Long Island Fishing Report – July 11, 2019

Long Island Fishing Report

Sharks are marauding innumerable bunker pods as they make their way along the east end beaches towards Montauk Point. 45 to 50-pound stripers off Montauk Point, chowing down on baited eels. It’s been described to me as “not fishing but shooting fish in a barrel.” The epic tuna bite just won’t end! My friend Brian hooked me up with a giant chunk of bluefin that his dad harvested the other day. The east end angler Andy Pollak took the “Hot Potato” 170 miles out and caught a variety of giants, including bigeyes, blue marlin, and a 450-pound bluefin. Reports of big threshers are coming in pretty consistently. North shore anglers are ditching the seemingly infinite short fluke and opting to fill their coolers with the very abundant and large sea bass instead. Porgies still own the north shore as well. Large bluefish are being hooked off Montauk point, and Magnolia Pier in Long Beach.

Nassau County

Paul at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin says the striped bass fishery has transitioned to mainly a nighttime feed. Bluefish are scarce, and the fluking has been slow. Anglers are mostly catching shorts over there.
As the water warms, Paul expects the saltwater fishing to slow even more. If you’re looking to get your fix of bent rods, switching to freshwater is in your interest right about now. Bites in the morning and evening are generally pretty easy.
Elwood Flies Bill has been hitting the Peconic River, and having a blast with the resident bluegills. Pickerel have been ferociously stealing his flies as well.
Paul hit the Housatonic River for smallmouth this week, and had 25 fish between himself and a friend. Every fish was quality, at least 12 inches.
Good trout fishing options include the westchester tailgaters, which run cold. The spring creeks here on Long Island are a great option as well. There is plenty of water flowing, which makes for good summer fishing.

Bay Park Fishing Station in Wantagh has been reporting some awesome shark fishing. Captain Keith and first mate Brayden Owens took their “Fighting Irish” to 120 feet of water south of Debs, and landed a 175 pound thresher.
Lloyd Malsin fished open bottom in 82 feet on his “Nansea II.” He caught 21 keeper sea bass and 50 ling drifting salted clams and Gulp. It was great action, but he needed to use eight ounces to hold bottom.
Alex Shlomm of “Far East” fished the Cholera with Alex, Sophia, Will and Jen. They used fresh bunker to catch and land a 342 pound thresher.
Captain Doug Toback, DJ and James of “Corazon” fished 20 miles off Jones Inlet, chumming and using bunker for bait. 13 year old DJ manned the rod when the 190 pound thresher hit. It took 40 minutes to subdue the shark.

Kathy at Freeport Bait & Tackle heard from Louie, Sammy, and Alan that there is plenty of fluke action to be had in Reynolds Channel. They used squid, spearing and green Gulp, and caught a LOT of fish.
Captain Jason Fosco of Team Cannonball Charters fisher the Cholera banks on the “Solitude.” He limited out on sea bass in three hours, and then caught over 60 ling at McAllister Reef. Another customer confirmed the presence of many seabass at Cholera.
Another customer had a five pound fluke at Hempstead Reef.
Thresher numbers are up. Customers are seeing and hooking a bunch.
Magnolia Pier in Long Beach has given up some large bluefish around sunset.
The porgies up in Bayville just won’t quit! North shore is on fire with porgies this year. Another spot to check is Sunken Meadow.

Suffolk County

For anglers checking into Lindenhurst Bait & Tackle, a few species are providing options other than fluke. Although there’s been some better action, it still needs to heat up. S.I.F.C. member Jeremy Kurtz has been scoring a keeper fluke or two up to four pounds at Captree State Park. Bouncing light jigs with XL local spearing during the slow part of the tides has been the key to consistency. Rich Pepa and son Gianni have also been putting some keepers in the boat using similar tactics in the Western State Boat Channel and Great South Bay. Rich noted that the weakfish bite at Ocean Beach was still on fire. The duo caught and released forty tiderunners on Wednesday and another twenty on Friday.

Juan Hernandez and Carlos Delgado fished in the Sore Thumb area on Saturday; they anchored up with a chumpot and caught 20 blowfish, six kingfish, five porgies and two sea bass. Most action was during the incoming tide. Sea bass are an easy target if you go to the Fire Island Reef. Tom Fannelli and Justine took six year old Kevin to the SE corner and had their nine fish limit to 20 inches in about an hour. Mr. and Mrs. Mike Macaluso and sister Christine drifted the Fire Island Reef on Wednesday. They caught a few shorts, a six pound stargazer, and two fluke at 5.5 and 4.7 pounds. The shop is now stocking live killies and eels as well as ocean fluke baits and jigs.

Bill at Chasing Tails Bait & Tackle in Oakdale says there’s a nice boy of fluke (18-20 inches) in the bay now, by the bridge, lighthouse and inlet. Anglers are taking them on bucktails with Gulp, or a regular rig with squid and spearing.

Weakfish are STILL running the early morning tides, taking small soft plastics and small bucktails.
There are a bunch of 3-5 pound bluefish running around the canals, jetties, inlets and town docks. They’re eating bunker chunks and anything metal you can throw at them. Snappers have also started to appear in numbers, along with kingfish, at the town docks.

