Plenty of fish for loyal open-boat fans

As the economy continues to crawl toward a hopeful recovery, reverberations throughout the fishing industry have not been unexpected. Long Island's open boat fleet has been hit particularly hard, with a few skippers even exiting the business.

Still, hope springs eternal in the minds of many anglers and captains. Despite forbidding economic indicators, many vessels continue drawing from pools of loyal customers - and at least three skippers have bet against the odds by launching new operations this season.

In Greenport, highly regarded captain Rob Spitzenberg is running a new boat for the Peconic Star Fleet. The Peconic Star Express (631-289-6899; peconicstar.com) is an 80-foot aluminum hull Gulf Craft that veteran party boat fans should recognize as the former Super Spray II out of Sheepshead Bay and, more recently, the Super Speedy Express from Captree. It's a clean, fast boat that will focus on stripers and bluefish.

Over on Shinnecock Bay, captains Jim Foley and Shawn Pobiner have launched the Hampton Lady (631-521-3366; thehamptonlady.com), a comfortable 60-footer you might remember as the Fishfinder II at Captree. They will target sea bass and fluke, plus cut in weekly 10-man shark trips.

On the west end, the 78-foot North Star II (631-872-2445; northstar2.net), of City Island fame now sails from Howard Beach. Father and son skippers Dan and Tim Juettner switched ports to provide their patrons a chance at catching more keepers during the summer. They will aim for fluke, sea bass, stripers and blues.

I fished aboard the Peconic Express for the first time on Wednesday. Despite a light turnout, we powered to The Race and easily limited with stripers to 15 pounds. The crew was attentive and our skipper had no aversion to burning extra fuel when the action slowed at slack water.

"I'll be back,'' said Jimmy McDonald of Commack, who was first to corral his two-bass limit before playing catch and release. "I'm thrilled the skipper sailed with just a few customers, and the mates were terrific.''

"June is prime time for stripers here,'' Spitzenberg said. "There are only a few choppers around now and the bass are banging bucktails on both tides. It's been sweet.''

Black sea bass also have provided open boat fun in recent days. "We've seen plenty of keepers to 4 pounds, plus 10 to 15 codfish on our half-day trips,'' said Captain Steve Kearney of the Point Lookout open boat Super Hawk. Captree's Laura Lee also has scored well in 40- to 90-foot depths. On Wednesday, the Hampton Lady counted a dozen cod, 24 ling and 13 total species of fish among its sea bass haul.

For private boaters and bank fishermen, Great South has been tough to beat of late as a mix of striped bass, school blues and weakfish exploded on thick schools of bunker and shiners between Kismet and Bay Shore and Fire Island Inlet.

"All that bait has the predators fired up,'' said Toshiko Koncelik at Willy K's Bait and Tackle in Bay Shore. "We weighed a 30-pound striper caught on a live bunker by William Tregarthen, plus a monstrous 17-pound weakfish that ate a chunk at Bay Shore Marina for an angler who didn't leave his name.'' E-mail: outdoortom

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