Despite rain, fish are biting
Anglers making plans to fish this weekend would do well to pack along some foul-weather gear and keep casting right through the raindrops that have been predicted. That's because the fishing has taken on a fall flavor over the past few days, coinciding smartly with arrival of the autumnal equinox Friday.
"We've seen a real upswing in catches of black sea bass over the past few days," said Steve Kearny, skipper of the Point Lookout open boat Super Hawk II. "The bottom bite is really strong right now and many anglers are catching limits."
Indeed, similar reports of solid mixed bag bottom action with sea bass, triggerfish and porgies -- a harbinger of the more predatory fall blitzes yet to come -- were echoed by skippers working reefs and wrecks outside each of the South Shore inlets, plus the waters off Mattituck, Orient, Greenport, Huntington and Port Jefferson. Too bad the sea bass season begins a month-long hiatus Oct. 1. Porgy season is even shorter, ending Monday for shore and private boat anglers, and on Oct. 11 for open boat anglers.
"It's a shame we'll have to take a break from the sea bass and porgies at peak season," lamented Kearney, "but we'll be running special offshore wreck and tuna trips by then. The fall tuna bite is off to one of the best starts in years right now out in Hudson Canyon."
Be sure to get your last licks in for fluke, too, because the season for summer flatties ends with September. The toothy flatfish have been picky of late in ocean waters but remain aggressive inside Great South Bay, Moriches Bay and in Western Long Island Sound between Huntington and Port Washington.
Bluefish continue to be in good supply across most of Long Island, slamming diamond jigs at mid-Sound and crushing live bunker a short ride past the breakers off the South Shore beaches. Mark Keller at Bay Park Fishing Station noted that bunker schools west of Debs Inlet are holding a few stripers and thresher sharks in addition to the choppers.
If stripers stir your heart, head out to Orient and Montauk points where they are hitting live eels, trolled umbrella rigs and bucktails tipped with pork rind at the start of ebbing tides. The linesiders have also been agreeable for the Captree Fleet around Robert Moses Bridge, and there are plenty of schoolies along with a few keepers to 30 pounds patrolling the rips of Shinnecock Inlet on back to Ponquogue Bridge. Clam baits and soft plastic lures have been collecting the linesiders in the Shinnecock area.
If you would rather tangle with false albacore, head east. They are plentiful off Gull Island, and from the North Rips area to the Montauk lighthouse.
Hunting, fishing fete
Saturday is National Hunting and Fishing Day and the Suffolk Alliance of Sportsmen, with support from the DEC, will hold its annual celebration at the DEC Hunter Check Station in Ridge. The event includes a free kids' trout fishing derby, pony rides, pumpkins, balloons, face painting and archery lessons. Festivities begin at 9 a.m. and include a host of exhibits and demonstrations. Visit SuffolkAlliance.org, or call 631-744-1689 for more information.
Email: outdoortom@optonline.net
