Cobia, cobia, cobia! A few lucky anglers, such as surfcaster Tyler DeFrese, caught these fish in a variety of spots all over the island. Tyler’s 16 pounder ate his bucktail in a NoFo backbay.
A number of black drum, around 20 pounds, have been reported in the surf this week.
Big stripers are moving through the LI Sound, up to 40 pounds. The main body of bigger fish seems to be on the south shore, between Fire Island and Montauk, with many having made their way north. Montauk is producing many stripers in the high 40’s and some in the 50’s.
Great weakfish bite in the Great South Bay and the Peconics.
Black seabass opened with a bang. Lots of knuckleheads were caught all over LI.
Makos and threshers have comprised the primary shark catches. Some nice, big ones too.
Consistent cocktail blues are everywhere, at the perfect eating size of 3-4 pounds.
Giant fluke and porgies are abundant on the east end.
Tuna bite remains awesome.
They’re not fish, but they affect our fishing: Piping Plover nests are causing an incredible amount of shoreline closures for the next month-or-so.
NASSAU COUNTY
Kathy at Freeport Bait & Tackle had a customer, James Eisert, come in with a 3.5 pound sea robin he caught while fluke fishing at Jones Inlet on the incoming tide. He was using a jig tipped with Gulp and spearing, and managed to pull out a 21 inch fluke as well.
Earl Warren fished Jones Beach at West End 2 with bunker chunks right after buying a rod from the shop. He landed two 6-foot sand tiger sharks, and a massive skate. Lots of sharks in the water these days.
Customers are picking up fluke in the bay again after some hiatus. The water has warmed, and the bay is producing lots of shorts and a decent number of keepers. Hot spots are Reynolds Channel near Point Lookout for fluke, and Magnolia Pier at night for stripers and blues.
The construction barge at the west end near the Coast Guard station has been giving up a good amount of stripers and blues on bunker chunks, as well.
People are catching tuna at the Cholera bank offshore. Three Sisters reef is another good spot for tuna, where anglers are catching bluefin and yellowfin tuna.
There’s still a seemingly endless supply of porgies on the north shore. Sunken Meadow, Bayville, and Caumsett State Park are great spots to get on them.
People are fishing heavy now that the weather’s nice, so expect lots of reports to come in the next week.
Matt at Causeway Bait & Tackle in Wantagh tells me that the offshore scene near western LI has been awesome. To get on the bluefin bite, get out there at either first light or later in the afternoon.
There are lots of sharks in the water, many of them weighing over 200 pounds. Makos and threshers are the main targets, and anglers are getting them good.
The inshore reefs are starting to heat up, giving up good numbers of fluke this past week.
Seabass season started out great, with many fishermen catching their limits in some deeper water.
A Cobia was caught deep in Massapequa this week. It went about 15 pounds. This is not a common visitor to our waters.
Paul at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin says guys are catching bass on the north shore, and aren’t really plagued by bluefish up there. The Jones Inlet, by contrast, seems to have an endless supply of bluefish at about 3-4 pounds. They’re terrorizing the bunker there, along with dolphins.
Montauk fly guides are seeing excellent fishing on the flats, catching some real nice fish on crab flies.
On the freshwater side, VA Fred has been catching carp on the fly using Freddy’s Bread Fly. LI Fly Rodders had a trip to the Farmington River in Connecticut (about a 2.5 hour drive from Nassau County). There was a good hatch of sulphurs, especially on Monday, which made for some excellent fishing and catches.
Plenty of options out there, folks.
Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside has gotten some excellent reports of fluke, seabass, tuna and sharks this week.
Lloyd Malsin of “Nansea II” had over 70 fluke last weekend, with two keepers at 2.95 and 2.65 pounds.
Captain Mike and his crew of “The Black Peril” placed second in the Bay Park shark fishing tournament with a 362 pound thresher shark. Earlier that day, captain Nick Savene and the “No Time” crew had a 205 pound-thresher eat their baited mackerel.
Black sea bass season started well, with a few nice-size fish weighed in. “The Reel Limshady” crew managed to pull 5 keepers out, along with a 21 inch fluke. Ryann Redmond and Grace McKie fished on “Lil Mist III” at AB Reef/Rockaway Reef and caught a 2.5 pound seabass, and ten short fluke.
Captain Anthony of “DILLIGAFF” fished the back bays with Baypark spearing and 3-inch Gulp. He bagged a limit of fluke with his tactics.
Captain Bob Castardi fished the AB Reef with his friend Vinne Stempel on his “The Maiden” this Monday. They picked through a bunch of short fluke to eventually land two fluke, going 5.75 and 7.25 pounds. Spearing and squid strips were the bait of choice, and the seabass weren’t shy about eating that bait either.
