Outdoors

Despite keeping fishing notes in my logbook since 1975, I can’t precisely determine the exact date I first met Vincent (Butch) Maher, but I do know it happened at some point in May of 1986, according to my haphazard writings, when I climbed aboard the Lazybones.

“There’s been some pretty significant glimmers of hope — only to have our hopes dashed again,” Peconic Baykeeper’s executive director, Pete Topping, said at the start of a panel discussion the group hosted in December on this year's scallop season and prospects for the future.

Despite a few precious bay scallops being dredged from Lake Montauk, the season has been a total bust just about everywhere on the East End since it opened in early November.

There is one tradition of Thanksgiving that I miss even a decade later. My good friend Wayne Clinch of Montauk used to organize consecutive fishing charters on the Friday and Saturday after Turkey Day.

For a vast majority of anglers, the fishing season has come to an end, as persistent cold winds out of the north have taken a firm hold. But the bass fishing has been great off the ocean beaches and the blackfish action has been excellent.

The Star's fishing columnist has taken his boat out of the water for the season, but on the fishing scene, the action remains solid, especially for striped bass and blackfish.

I can most certainly relate to the phrase “old habits are hard to break,” especially as it pertains to bay scallops. No matter how much I read year after year about the dire predictions for the five-month scallop season, which opened at daybreak on Monday morning in state waters, I still make plans to be on my Rock Water with six iron dredges in tow on opening day.

I was recently joined on board by Al Daniels, he of the family that has resided here on the East End for 13 generations. Daniels has known all things fishing for nearly eight decades. My wife, Terie, was also ready to catch her dinner. After a ride of more than an hour to the north side of Gull Island, the outgoing tide was still running strong when we arrived. When the blackfish homed in on our baits, they were hungry. Very hungry. The bite was on.

A trip in search of bay scallops with Harrison Tobi, an aquaculture specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension marine center in Southold, to examine the productivity, survivability, and density of the population both in the wild, and also those raised in plastic cages that were spawned at the center.

The season for blackfish opened Friday for those who fish in Long Island Sound. Like calamari? Then head to Montauk. The night bite has been pretty consistent of late.

On the East End, we hear a lot about invasive species in the plant world, but the house sparrow was one of the original invasive species. House sparrows are bullies. They fight over dirt baths. They are nonmigratory, colonize habitat, and then profusely breed. When native migratory birds return to nest in the spring, these pugnacious birds force them away. 

Looking at my log book, I’ve only fished three times on her this year. That’s pretty pathetic. I made about a dozen runs to check on the lobster traps, but I can’t recall fishing so little in my life. 

I’ve probably seen “Jaws” a hundred times, including when it made its debut on the big screen at the East Hampton Cinema on June 20, 1975. I know the entire script word for word.

As we have now formally settled into fall, the changes on the fishing scene have commenced, as have the changes in weather.

There's been plenty of whale action visible from the beaches, and it's been a stellar week for inshore and offshore fishing, with fluke, striped bass, porgy galore, and tuna farther out.

I had a nice chuckle watching an episode of “Gilligan’s Island” in which Gilligan, in his inevitable white bucket hat, hauled in a lobster trap from the overly warm, tropical lagoon (a stage studio out in Los Angeles).

This was a weird summer. We witnessed it all, from epic rainfall to sustained heat waves to jungle-like humidity. On the fishing scene, anglers are looking forward to the change of seasons.

I was surprised to see in my logbook that my lobster catch was better than expected this year, although lobsters in our local waters have been on a downswing for decades.

A trip to the North Fork to pick up 1,000 oyster spat from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Center means it was time to replenish my North Haven stock.

At daybreak, I went to check my lobster traps off to the east, but before we ventured forth, I wanted to do a bit of fishing on the east side of Gardiner's Island. Fluke and sea bass were the intended quarry. My expectations were very low. Let me explain.

After finishing dinner on our outdoor patio overlooking Shelter Island Sound the other day, we noticed a canoe with a man, woman, and child in it moving rapidly on the strong incoming full-moon tide. It was getting dark and they were too far from the beach.

We are in full-scale summer mode as August approaches. In Montauk stripers are still running, and the same is true for fluke and a plethora of undersize sea bass.

It’s appropriate that Michael Potts will be honored on Sunday afternoon as the Montauk Fishing Legend of the Year at the Montauk Grand Slam fishing tournament that Henry Uihlein has hosted at his marina for nearly three decades.

I trapped 15 lobsters on July 8. That was the good news. The bad was that the Yanmar diesel engine on my Rock Water encountered problems on the return trip to Sag Harbor.

My good friend Robert Cugini, who hails from Seattle, has served as a valued deckhand for many years when bay scallop season opens in early November. But lobsters are a different ballgame.

I know that the East End is a well-known hot spot. I realize that nothing stays the same, but I miss the more simple days when courtesy, respect, and kindness ruled the road and water. Is it too much to ask for today?

The recent heat wave zapped my energy for getting on the Rock Water and wetting a fishing line. But I sucked it up and checked on my lobster traps anyway.

After a good catch of bluefish, I steered back to port in Sag Harbor, but my engine stalled out a few minutes later. Not good.

The D.E.C. has announced changes to recreational fishing regulations to improve management of protected shark species. Plus, a record blue-claw crab hits the counter at Tight Lines Tackle.

“It’s the first in a very long time” to visit New York State, “if not the first ever,” said Shai Mitra, an assistant professor at the College of Staten Island, said of the American flamingo that visited Georgica Pond in East Hampton last week. The bird was last seen there Saturday at dusk.