North Shore anglers eye bluefish, porgies

With wet and windy weather spread across the entire area for much of the past week, it has been difficult to get an accurate read on how well the fishing has bounced back since Tropical Storm Irene rumbled through the region two weeks ago.

Before the most recent rounds of rain and wind whipped our shores, stripers had returned to Montauk, Orient Point, Shinnecock Inlet and Moriches Inlet, and snapper blues were on a tear at local docks and beaches. Fluke, by comparison, were slow to respond in ocean waters but plenty of shorts were smacking bucktails tipped with spearing in western Long Island Sound and the South Shore bays. Sea bass seemed to be reoccupying ocean wrecks and the reefs between Jones Inlet and Shinnecock, but triggerfish catches still were off.

It's likely that all of these species will be back on track when the sun finally comes out and the winds lay down again. For North Shore anglers, however, the focus probably will be on two other local favorites: bluefish and porgies. That's because the much heralded WICC Greatest Bluefish On Earth Contest kicks off Friday night at midnight and runs through 5 p.m. Sunday, while the bonus season for porgies on open and charter boats began on Wednesday. From now until Oct. 11, each angler fishing from the pay-to-play vessels can keep up to 40 porgies per day with a minimum length of 11 inches. Anglers fishing from shore or private craft still can creel 10 porgies at 10 1/2 inches each before their porgy season ends Sept. 26.

Both the bluefish and scup, as porgies are also known, have been very agreeable on the days anglers have been able to reach them. Better still, the action has been spread fairly evenly from the waters off Port Washington, east to Smithtown Bay, Huntington, the Eatons Neck Triangle, and on out to Mattituck and Plum Gut on the North Fork.

"I'd concentrate on the Middle Grounds if you hope to win the WICC bluefish contest,'' said Candi Caraftis at Caraftis Fishing Station in Port Jefferson (631-473-2288; caraftisfishingstation.com). "If the water is too rough to get in the middle, anchor up off Cranes Neck or Oldfield Point. There have been some bruiser blues in those areas, too.''

Caraftis knows of what she speaks. She constantly provides accurate whereto and how-to info to her rental skiff customers and last year weighed in the 15.94-pound WICC contest winner for Eric Huner of East Setauket. You can enter the tourney until 7 Friday night. Visit wicc600.com/Bluefish/tabid/179/Default.aspx for contest rules and sign-up centers. The contest borders are Throgs Neck Bridge to the west and Plum Gut to the east.

As for the porgies, they are stacked up off virtually every prominent point, including Prospect Point, Cranes Neck, Eatons Neck, Rocky Point, Hortons Point and Orient.

"Porgy fishing has been really good, especially when the wind blows a bit from out of the east,'' said Captain James Schneider of the Huntington open boat Captain James Joseph II. "That pushes the scup off the beach and piles them up over deeper structure where we can sit right over them and pound away. Some real big sea bass also have been mixing in with our catches.''

Now, if only the weather will cooperate.

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