Trolling 3-ounce red head Joe Shutes, the “Lady Jane” crew (John Caprino, Chris Motisi, and Henry Klushin) landed a 198 pound bigeye tuna while fishing the Hudson Canyon. The guys also boxed an additional 69″ bigeye on their overnight run.
DOORMAT ALERT! Bruce Behr and crew caught an 11.8-pound fluke, along with eight other keepers. They used white bucktails and pearl white and pink Gulp to catch the doormat. This is the largest fluke weighed in at Baypark so far this year!
Fishing in the AB Reef, Mike and Matt Bobetsky of “Reel Inn” caught a 6.6 pound fluke along with some ling. They used pink shine jerk shad Gulp and green bucktails to catch the fish.
SUFFOLK COUNTY
Bill at Chasing Tails Bait & Tackle in Oakdale fished the Connetquot yesterday morning and killed it. I swear this guy’s never NOT catching. If you’re looking for a challenge, but a good chance at bending the [fly] rod, you really ought to consider hitting one of our local rivers for trout. Even the smaller fish are fun, but the Connetquot has a lot of trophy-sized fish. I know guys who catch 40 per day (4-hour session) using mainly bead head nymphs, but Bill has been crushing them on mop flies and dries lately.
Tough weather this week made the saltwater side slightly slower report-wise. The guys that went out caught.
Weakfish are still biting small bucktails and soft plastics (Fin-S Fish, Mann’s Jelly Worms) in the early morning near Ocean Beach.
Fluke are running the bay, and people are getting a good number of keepers inside over by the bridge, the lighthouse, coast guard station, and ocean beach.
Bluefish are everywhere on the north and south side of the bay. All the town docks are still seeing action, as are the jetties and canals.
The big stripers have moved off, for the most part. There are still some straggler cows hanging out underneath the bunker pods, though.
Black sea bass provided anglers a great start to the season. There’s some fish inside, but the bigger ones are outside on the reefs and wrecks. Clams or jigs are both getting good numbers.
Blowfish and kingfish are at the town docks. YUM.
At Lindenhurst Bait & Tackle, the week started with mostly heavy winds except Tuesday. Shop regulars are getting in on some excellent weakfishing, and fluke are showing in areas most anglers don’t expect.
Rich from the shop fished the Ocean Beach area inside the Great South Bay and was treated to the BEST weakfish bite of his lifetime. It was non-stop action for 6 hours with over 50 tiderunners up to 23″ caught and released. A few kingfish, blowfish, and fluke mixed it up.
On the same day, Bruce Turnbull fished the South side of the Great South Bay and boated a 8.25lb. cobia that jumped on a squid spearing combo.
On Sunday Rich Pepa and son Gianni had solid action on the south side with several fluke to 23 inches, and loads of big weakfish.
Meanwhile Frank Esposito, Samantha Acevedo and Bill Faiella were catching a bunch of sea bass up to 19 inches at the Fire Island Reef. Fresh clam on hi-lo rigs and the first of the tide contributed to their success.
The “Hi-Hook” crew had a couple of fluke to 4.1 pounds on the morning tide. Later on the “Schaeffer City Crew” weighed in a 4.36 pound fluke caught outside by Bob Carniello.
Fluke are being picky this season so we suggest trying different techniques, dropping back on the first bite, and experimenting with different colors. For the ocean bite we have sardines, Peruvian spearing, and whole baby squid, as well as heavy jigheads, bucktail teaser rigs and “big bait” rigs.
Carmine at Campsite Sportshop in Huntington Station concurs that the fishing is hot. Stripers are all over the north and south shores, with schoolies heavily concentrated in the back bays. Boat anglers are into the bigger bass, taking them on large poppers and streamer flies. Methods such as chunking bunker and trolling spoons have also proven productive.
Porgy fishing is red hot on the north shore, with many an angler filling a bucket. Baiting clams and worms has been a successful method so far. Hit up a rocky area or a mussel bed and you should be able to find them. Chum with clams, and you’ll definitely be in the scup-money. It’s a great way to introduce a kid to fishing, as the chances of catching are pretty darn high.
Fluking has been productive, but people are mainly finding shorts. South shore sand beaches have given up a bunch of decent fluke to anglers throwing white flies, or hi-lo rigs with Spro bucktails tipped with gulp and teasers.
Seabass season started strong, with many a knucklehead falling to clams, worms and small jigs. There’s plenty of porgy bycatch for those anglers seeking seabass.
Bluefish have been iffy. There are smaller fish regularly in the sound, with gators showing up randomly and unannounced. Fly anglers are keeping themselves entertained with some solid blues at Smith Point Bridge. Bunker chunks are also producing there.
