As I lamented last week in this column, I've barely fished this season. More concerning to me is that Labor Day is right around the corner.
Before you know it, it'll be the middle of October, when the season for blackfish begins. I know I'm probably rushing the season, but it's really not that far away.
This past Friday, I canceled my regular morning of tennis to take an early drive to Montauk to fish for fluke and sea bass on the Simple Life, a charter boat skippered by Capt. Tyler Quaresimo.
Quaresimo is an outstanding young captain who always tries his best to put his fares on the fish. To top it off, he became father a few weeks ago with the birth of his son, Kacey.
I was invited that day by my friend Bill Bennett, a hard-core fisherman who is also a plumber extraordinaire from Sag Harbor. Bennett is full of life, has the gift of the gab, and catches fish with great aplomb. It makes for a wonderful combination.
I left our house on North Haven a few minutes before 5 a.m. Quaresimo wanted to untie his dock lines around 6 at his berth at the Montauk Marine Basin.
The drive out east in the early morning darkness was uneventful. That is until I entered the small 7-Eleven parking lot across the street from the I.G.A. in downtown Montauk. I wanted to grab my obligatory cup of black coffee and a buttered roll. What I witnessed was much like a scene out of Times Square on New Year's Eve. For those not in the know, the Montauk 7-Eleven is the highest-grossing store in the entire chain of over 85,000 such storefronts worldwide. Amazing, eh?
Montauk today is so far removed from that blue collar, sleepy fishing village of years gone by, for better or worse.
As I entered the brightly lit store, early arriving fishermen mixed and mingled with late-night partiers and bar hoppers. I assumed most of the nonfishing like were looking for a quick fix of food and perhaps a hefty nonalcoholic beverage to rehydrate.
The line for me to check out for my simple order took nearly 10 minutes. With coffee and roll in hand, I scrambled aboard Quaresimo's craft, a beauty of a 42-foot Bruno that was built in Rhode Island decades ago. Bruno hulls are a true classic that were constructed for our local waters. They were perfectly built.
While some may complain that a Bruno can roll when on the drift, I've become most comfortable with their actions on the water, having fished on such crafts for decades. They always feel like home to me.
Our day on the water Friday was successful. We caught our fair share of fluke and sea bass. We also caught a few ling, sea robins, porgies, and bluefish. Our rods were bent all day. Smiles and laughter abounded. The weather was outstanding to boot. We were most fortunate.
On the local fishing scene, things are in full summer mode. Fluke, sea bass, and porgy can be had in many locations. Striped bass and bluefish also lurk about.
But if you wanted to latch on to the long-lasting bluefin tuna bite offshore, you are now out of luck. NOAA closed the highly regulated fishery on Tuesday for recreational anglers for the remainder of the year. It's a huge blow, especially to the Montauk charter boat fleet, and many people are unhappy.
Their cousin, yellowfin tuna, have shown up, but to catch them up you will need to track far to the southwest near the Coimbra wreck, which is about 45 miles from Montauk.
It's the site of a British tanker that was torpedoed during World War II. The wreck lies in about 180 feet of water and is broken into three pieces. The Coimbra, a 422-foot oil tanker, was sunk by the German submarine U-123 on Jan. 15, 1942. The vessel was en route to Europe with a cargo of oil when it was attacked.
The wreck is known for its oil leakage and has been the subject of oil removal and recovery efforts by the United States Coast Guard. That said, it has been a popular location for tuna and other species for many years.
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