Fishing

The outlook for the bay scallop season, which is set to start in early November, is once again poor. For the fifth summer in a row, there has been a significant die-off of mature bay scallops in local waters.

A cooler of blue-claws for a new friend in cardiac rehab might mark the first time the tasty shellfish have paid a visit to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

The direction you want to go during the August heat is east. “Whether it’s striped bass, bluefish, fluke, porgies, sea bass, or tuna, the fish now prefer to be in cooler, deeper waters,” said Ken Morse of Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor.

I had done some fishing a few days earlier at Jessup’s Neck, and the bluefish were hungry, taking full advantage of my four-ounce diamond jig. I had my fill of fish, so I got on my motorcycle.

“It’s been a great season thus far,” Harvey Bennett, former owner of the Tackle Shop in Amagansett, said of blue-claw crabs. “They are large and plentiful. More people need to take advantage of it. Blue-claws are the best to eat.” 

If I truly wanted to catch a fluke, for all practical purposes I would need to hop aboard one of the several fine party boats that set sail from Montauk, which are significantly closer to the more productive fishing grounds.

The fishing for fluke has continued to deteriorate in Block Island Sound where dozens of boats used to drift their baited hooks on a daily basis in summer. Looking at my log book on the ride out, I noted that I had made two trips last summer and we failed to land a keeper. Not good.

The popular Montauk Grand Slam charity fishing tournament will be held this weekend at Uihlein’s Marina in Montauk. At 5 p.m. Sunday, the tournament will crown Capt. Frank Braddick as the Fishing Legend of the Year.

“Definitely, the better fishing has been out at Montauk,” Ken Morse of Tight Lines Tackle said Monday. “The bass fishing remains solid and there are acres and acres of bluefish between 10 and 18 pounds roaming around.”

Lots of bass between 30 and 50 pounds continue to be caught and released off Montauk. Finding fish in the new smaller slot size has been a challenge at times. Plenty of bluefish are mixed in too.

Given all of the supersize stripers now in Montauk, it’s still not too late to enter the popular Montauk Surf Masters Spring Shootout, which concludes on July 9. Bigger fish are clearly on the feed here.

“A lot of big bass to over 50 pounds are around,” observed Capt. Savio Mizzi of Fishhooker Charters. “Fishing is literally off the hook.”

Out in Montauk, anglers for striped bass and bluefish are returning to the docks with sore arms. Porgy fishing has also been consistent, with fish up to three pounds.

“Oh man, there are striped bass and bluefish everywhere,” Paul Apostolides said from behind his countertop. “The action has been truly fantastic. More people need to take advantage of it.”

Gator-sized bluefish thrashed about near the surface one day; two days later it was spunky striped bass.

When I’m out pursuing codfish, I always start off using a diamond jig. I also use a diamond jig when I fish for weakfish, sea bass, and bluefish. The same lure is also used when I pursue striped bass from my boat. Old habits are hard to break.

“The striped bass have arrived in Montauk,” said Capt. Rob Aaronson of the Montauk charter boat Oh Brother! Both diamond and bucktail jigs have been the lures of choice for the linesiders. 

Striped bass have shown up en masse in local waters, and many casters are very pleased with their early, bountiful showing. “It’s wonderful to see,” said Ken Morse at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor.

The warming rays of the sun have begun to perk up the local fishing scene, with holdover striped bass making the biggest noise in recent days.

Flounder is scarce, striped bass are not yet here in sizable numbers, so our columnist set about repairing his lobster traps.

To borrow a phrase from the game of baseball, the fishing season is now in the bottom of the ninth inning. Striped bass season concludes Dec. 15, blackfish season comes to an end seven days later, and Dec. 31 is the final day to retain black sea bass.

A trip on the Cross Sound Ferry's Cape Henlopen brings to mind the ship's storied history. The humble ferry boat of today participated in the historic invasion of Normandy on D-Day in World War II, dropping off 200 men and 70 vehicles of the 29th Infantry Division.

After a mixed bag of a season, I happily climbed aboard the Elizabeth II, a charter boat out of the Montauk Marine Basin, for a trip for cod and bass, both of which I latched into within minutes.

About 25 years ago, I recall jumping aboard the Viking Starship for the five-hour ride to Nomans (both the island and the area near Cuttyhunk) to target blackfish. Those trips were extremely popular, and one could retain 10 fish over 14 inches in length. Most of the time, the fishing was off-the-charts good.

The bay scallop season in waters under the East Hampton Town Trustees’ jurisdiction will open on Sunday at sunrise. Residents holding a town shellfish permit can continue to harvest them until sunset on March 31.

Chris Miller at Westlake Marina in Montauk confirmed that the fishing has been good on several fronts. “The bass fishing is holding up,” he said. “Sea bass too have been cooperating, but many are focused on blackfish, which has been very good since the season opened two weeks ago.”

"The blackfish bite has been very solid," said Ken Morse at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor. "Lots of small fish, but many are still catching their limits." Surfcasters along the ocean beaches are finding action too.

The East Hampton Town Trustees set Nov. 13 at sunrise as the opening of waters under their jurisdiction to the harvesting of bay scallops.

While the fishing for striped bass has been strong in Montauk, it was out of my reach, so I decided to take advantage of the sunny and windless conditions on Saturday morning for the opening of blackfish season in waters outside Long Island Sound.

Our original 13-day vacation had already been cut short, then I tested positive for Covid. Hello to quarantine at home, which was still 420 miles away. For those not in quarantine, the fishing scene bounced back quite nicely after nearly a week of northeasterly wind and rain.