Stripers are making big splash on LI

As spring transitions into summer, Long Island anglers are enjoying some excellent fishing action. All the major inshore species are on the prowl and the offshore contingent has arrived just in time to kick off the big-game tournament season for shark and tuna.

Big stripers have been especially cooperative in recent days with several fish in the 40-pound class reported from across the island.

According to Glenn Grothmann at Star Island Yacht Club in Montauk, at daybreak on Monday, anglers aboard the charter boat My Michele decked one of the heaviest bass this year. The 56-pounder ate a live eel at Great Eastern. The linesiders also are smacking lime-green parachute lures at The Elbow.

Montauk anglers have enjoyed solid action on the offshore scene as a smorgasbord of squid, half-beaks and sand eels arrived at the Butterfish Hole. With water temperatures a favorable 63 degrees in the area, predators of the biggest kind have been in hot pursuit. Sharks are swimming up to chum slicks and tuna to 180 pounds have slammed spreader bars.

Over at Orient Point, stripers to 30 pounds have the starring role on both day and night tides. The Orient Point charter vessel Prime Time III has been in on the fun, bucktailing plenty of bass on each trip before captain Mike Boccio switches over to either fluke or porgies. Plum Gut and The Race are the striper spots while the porgies and fluke are at The Ruins.

If super-fast action with fluke is what you crave, Huntington, Port Jefferson, Mount Sinai and Mattituck are the ports to visit. The North Shore summer flatties are hammering schools of sand eels in 25 feet of water. Bucktail through enough shorts and you'll pull a keeper or two. Smithtown Bay has been especially productive, as has Mount Misery Shoal and Roamer Shoal, west of Mattituck.

Fluking is still a bit slow outside the South Shore inlets, but if you work hard it is possible to dredge up a few keepers in 30 to 40 feet of water. A better bet right now is mixed-bag ocean wreck fishing.

"We're still catching a fun mix of keeper sea bass and big porgies on the local wrecks and reefs,'' said captain Steve Kearney of the Point Lookout open boat, Super Hawk, II. "The fish are hitting well on both the morning and afternoon trips, and everyone has gone home with fillets.''

Further west, school blues have inundated Jamaica Bay, but a pleasant mix of larger blues and some very respectable stripers have shown up in western Long Island Sound. Last Friday, Scott Fraiman, fishing aboard the Port Washington charter boat Swedish Princess, used a piece of frozen bunker to entice a 45-pound cow. The big linesider struck in 35 feet of water on incoming tide.

"That's a very nice fish for this area,'' said skipper Steven Laura Fallon. "We were using 15-pound gear and it took 25 minutes to boat that beauty. We also decked bluefish to 15 pounds.''

Dinner and auction

The 17th Annual Huntington Bay Ducks Unlimited Dinner and Auction is slated for 6:30 Friday night at the Thatched Cottage in Centerport. Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 12.6 million acres of wetlands since its inception, all thanks to its 780,000 members and their generous support. Contact 631-751-5850 for information.

E-mail: outdoortom@

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