Long Island – New York Fishing Report – December 5, 2019

Pictured Above: A bass literally overflowing with adult bunker hit Matt Heckman’s jig in the east end surf.

Double digit tog, big black seabass, and jumbo porgies are being caught offshore, primarily on party boats. They are catching a plethora of fish species out there regularly, including striped bass and cod.

Herring are in. The north shore variety seems to be keyed in on peanut bunker.
Schoolie striped bass are still being caught in the surf all across the island. Slim profile lures are effective, but bigger presentations are very reasonable.

Trout fishing has been excellent lately, and rumors of white perch have begun circulating.

Nassau County

Kathy from Freeport Bait & Tackle said that the reports are slowing down, and all she’s really hearing about is blackfish. A few different boats targeted the McAllister Reef this past week, and they all found a solid selection of tog chewing on green and white crabs. She knows some other guys have been going for seabass, but hasn’t heard of any results.

Kathy said there’s a very fun local event this weekend, the Holiday Boat Parade. Head on down to the Nautical Mile this Saturday, the seventh, to witness the “Mile of Lights.” Three restaurants participate, where you can sit and eat and watch the boats sail by. Some of the party boats even bring people aboard to participate in the parade! Or you can park on the street and watch from Guy Lombardo Pier or Seabreeze Park. The parade starts on December 7th at 7pm.

Paul at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin said that Jones and Debs inlets were absolutely stacked with small stripers this Monday before the snow. No word since, but it’s definitely worth a look. Those small bass were also in the surf.

Joe, Pete, John, Bill and Jim went to the Connetquot River this week and did pretty darn well. They had to work for their fish, but they all had about 4-5 fish each, and they were mostly quite large.

Paul is spearheading the Fly Fishing Expo of Long Island this year, and it will be occurring on March 28 at the Radisson in Hauppauge. Keep your eyes open for further information as the date approaches.

There’s just one report from Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside this week. Captain Billy Straub and Joe Fanora were fishing on Monday aboard the charter boat ‘NORMA.” While soaking green crabs at the Atlantic Beach Reef, Joe hooked and landed a 12.5 pound blackfish.

Suffolk County

Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale says there are still lots of schoolie bass on the beach taking diamond jigs, SP minnows, mag darters and bucktails. Most are small but there are a few thirty inch fish in the mix.

Big seabass are hanging out in the wrecks and reefs, with three pounders being quite common. There have even been quite a few knuckleheads in the 6 pound range coming up.

Blackfish are feeding heavily, crushing jigs and stealing crabs. The bigger fish are out deep, and some solid double digit tog are lurking.

In the freshwater, largemouth bass action is slowing down, so that means slow down your presentation. Fin-s jigs, jerk baits, blade baits, and small senkos will do the trick.

Yellow perch are schooled up and feeding heavily on worms and small jigs. White perch have been spotted out east, but no sign of them locally just yet.

Trout are biting inline spinners, trout magnets and a myriad of flies. Wooly buggers, egg-sucking leeches, and all sorts of nymphs are getting taken by angry brookies and solid rainbows.

The shop will be open all winter, and is loaded with everything you’ll need for winter fishing. Give them a follow on social media (@ChasingTailsBait & @fishlongisland) to see pics and get updates during the week.

Mark at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport says there’s a lot of peanut bunker in his area, and there are herring chasing them down. The herring’s favorite bait is spearing, which doesn’t seem to be the prevalent bait just yet; anglers are keeping the lines tight nonetheless. Ever since the snowstorm, the herring have been stirred up and on the feed. Guys are catching them using mainly sabiki rigs with a flasher or a kastmaster attached. Other guys are dropping tiny grubs down and getting into them.

Some of the guys at Lindenhurst Bait & Tackle hopped aboard the Captree Princess the other day. Despite the 6-8 foot seas, Rich Pepa and Gianni Giorgini-Pepa fished hard and got it done. The guys brought home the bacon in the form of jumbo seabass, red hake, cod, and weakfish.

Captree’s Laura Lee has been sailing offshore at 4am for all-day seabass, and staying inshore for 3/4 days of striper jigging. The seabass trips are seeing lots of giant biscuits. In addition, anglers have reeled in lots of porgies, red hake, cunner, bluefish and dogfish. Smaller numbers of cod, pollack, white hake, bonito, and even pinfish and triggerfish have hit the decks. The striper trips have produced decent numbers of bass, with some shad in the mix.

Montauk’s Viking Fleet has been sailing to Block Island mostly, for a mixed bag. They have been targeting seabass, cod and blackfish mainly, but encountered some jumbo porgies, bluefish, mackerel and pollock. A few other species were caught as well; life seems to abound by Block. Cod this week weighed into the mid-high teens, seabass went to 4.25 pounds, and porgies made it to almost three pounds. Mark Fisher had his limit of tog on Sunday, the biggest going 12.1 pounds.

Captain Chris Albronda, first mate of Double D Charters in Montauk, says the cod are here, with many fish in the fifteen-pound range being caught.
Tautog are as big as they get and are still in relatively shallow water, allowing the possibility of jig fishing.

I fished the surf with Matt Heckman about a week ago, and we got into a decent number of stripers here on the east end. We both had some fish to almost-keeper size on our sandeel presentations before I had to leave for work. Stephen Lobosco was a few miles down the beach catching keeper bass. I had to leave for work, but Matt texted me a picture later in the day that confirmed my suspicions about the presence of a specific bait: bunker. One of Matt’s bass had a full adult bunker stuck in its throat when it smacked his jig.

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Long Island Fishing Forecast

The fact that there is still a lot of bunker has me optimistic. I’m not hitting the surf nearly as much anymore, due to the harsh weather. I’ve been hunting for white perch instead. I’ll be going after trout too, starting this weekend.

When the weather does break, though, and we get some cooperative winds that quell the seas, I’m confident I’ll be catching more striped bass. The schoolie bite has been incredibly consistent this year, and the current abundance of bait should keep that flame burning for some time. I have hooked surf bass until the teen days of December for years now. I have a feeling that this year’s surf bite is going to be even better, lasting through and beyond the end of the season.
Since it’s December, I’ll leave you with a thought-provoking anecdote. I hope it will inspire someone to try something seldom attempted these days.

I work for a property manager who is a very skilled surfcaster. He has been fishing for many years, and has seen some real salty guys on the beach. He told me about a couple gents who would strictly fish December. The harder the weather, the more likely you’d see them on the beach. One fished clams during the day, the other fished herring chunks at night. Lord knows what the night shift produced for that man, but my boss would regularly witness the daytime angler’s ingenious method. He had a portable stove he would set up in the trunk of his buggy, and he’d set a pot filled with chowder over the heat. In the surf he’d soak a baited clam right near the inlet. His target was cod, and when he caught one, he’d immediately clean it and add it to the chowder pot. That must’ve been the tastiest soup.

One more. Some years ago I went into Whitewater Outfitters in December to talk about the surf-cod potential. I hadn’t yet discovered white perch or trout, and I was not ready to quit fishing for the winter. My timing was perfect, as a man had just left the shop after weighing in a mid-30 inch Atlantic cod. This man had visited Whitewater earlier to inquire about the same subject. The shop employees sent him to the jetty with some clams. A couple hours later the man returned with his keeper.

Fishing potential doesn’t just disappear once it gets cold. You gotta go to know. Tight lines.