Bonanza!: Big Bass Blitz Point
The Montauk telegraph had word out of Ken Moschitta's catch the length and breadth of Long Island almost before the 50-pound striped bass was carried off the beach just north of the Montauk Lighthouse on Sunday afternoon.
Surfcasters immediately descended on the Point.
It was a massive fish, fat from eating bunker with the rest of a large school that inundated the heavy surf left over from the northeaster that had rained and rumbled past on Saturday.
The bass blitz began in the surprising calm and coffee-colored water after the storm. It lasted for three tides as a large ocean swell continued to sweep around the Point, taking more than one rock-perched surfcaster with it.
On Sunday evening, one caster with a big bass on his line got pitched from a rock along with another fisherman. In the process, a fishing rod was lost underwater and then found with luck and the help of one angler's miner-style head lamp. The fish was landed, too, and a dozen or so surfcasters were greatly amused.
The conditions were the kind that casters dream of: lots of white water, big bait fish pressed up against the cobblestone shore, and the presence of the "air force." There were not many of the big, blue-billed gannets, but enough to prove that the bigger bait, and the bigger fish that feed on them, were in the area.
Most of the fish seemed concentrated at "the bluffs," an area just to the north of the lighthouse. As the tide dropped on Sunday morning, casters began hooking up.
Pope Noell, a veteran of the rocks, estimated that at least 50 fish weighing 20 pounds or more were landed over a 36-hour period. Perhaps a quarter of the bass weighed more than 30 pounds, with a number of 40-pound-plus fish and Mr. Moschitta's 50-pound giant adding incentive along the way.
The monster bass seemed to have passed on to greener pastures by Monday afternoon, although one caster was said to have walked off the beach with a 371/2-pound striper on Tuesday morning.
After the blitz and the weigh-ins, Richie Michaelson took the lead in the ongoing Montauk Locals surfcasting tournament with a 371/4-pound bass caught after only five casts on Sunday afternoon.
Insult was added to misery for Dennis Gaviola, who told Mr. Michaelson about the bite. Mr. Michaelson's catch knocked the informant out of second place.
Mr. Moschitta's 50-pound bass was not in the running, although you'd never know it by the crowd it drew outside the Montauk Bakery Monday morning. You'd a thought it was a child.