Bottom Fishing Strong, Weakfish Surprisingly Abundant

With less than a week left in the month, late-summer fishing patterns are taking hold quickly across much of state. Striped bass are becoming tougher to find in most places, with a few notable exceptions, especially during daylight hours. Fluking has held up pretty well across Long Island, and even improved in many places. Bottom fishing remains steady for sea bass, porgies, and even triggerfish in a few places along the south shore, and a surprising amount of weakfish are being caught along the western north shore.

East End

Montauk definitely remains the place to be if you’re looking for a late-July linesider this weekend. Big bass are being pulled off  the Elbow on wire setups during the day and by drifting eels on three-way rigs after dark. Looking at  recent satellite images of sea surface temperatures around the region quickly explains why The End remains the go-to location for consistent action with quality-size bass – cool water. The rips off Montauk are at the center of coolest piece of water along New York’s entire coastline, and the stripers have found it.

South Shore

Although the bass bite outside of Jones and Debs Inlets has finally died out for the most part due to the increasingly warm water temperatures, there’s still plenty of quality fishing opportunities to be found across Long Island’s south shore. Fluking inside the bay has been great recently, and even the local crew fishing from the piers have been in on the action. Ed from Jones Beach Fishing Station reports “phenomenal” fluke fishing from the local piers in recent days. Live killies and snapper blues have been the hot ticket for hooking a nice keeper flatfish from the pier. There’s also been some big chopper blues cruising around at night. Bluefish up to 12.1 pounds have been weighed in at the shop in recent days. There’s also been some nice triggerfish caught and even a handful of big kingfish. Although the bass have largely given up on bunker pods outside Debs and Jones Inlets due to the warm water, the thresher sharks haven’t. The sharks are still being caught within a few miles of shore in less than 100 feet of water.

North Shore

With water temperatures in the neighborhood of 75 degrees across much of the Long Island Sound, if you’re looking for stripers it’s definitely time to head east. Bass fishing has actually been really good at the extreme eastern end of the sound over the past week. The charter fleet out of Orient Point has seen good numbers of quality bass on a daily basis, with some fish pushing into the 40-pound class. Bottom fishing for porgies and sea bass has also remained strong in the sound. I talked to Captain Chris of the Island Current Fleet today who reported savage porgy fishing this morning at the western end of the North Shore. The Island Current has been bottom fishing off of Smithtown and Northport recently, and along with plenty of humpback porgies, the Current has been seeing a lot of weakfish during the last two weeks. The tiderunners are hitting the top hook of the high-low setup for porgies, especially when the high hook’s baited with a whole sandworm. Captain Chris mentioned it’s the largest run of weakfish in the Long Island Sound he’s seen in years. Nighttime fishing for bass and blues has been a little more on the inconsistent side, but the fish that are being are all quality size. It’s probably the 74- to 75-degree water that’s making the larger fish a little more selective about which tides to feed on. On the bright side, Captain Chris mentioned the fleet has seen pods of bunker being attacked on recent trips, a good sign of things to come.

Metro New York

Despite the heat and storms this week, the quality fishing continues for the headboats sailing out of the Five Boroughs. The Marilyn Jean IV out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn has been no exception. The deepwater ling fishing continues producing plenty of nice size fish for the fares, and although the fluke fishing has been on the picky side Captain Tony reports that the nighttime bass fishing has picked up over the past week. Last Saturday’s trip saw 20 keepers hit the deck before the night was over.

Upstate

Despite the intermittent heat and thunderstorms, persistent anglers are still tying into some trophy fish upstate. On Lake Ontario, those trolling with down riggers in the deepwater have been finding a healthy mix of salmonids. Flies and medium dark-colored spoons have been the hot item lately. Down in the Catskills, good trout fishing continues in the rivers where water temperatures are low enough to supporting catch-and-release fishing. I talked to Matt from Beaverkill Angler in Roscoe who told me the East and West Branch of the Delaware River are both still fishable and getting good hatches of tricos in the morning. Some of the other rivers in the area, however, like the Willowemoc are running too warm at the moment to maintain acceptable catch-and-release mortality rates. The crew at Beaverkill recommends using 70 degrees at cut-off point for when it’s a good idea to move on to some cooler water. Fortunately, there’s some rain in the forecast, and the cooler nights recently should help open up some cooler water. If you’re heading up to the area this weekend, stop into the shop first to get latest river conditions.

Best Bets

If striped bass are on your agenda this weekend, I’ve got two words for you: East End. Bass fishing in New York is going well in two main locations, and both are at the far eastern ends of Long Island’s north and south forks. Although the south fork’s “east end” carries a bit more weight in the overall fishing community, the bass fishing out of Orient Point has been pretty damn good over the past week. If you’re not outfitted to do the wire-lining thing yourself, get five buddies together for a 6-pack charter. The east end captains are on the hunt for linesiders almost everyday this time of year, and always know which pieces of structure are holding the quality fish. If you can’t make it east this weekend, consider jumping on your local headboat for a half-day fluke trip. The bite’s turned on just about everywhere over the past week, and there’s some genuine doormats in the mix. Also consider some bottom fishing along Long Island’s western north shore, there’s plenty of jumbo porgies around and there’s a good chance you’ll find some weakfish – especially if you’re using sandworms.  Good luck out there.