Phil at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport tells me that there are nice-sized bass being caught out in the sound, up to 40 pounds. There isn’t an overabundance of bunker, but it is there, and the pods are moving into the bays.
One bait that IS abundant is sandeels. They have been keeping the smaller fish on the inside.
Bluefish are starting to show up, most of them being in the 3-4 pound range. Chunk fishermen have been catching them.
Porgy fishing is still hot.
Fluking has been tough locally, but guys heading east are finding some big fish, and numbers of them.
If you’re looking for black sea bass, you’ll want to travel across the Sound towards Connecticut and fish the reefs on that side.
Kenny at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor said the seabass fishing was great to the east [of Sag Harbor] this week. The guys who went to Block Island did exceptionally well on them, bagging fish from 3-5 pounds, and most anglers obtained their legal limit.
There were fluke to ten pounds out east, in the deeper ocean water. Some fluke made their way to Gardiners Island, and one customer was able to pull an eight pounder from there.
Very big porgies that were in the peconic earlier this Spring have made their way out east and begun to show themselves.
On the outgoing tide earlier this week, schools of cocktail blues were seen blitzing by Cedar Point. The same thing occurred by Jessups on the incoming.
The weakfish are here in the peconics in good numbers. Don’t sleep in, and you can potentially hook a lot of them. Try Noyack Bay for your best shot at them. Guys who play their electronics and look, end up with 20 fish in the morning.
Chris at Westlake Marina in Montauk saw a couple nice fluke that Pete Kazura brought in. One was a fluke that just missed double-digits, weighing in at 9.7 pounds. He was fishing out of Cartwright on the “Kennebunk.”
Local sharpie Gary “the Toad” Stevens was fluke fishing off his boat this week, and he had four fish over eight pounds. One weighed 10.8 pounds.
William Taylor weighed in a 50.85 pound fish. He also caught at 38 pounder.
Just yesterday, Chris had seen more nice fish come in. Ryan “The Wizard” had a 52-pound bass, along with an awesome nickname.
Scott Troise nailed an 84.5 pound tuna on his boat “The Bandit.”
There is a good number of sizable sea bass coming to the dock.
Despite all those awesome catches, Chris tells me that the fishing is not yet RED hot, but it is certainly picking up pace.
According to Captain Chris Albronda, first mate on Double D Charters in Montauk, the seabass opener produced a lot of happy people filling out their limits with fish to 5 pounds. They are biting diamond jigs, as well as more conventional bait rigs.
The striped bass fishery is producing fish upwards of fifty pounds with a plethora of high forties caught on a variety of methods, including light tackle and bait.
Fluke fishing is incredible, many double digits are caught every day, and many are getting their bag limit.
Porgies have invaded the point and provide a great fight for all anglers.
Rick at Harbor Marina of East Hampton saw a somewhat disappointing opening to seabass season this week. Some unlikely spots overperformed, with some high quality fish; the more popular spots just did not produce as many keepers as could be expected. Rick believes that it will improve and the east end’s black seabass season should be solid.
Light tackle guys are enjoying good action on schoolie stripers and cocktail blues throughout Gardiners Bay. The local surfcasting squad has been hitting the south shore ocean beaches at night with consistent action on short stripers, with a few keepers in the mix.
The bigger bass that have been pinned tight to the offshore bunker pods have been evading hooks quite well; the easy pickings normally provided by these bunker schools have ran a bit of a different course so far this year.
Porgy fishing is still good in the Cherry Harbor area, and fluke fishing remains hit or miss. Boats fishing from Shelter Island to Gardiners Island have reported mixed bags: a few keeper fluke with an occasional weakfish or black sea bass in the mix.
We appear to be heading into our summer patterns with warmer days and a shift to more night-time activity for many species.
LONG ISLAND FISHING FORECAST
June was good to anglers all over the island.
The big striped bass moved from Fire Island to Montauk pretty quietly. A good number of big fish were caught in the places one would expect big fish to hang. Some even came to shore to grace the surfcasters’ presence. Soon most of them will move out to the big ocean rips around Long Island. The July harvest from the rips is practically a pastime, albeit a short-sighted one, and we’re right on the cusp of seeing lots of big stripers at the eastern docks.
Very large fluke have been getting caught pretty consistently out east, and I see that pattern continuing on an upward trajectory.
The weakfish bite tends to go on for a good chunk of the summer. I’ve been telling myself to find them for years now. It sounds like there is an especially high potential nowadays, so I’ll find myself prowling the Peconic shores these next few weeks.
I think it’s safe to say that we can expect some more southern visitors to our shorelines in the coming weeks, considering how many have been caught this week.
Hot days seem to be becoming the norm, so make sure you wear lots of sunscreen and stay hydrated! And stay on the water!!! Tight lines.
wow fishing sounds good, gotta love weakfish