Bass Fever Is High
Fred E. Bird, captain of the Flying Cloud party boat of Montauk, says the sea bass fishing is the best it's been in years. Some of the bass are big, up to six pounds, and they are plentiful. So are porgies.
Sea bass are not striped bass, of course. The pretty, coal-black fish with white flecks are one of the best tasting in the sea, and are a favorite, baked, on the Asian-American menu.
Captain Bird specializes in bottom fishing, but the bottom rigs have to pass through the water column to get to the bottom. On the way, the bait has been attacked by truly large bluefish recently. Captain Bird reports gorilla blues, including a 141/2 pounder on Sunday. The Flying Cloud sails every day, all day, starting at 7 a.m.
Wind A Problem
The rumor that striped bass were blown away by the big storm of a week ago is not true. Fritz Hubner, captain of the Mistress Too charter boat said there were not as many keepers (28-inch or longer) as before the storm, but there were still plenty around. He said the problem for charter boats has been the wind.
Joe Gaviola, an organizer of the ongoing and hard-fought Montauk Locals surfcasting tournament for stripers, said Tuesday that there were plenty of fish around. The dropping temperature and white water, and the appearance of large herring, snapper blues, cormorants, and searching gannets, added up to exciting fishing for the next several weeks, perhaps a month, Mr. Gaviola said.
His brother, Dennis, caught three 20-pound bass Tuesday morning and a number of "rats," as fishermen refer to bass in the four to six-pound range.
Eating Well
"The gannets are looking around," Mr. Gaviola said of the large white birds with blue, rapier beaks, and black-tipped wings. They and the bigger bass and blues gang up on the herring this time of year in a spectacular aerial and submarine attack that beachcombers as well as fishermen should watch for.
Bass fever is high to the west as well. The Altenkirch's Precision Outfitters shop in Hampton Bays reports that the heavy surf "out front" on the ocean beaches has not only kept casters at bay, but seems to have got the bait knotted up in Shinnecock Bay.
Tuna Arriving
One Altenkirch scout found bass in the 20-pound class in the back of the bay in three feet of water. Stomach contents included eels, baby fluke and flounder, and squid, proving to the Tackle Shop that the bass were eating well in the bay, and that both bass and prey would likely spring for the open ocean as soon as the weather cleared.
Calmer weather should also spring tuna fishermen from their harbors. The surface temperature offshore is in the 60s, which means it's higher below and still hospitable for the migrating tunas.
The fly fishing has obviously suffered in the recent winds. Nevertheless, Paul Dixon of Dixon's Sporting Life shop in East Hampton and the To the Point charters out of Montauk, reports excellent fly fishing for striped bass as recently as Saturday.
Herring Around
That day, Ken Turco, a To the Point guide, hooked a bass estimated at over 40 inches under the concession stand near the Montauk Lighthouse. The fish fought for 15 minutes before straightening the hook and escaping. Mr. Turco was casting a hammerhead fly tied by Long Island fly designer Bob Linquist.
Mr. Dixon added that the days of the three-species grand slams are not gone. The false albacore were still around, he said, as well as the blues and bass. It could still be a marine fly fisherman's dream, especially with the big herring making their entrance.
Bait And Lures
Harvey Bennett of the Tackle Shop in Springs, who runs his small-boat charters from Accabonac Harbor, said that on Friday he traveled to Fort Pond Bay and found false albacore there. Nine were caught on a fly and released. Heading east, he encountered bass boiling at False Point. Great fly fishing again.
He said it was worth mentioning that surf fishermen casting from Gerard Drive were using bait (clam bellies) as well as swimming lures to catch keeper bass. It's late to be catching big bass so far up the Peconic/Gardiner's Bay estuary.
Mr. Bennett also announced good "coot" shooting, using the local name for sea scoters. The limit is four per day.