class, plus enough keepers to make things interesting,” John Richy at Terminal Fishing in Kings Park said. “Worm trollers have had the edge on action while those drifting or casting live eels have drilled some keepers to 30 pounds.”
Richy added that blackfish and jumbo porgies are both inhaling green crab baits at Smithtown Reef, Sunken Meadow Rock and Eaton’s Neck.
Possible State Record White Perch
The New York State marine record for white perch may have been broken on Halloween. Chris Felser of Patchogue was dunking a live killie on a drop shot rig in a south shore tidal creek when he hauled out a 16 1/4-inch trophy that tipped the scales at 2.8 pounds. The current NY State record for white perch caught in marine waters is 2.34 pounds by Michael Cohn of Seaford in December of 2010. Felser will have the fish, currently in his refrigerator, officially weighed this weekend. If it surpasses the old mark, he’ll submit the paperwork required to stamp his name in the record books.
