Fluking strong despite heat

If you thought the ongoing heat wave might dull the inshore bite, guess again. With temperatures pushing upward, action with fluke, bluefish and porgies has actually improved. The fluking, in particular, has been especially rewarding with the summer flatties turning on in deep water along both the South and North Shores and plenty of keepers coming over the rails.

"The past two weeks have seen some of the best ocean fluke fishing in a long time,'' said Mike Wasserman, skipper of the Star Stream 8, part of the Captain Lou Fleet (516-623-5823) in Freeport. "We've had tremendous action in 60- to 90-foot depths south and east of Jones Inlet with pool winners running 5- to 7-pounds and one in five fish a keeper. Many anglers have limited out on our half-day trips and plenty of blues help keep the rods bent. Spearing, fluke belly and snapper strips have been the best baits.''

Fluking has also improved significantly off Fire Island, where the Captree Fleet has concentrated its ocean efforts in 80- to 90-foot depths south and west of Fire Island Inlet.

"We've been working a solid body of fish and pulling 5- to 7-pound pool winners with two to three dozen keepers per trip,'' said Rob Andresen of the open boat Captree Princess (631-859-8799). "The bigger fish fall mostly to whole squid baits, but anglers looking for fast action have had a blast using pink Spro bucktails.''

Of course, not everyone is cut out for ocean fishing. If you would rather stay inside Great South Bay and fish in calmer waters, an ideal scenario for families, a trip aboard Captree's Island Princess (631- 587-6024) is the ticket. According to Capt. Nick Manzari, morning trips have seen excellent action at the end of flood tide and beginning of the ebb at the Coast Guard Station and inside Fire Island Inlet. Evening excursions for bay blues have also been very productive with the choppers smashing Bass Assassins.

On the North Shore, a noticeable uptick in keeper fluke has anglers smiling from City Island to Huntington and straight on out to Port Jefferson. Action has been best in 35-foot depths with strips of snapper or long pennants of squid having the edge over bucktails when it comes to putting bigger fish in the cooler.

There are also plenty of monster bluefish in the western harbors. Capt. Steven Laura Fallon, on the Port Washington charter boat Swedish Princess (718-428-8470), has used bunker chunks inside Manhasset Bay to drill blues to 17 pounds in recent days, along with a few 5-pound fluke. Porgies remain cooperative on the top of incoming tide off virtually any prominent point right on out to Orient Point and into Peconic Bay over by Robins Island.

"Fishing has been really solid at Orient Point,'' said Mike Boccio, of the charter vessel Prime Time 3 (631- 323-2618). Fluking is super at Gardiners Island with tons of action and enough bigger fish for dinner. Porgies and bluefish have both been ravenous and the stripers, while a little unsettled, are hungry once you find them at The Race.''

Out at Montauk, fluke action is in excellent form at The Frisbees, while big bluefish are smashing diamond jigs with abandon.

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