September 1, 2011

According to the Long Island Power Authority, there are still over 165,000 homes on the Island without power. Going into the fifth day after the storm, that has to be pretty tough. For those who managed through the storm relatively unscathed and are already back on the water, it’s been a little hit-or-miss. Irene dumped over 5 inches of rain on the Island, washing countless tons of sediment and debris into the bays and estuaries. “Coffee colored” water is still the dominant condition all the way out to Montauk; however, pockets of clean water are showing up with increasing regularity. It shouldn’t be too long before the water gets back to normal for most places, and post-storm patterns begin to emerge. It’s September, and you all know what that means – the fall run is just weeks away.

East End

The Viking Fleet was back in operation as of yesterday, and both fluke and bottom-fishing trips turned out better than expected. Captain Dave reports that, “the water is beginning to clear,” and that, despite the less-than-ideal water clarity yesterday, “most anglers on board did catch their limit of porgies.” Captain Dave also thinks the improving water conditions should have the bite back to normal in another day or so. Half-day fluking was also productive yesterday, with decent numbers of porgies and sea bass mixing in with some decent flatfish.

There’s a light east wind in the forecast for Friday night, and it’s getting to be that time of year, so I checked in with Paulie at Paulie’s Bait & Tackle in Montauk to see how the local surf-rats have been doing lately. As usual, Paulie was swamped with customers, but managed rattled off a little information before I let him get back to fighting through of the weeds. “They’re getting fish under the Light just about every night,” Paulie said. A real good sign for things to come in general, but even this weekend looks promising for surfcasters anxious for fall. The wind will be consistently 5 to 10 knots east or northeast through Friday night, so the bass bite in the surf will likely continue through the weekend. Paulie and his crew throw white bucktails with a red-and-white pork rind trailer almost exclusively from the suds, but darters, swimming plugs and needlefish are also good options if you’ll be in Montauk this weekend.

OTW Insider Capt. Tom Mikoleski was able to find a good bunch of fish in the dirty water off Montauk and had a great charter this week aboard the Grand Slam, catching 17 fish between 28 and 43 pounds on live eels.

South Shore

There’s a lot of big debris floating around the south-shore waterways, so be careful if your boat is already back in action. The water in the south-shore bays is still really dirty, no big surprise there, but the bluefish are chewing through the poor conditions (also no big surprise). The decent weakfish bite which was going on in Jamaica Bay will likely take a little longer to pick back up. Porgy fishing shouldn’t be affected for too much longer by the storm runoff, but definitely consider bringing along the chum pot if you’re planning on heading in the next day-or-two to help attract fish to the boat.

Upstate

Irene proved absolutely devastating for some small towns Upstate, especially in parts of the Catskills. I talked to Ken from the Baxter House in Roscoe, and fortunately Ken told me they weren’t really affected by the storm. They did experience high water in the area, but the town was largely spared of damage, and they’ve already had groups back out on the water as of yesterday. The Willowemoc and East Branch of the Delaware River are both already fishable, but Ken did mention, “The water is still a little high to wade the East Branch.” He expects it to return to wade-able conditions in the next few days. They are fishing with drift boats in both locations, and the high-water bite has been good. Fish are hitting sulfurs and blue-wing olives, and Ken also mentioned that the increased flow has really turned-on the streamer fishing. The roads leading up to Roscoe are all in good condition, and the good fishing should continue to get even better as the water temperatures fall over the coming weeks.

North Shore

I made a call to Camp-Site in Huntington Station, and the shop is up-and-running “like it never happened,” according to Richard. Fishing, however, has yet to completely recover from the effects of Irene. Rich told me he got out on the water for about an hour last night in the Huntington area and all he found was lifeless stained water. He also mentioned there are a lot of boats still “sitting high-and-dry,” adding to the relative lack of reports coming into the shop. There are still some big bluefish in the area, but getting to some clear water might be a little challenging for another day or two. Try working some of the rocky outcroppings along the north shore in-between the inlets where the dirty water is most concentrated.

Best Bets

For the time being, finding some clean water should be the first priority of any angler beginning to poke around in the aftermath of the storm. The east end is already starting to clear up, but the big rivers to the west, like the Hudson and Connecticut, will continue dumping large amounts of dirty water and debris into the sound for a while. The south shore should clear out as well in the coming days, and Irene actually did some good as far as water temperatures are concerned. The cooler water, in the mid-60-degree range, that has been to the east all summer has spread west, paving the way for the return of bigger bass in bigger numbers. However, for now Montauk still remains the place to be, especially for stripers. The charter guys are finding plenty of cows out in the rips, like they have since June, and now the surf guys are getting back into the action. This weekend would be a good first-shot at September Montauk bass from the surf, just remember to pack plenty of one-and-a-half-ounce bucktails before heading east – tight lines.