Long Island - New York Fishing Report - October 10, 2019

Long Island Fishing Report

Thirty-plus pound stripers are coming up from the Montauk surf. Incredible bass blitzes have been going on along the south shore. They’ve mostly comprised of schoolies, but the occasional keepers up to 36-inches are coming up from the mix.

Some other, unsuspected species are participating in the feed. Huge albies came into the inlets right before the blow. We’re hoping they’ll return shortly. Regardless, we still have some bonito for the taking in the LI Sound. There’s a good swordfish bite at the canyon and still lots of good porgies and sea bass on the bottom. Blackfish opens Friday in Long Island Sound (and nest Tuesday off the South Shore). Prospects are high for a productive fall season. We also have word of big kingfish and big schools of weakfish in Great South Bay both feeding heavily.
 
Nassau County

Kathy at Freeport Bait & Tackle showed our recent issue of On The Water to her dentist the other day because her shop was featured. This inspired Dr. Peter Detolla to hit the water on the North Shore. He fished in Northport, at Asharoken, and had a few schoolies on the dropping tide. He even had a blackfish. Then when the tide got low, a 36-inch striper took his white bucktail from a rocky ledge. That was the biggest fish he’d ever caught! Congrats doc!

Rudy Juarez is a longtime customer of Kathy’s. He was fishing near the Meadowbrook Bridge with a couple of his friends when a real nice school of bass swam by. The guys caught three stripers from it at 40, 39, and 36 inches. They were throwing Z-man jigs, which are one of the hottest selling items at Freeport B&T. These soft plastics are made to stretch and be resilient to toothy fish. It is the perfect bait to throw when targeting stripers in this bluefish-infested area.

So, the stripers are in and there are a ton of cocktail blues around as well. People are catching good numbers of both species from the rocks at West End II. Blowfish are still prevalent as well.

Everybody is dying to start taking some blackfish. Kathy has everything you could possibly need in the shop, so stop in before you go!

Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside logged some awesome catches this week. Lloyd Malsin took the “Nansea II” out with Domenic, Paul, Pete, Ronnie and Steve. They wailed on giant scup, sea bass, and even a brown shark. They moved spots and found about 15 weakfish just under keeper size. More porgies came over the rails, and a few stripers as well, after the move.

Sean fished the AB bridge with clams, and lucked into a 6-pound triggerfish!

Mike Castaldi of “Keep Reelin’” fished near the AB Bridge as well and had a 3.55-pound triggerfish devour his Asian crab.

Billy and Matt Straub of “Norma” fished out of Seaford this weekend and caught some awesome sheepshead. One was 15.54 pounds and the other was 12.56 pounds. Tidal Tail blackfish banana jigs tipped with crabs proved successful.

James Ryan of “Steagles” fished just west of the AB bridge on the rocks, and caught a bunch of schoolie bass. One was 29 inches, taken on a clear lure.

Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain for Long Island!

Suffolk County

Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale says the fall run has begun! Schoolie to keeper-sized bass are plentiful, and a few bruisers and cows are lurking around as well. SP Minnows, poppers, mag darters, bucktails and swim shads are all getting smacked. Bill hit the surf Friday night and had a steady pick of bass up to 26 inches on SP minnows, bucktails and mag darters. Vinny Cagnina landed a 30-incher that night.

Weakfish are still swarming the bay in impressive numbers. Jacob Minerva landed four weaks up to 18 inches off the town dock on a pink bass assassin on Friday night. Keith Treco is getting on them by boat, using small bucktails and Gulp! grubs.

Cocktail blues are running around the docks, bridge and inlet. They’re loving the metal lures, and anything on top. Snappers and kingfish are all over the town docks as well, and they are huge! Kingfish a pound and up have been coming over the rails consistently.

The freshwater bass are on the feed, actively looking for meals. Swimbaits, spinners, crank baits, poppers and frogs are the go-to lures this time of year for largemouths. A Texas or wacky-rigged Senko is always a classic that produces as well. The shop is loaded with everything you’ll need for some fall PB largemouth.

Bluegill and sunfish are schooled up and eating jigs and worms like crazy.

Trout stocking comes soon, so we’ve got that to look forward to as well.

Give the shop a follow on social media (@chasingtailsbait) to see what’s happening in the water during the week.

Brian Spreckels had an awesome week fishing the LI surf. He’s gotten into a lot of schoolies that aren’t very picky if you get to them before first light. Tide has not been a concern. 26- to 36-inch bass have inundated south shore waters from the East End to Nassau.

On the North Shore in Brian’s home waters, he has been chunking, hoping for big bass. Nothing noteworthy just yet. The snappers have mostly dissipated and been replaced by a significant population of schoolie bass. There are still cocktail blues around, but they are also petering out.

Captain Stu Paterson of Northport Charters says there is still lots of life and bait in his fishery off Eaton’s Neck.
He had big pork chop porgies, up to 3.5 pounds. He and his charters also got into bluefish, seabass, blowfish, and even some bonito this week. Blackfish season starts tomorrow, and he has some trips available so contact him today.
Call Stu at 631-707-3266, or check his website, NorthportCharters.com to get in on the bite. The fall bite is on!

Surf fishing guide Bernie Bass did well in the surf this week. It was, in fact, his best week so far this fall. He saw some incredible numbers of bass, with a couple of okay ones mixed in. He lost two real good ones this week. Can’t win ‘em all!

He fished a lot out front, and also tucked into some back water areas when the ocean side water got dirty mid-week. No problem, as the back bay produced quite well for him. There is a ton of bait everywhere, and Bernie is looking forward to a great week and a productive season ahead.

