Last week I spent a full seven days taking in the tremendous play at the U.S. Tennis Open in Queens. It was, as always, exciting to see the action and finesse of the best players in the world on the hard court. As such, fishing was on hold for me.
I've been attending the Open for the past 10 years or so. The weather was perfect, with temperatures in the mid-high 70s combined with low humidity. We were most fortunate, yet, I can vividly recall days there in the past when it felt like the Amazon, the Sahara, or both combined. Trying to stay cool and hydrated was nearly impossible. And I was just a humble spectator sitting in the stands. How the players were able to handle such conditions for several hours on the dark asphalt was remarkable.
That said, on the drive back to Sag Harbor on Sunday, I witnessed my first sign of fall. Along the left side of County Road 111 in Manorville, I saw an expanse of trees on the left side of the road whose leaves were starting to turn yellow. It was an early harbinger that the change of seasons is quickly coming.
As for fishing, it too is beginning to change. False albacore, a popular mainstay for the light-tackle crowd, should be showing up shortly in and around Montauk on the feed.
While the season closes on Oct. 15, fluke are pushing out of the bays and have begun their migration to their winter home in deeper offshore waters far from land. Still, catches of fluke have been successful of late for many who set sail, especially from Montauk.
Bill Bennett of Sag Harbor and his friends scored a limit of fluke on Saturday fishing on the charter boat Simple Life out of Montauk. They fished in and around the deeper grounds near Cartwright, located about six miles south of the Montauk Lighthouse.
"The fishing was very good," he said at the end of the day. "It was a very steady pick. It was a crystal clear day and cool. It had a little feeling of fall weather."
Elsewhere, porgies and black sea bass remain plentiful, but they too will begin to school up as we get deeper into fall. It's the same with striped bass and bluefish.
Anglers who focus on the offshore scene should continue to see some consistent action with yellowfin tuna and some mahi-mahi mixed in before the water temperatures fall off. Swordfish can also be had at night, especially for those baited up with fresh whole squid during a full moon.
But much of offshore action from now on will be dependent on the weather, as more frequent cold fronts come into play that are usually accompanied by a stiff northwesterly breeze. The weather window continues to narrow.
Elsewhere, unfortunately, the early outlook for the upcoming bay scallop season that opens in November is once again not promising. It appears that our iconic and beloved shellfish suffered another significant die-off this summer.
On a more promising note, black sea bass anglers can rejoice. On Monday, the daily bag limit doubled from three to six fish. The minimum size requirement remains at 16.5 inches. While anglers still need to weed through a plethora of short fish, enough keepers are roaming about, especially at Montauk and near Block Island. The season closes on Dec. 31.
Over at Mrs. Sam's Bait and Tackle in East Hampton, the owner, Sebastian Gorgone, was especially enthused by the action happening in Three Mile Harbor.
"The fishing has been great," he said. "Plenty of big porgies are around and there are a large number of blowfish being taken. Both are biting out near Sammy's Beach too."
Gorgone also said that striped bass have resurfaced on the ocean beaches. "The seas have finally settled down and the bass are back. If you want to land and release a big one, fishing live eels at night is the way to go." Gorgone has a live well in his shop that's fully stocked with the squirmy creatures. Bass love to chomp on eels for dinner.
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