Sea bass have provided a very reliable fishery on the outside reefs and wrecks. There have been a good number of 3-4 pound fish, and even some six and seven pound knuckleheads. Clams and jigs are the appropriate rigs.
The bluefin tuna bite is ridiculous. Bill had to call me back because he was filling out a weigh-slip for an 83 pounder a customer just brought in this AM. Some guys are going to Hudson canyon, but the fish are showing pretty regularly at 50-60 miles.

There are plenty of sharks roaming around, but no news of makos and threshers yet.
On the freshwater side, try giving the early morning topwater a try. Largemouth bass and pickerel are so willing to destroy something that disturbs the surface.

The trout are chewing on size 16-18 caddis dry flies, and size 20-22 zebra midges.

Justin at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport tells me that most fluke fishermen have switched over to the big seabass that are hanging around the north shore. Anglers are getting them around the wrecks.

Fluking hasn’t been slow, there just aren’t very many keepers amongst the endless shorts. Fishermen who are determined to find keepers are doing so to the east by Nissequogue, and west near Cold Spring Harbor.
One can find porgies by the Brushpile, the stacks and Caumsett State Park.

Stripers are hanging in the triangle; that fishery hasn’t changed too much in the past few weeks. From shore, you could get both stripers and blues on bunker chunks.
Sandeels are still the predominant bait in the area.

Rick from Harbor Marina of East Hampton reports that fluke fishing has improved greatly over the past week. There is an abundance of short Fluke from Shelter Island to Block Island and some really nice fish in the mix. Bring a lot of bait. Nice sized Sea Bass are found over most rocky bottom from Gardiners Island to Block Island. Porgies are pretty much everywhere across Eastern Long Island with some dinner plate sized fish.

The bass fishing slowed a little bit after the new moon, but folks who are putting their time in are still catching. I am looking forward to the upcoming July Moon. The relative absence of bluefish is troubling, but we remain hopeful that they will still arrive in force to their usual summer haunts.

Offshore is a great option for shark and bluefin tuna near shore, and for those willing to make the run yellowfin and big eyes are being caught in the canyons.

Kenny at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor says the reports were slow for the holiday weekend, because everyboy was out fishing! All the better fishing was out east around Montauk. The Peconics are slowing down now as the temperatures rise. There are, however, still a lot of porgies, small blues, and small weakfish.

Captain Chris Albronda, first mate of Double D Charters in Montauk saw the big pods of bunker move to the End this week. With them came the makos and threshers. Big striped bass are also using the bunker pods as a feeding opportunity.

Seabassing is red hot with, with a few nice fluke in the mix. Porgies are in thick as well.
Offshore in the butterfish hole, bluefin tuna are being caught on both the troll and spinning gear. The shark fishery has been heating up there as well, with hammerheads patrolling the slicks.
Triggerfish madness has begun; many are being caught on the south side in the rock piles near the point. On the bayside, shore-bound anglers are catching a good amount of schoolie striped bass around sunrise and sunset. Fluke are also being taken under the same conditions.

Tanya at Westlake Marina in Montauk sends word of the insane eel bite off the point. The Montauk rips always produce huge striped bass in July, and this year is no different. Many stripers were weighed in this week between 45 and 50 pounds. Captain Dan Gladstone took his nieces out on “Fin Up” and they brought in a 49 pounder. Another customer Eric Tirpak took some friends out on the “Daylight’s Wasting;” they had two 47 pounders and a 48 on eels.

One customer weighed in a 4.7 pound sea bass he caught while out with my friend Chris on Double D Charters.
Another customer fishing off the “Top Hook,” brought in an 18.9 pound bluefish.
Most people are focusing on striped bass these days, so the fluke have been getting a break. They’re there though!

Long Island Fishing Forecast

The Montauk slaughter of big striped bass continues, and that won’t stop anytime soon. Rick Drew is correct to be excited about the approaching July full moon, as the striped bass fishing on the east end can be epic.
It doesn’t sound like the tuna bite offshore is losing any steam. If you haven’t gotten offshore yet, you oughta make those plans! The bluefin my friend gave me is some of the best tasting fish I’ve ever had. It practically melts in your mouth. I’m eating it raw, with a dab of soy sauce. Brian gave me an awesome recipe that I still need to try: mayo, white horseradish, chopped garlic, and a little soy sauce.

I live on the ocean so I get to see some pretty incredible stuff. Three days ago there were MILLIONS of bunker, spread out across a few miles, and divided up into hundreds of pods by the many sharks pursuing them. It took place in the surf, and as far out as 300 yards. It was an incredible sight and I sent my drone out to film it. Whether you saw the footage on News 12 LI, any social media, or you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend checking out the dramatic footage that I just posted on my youtube channel (SouthForkSalt). On these glass calm days, the sharks kick up clouds of sand to disorient the baitfish, and then spring in and attack as many fish as possible.

I expect to see more of that in the coming month. It’s extremely exciting. It’s a great time to be at the beach on the east end; just maybe not in the water. Nothing wrong with that though, as I spend chunks of my day watching the whales swim by. They porpoise along, and even breach on the bunker sometimes. If you focus on the horizon, you just might spot them! They’ve been in close this summer as well, almost every day. The most recent ones I saw were 250 yards out.

I also saw a picture of a Long Island commercial dragger with two GIANT cubera snapper that were netted inshore. So I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of some tropical catches in the coming week! Will you be the one who lands it?
There’s a lot of fish out there to grace your dinner plates and bend your rod, so go get yours! Tight lines.