Jeff at Whitewater Outfitters in Hampton Bays says there are a ton of bass around. Some nicer ones are starting to move in to our area. Some anglers have had fish in the twenty pound range during the night tides. Bryce from the shop fished the inlet the other day and had a massive blitz of schoolies just outside the inlet. I witnessed that, and it was a sight to behold. There are some fish up to 36 inches holding bottom there as well.

Albies are still around, but this storm will likely muck up that fishery for the next few days. We just gotta hope for the water to clear up quickly after the blow, and just maybe they’ll give us one last hoorah.

Offshore it’s worth mentioning the good swordfish bite going on. Head out to the canyons if we get the right weather.
Blackfish season starts tomorrow in the LI Sound (and this coming Tuesday for other LI waters), so we’ll be looking forward to reports from those anglers this week.

Kenny at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor didn’t get any reports the past few days, but prior to the blow he heard of albies at the inlet. I was there and saw some big ones come up on to the rocks. If you were one of the few boats out there, you must have had an epic time. It looked like infinite albies, and the bass were thick as well.
Worthy of mention is the tackle swap going on at Tight Lines Tackle this weekend. There will be local anglers looking to swap/sell their tackle, and there will be discounts on a variety of inventory in Kenny’s shop. Make sure you stop by this weekend to see what fishing treasures you can find.

Rick from Harbor Marina of East Hampton says we had a great start to the fall migration prior to this week’s prolonged Nor’easter. Striped bass, false albacore, and bluefish were feeding heavily from the inner Peconics out to Montauk. A slew of fish made their way down the ocean beach as far as Southampton, with some nice keeper stripers (and an occasional weakfish) in the mix. All eyes are on Saturday and Sunday, wondering whether the coordinated feeding frenzies will reassemble. Hopefully the abundant bait in our area got pinned down near shore in the blow.

Sea bass and blackfish will be the main event for sinker-bouncers going forward. Tog will be on more of the near-shore structure, and seabass should favor the deeper spots for the next week.

Areas west of Orient in the LI Sound will open for blackfish tomorrow, October 11. The rest of Long Island will open on October 15.
Watch the weather and be patient before heading out to open waters or wading into the surf zone. There is a lot of heavy water moving around eastern Long Island.

Chris at Westlake Marina in Montauk said there are hordes of small bass around the lighthouse. They are providing some of the best, most visual action that Montauk has seen in years. These fish are blitzing pretty regularly.

There are a lot of seabass and porgies around if you go a little deeper, maybe to Cartwright or south of Block near the wind farms. You can find the fish both inshore and offshore of the turbines.

Blackfish season should start with a bang, as the commercial guys have been doing well lately. They’ve been coming back with their limits every day.
There are some really nice bass around Montauk right now. Some surf guys are getting fish into the 30 pound class. The boat guys are pulling up some nice ones when fishing the elbow. There are a lot of small fish though.

I asked Chris about the big bass around Block to gauge the stage of migration. He said there are still a good amount of big fish off the SW ledge, but they are starting to thin out. Those big girls should make their way into our water soon.

Captain Chris Albronda, first mate of Double D Charters in Montauk, says that the surface is alive with striped bass, bluefish, false albacore and bonito. You can find them anywhere from the inlet all the way to Gurney’s.

There are keeper sized bass blitzing, you just have to go from one herd to another until you find the keeper-sized fish.
Surf fishing has heated up big time. Bass are being caught up to thirty pounds in the surf.
No word on bottom fishing this week, as the weather has prevented it.

Stephen Lobosco has been crushing the Montauk surf during this Nor’easter and doing very well. Blitzes are regular, and the bass are often within casting range. He even found a bunch of bass within FLY CASTING range! He was bailing them on the fly rod in a 30mph headwind! The biggest bass he found the past few days was around 15 pounds, but he knows some folks who have seen fish that size and better in the past week out there.

Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain for Long Island!

Long Island Fishing Forecast
Last Friday I got some insane drone footage of hundreds, maybe thousands of bass blitzing on peanuts, mullet and snot bait. Lord knows what else. See it on my Instagram @SouthForkSalt. As the week progressed, more species made their presence known. My boss and I fished some blitzes right on shore. At the very end of our cast, we saw a huge mackerel-looking fish jump high out of the water. We’re sure it was a king mackerel. Breaching whales, bullish dolphins and hungry birds all added to the spectacle of blitzing fish.

I’m looking forward to much more of this after the blow. The amount of life this week was astounding, and I don’t expect it to depart anytime soon.
Montauk is the place to be right now. As the storm dies, I think these bigger fish in the thirties will start hitting the beaches by me, and make their way westward. The frontrunners in this better class tend to move a bit more quickly; if you blink you’ll miss them. It’s a good week to have eyes on the surf as much as possible. The incoming, post-storm winds will be variable and should knock the surf down; this will make for some awesome visual fishing. If you find a pod of mediocre fish, don’t be afraid to leave them in search of the big girls. This strategy has paid off many times for me. The small, nervous pods of bunker tend to hold the bigger bass underneath them (in my experience).

I like to stay off the beaten track, and always tell myself that this is the time of year to do something that nobody else is doing. I believe it was this week three years ago, my friend Nico sent me a picture of two adult bonefish that had gotten caught in a pound trap in Shinnecock Bay. The flats are always on my mind in mid-October now, as are the back bay big fish spots. It’s tough to leave the ocean when you know there’s lots of fish running by, but I gotta try it. I’ve heard of some nice bites recently in places you’d never expect.

If you decide to leave the beaten track and come upon something awesome, please reach out to me! Nothing excites me more than backwoods fish stories when the rest of the world is on the front line.

Wherever you go, I think you’ll find them. Best of luck!