Long Island Fishing Report - June 11, 2020 - Bass, Blues, and Bluefin on Bunker!

50-plus-pound bass, 100-pound bluefin, and giant bluefish nearshore on bunker (video).

Weakfishing continues to be stellar.

Fluking is finally considered “quality” for most of the island. More than a few doormats were reported.

Thresher sharks near the beach on bunker pods. Large makos at the canyon.

Bluefin tuna bite is awesome. Fish of all sizes, not far from shore.

Bluefin, Big Stripers, and Monster Blues on Bunker! Check out Tim’s video of all the predators drawn into the nearshore waters by a big school of bunker: 

Vinny from CrossBay Bait and Tackle in Howard Beach had a few awesome reports for us this week. His friend Billy S. was fluke fishing the other day and lucked into a 24-inch weakfish. Since then, weaks have been on the map and Vinny says the action has been picking up.

A customer, Rob, was fishing the reef when he caught a 7-pound sea bass. Such a huge, nice fish, but he threw it back because they’re not in season.

Vinny says there’s a lot of blues in the bay. There aren’t a lot of huge ones, but there were enough to chase all the porgies out of the bay!

Ed McNamara had an 11.9 pound fluke.

Fluking in general has been great, with lots of shorts and the occasional doormat.

Sharking should be getting good now. George caught a 350-pound thresher about 20 miles off the beach the other day.

Paul at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin fished Stump Pond in Blydenburgh this Monday with his wife. It was windy, but the fish were hungry. They had a ball catching about 30 fish. Species included bluegill, crappie, and bass.

Last night Paul fished a small private beach in a local harbor. He was catching sea robins and shad on the fly rod, while the guys plugging away next to him were getting into bass and blues. Paul fished the outgoing.

His son fished the same beach on Friday and got into fish around the top of the incoming.

Paul says it’s not gangbusters these days, but there are fish around. You have to work for them.

Kathy from Freeport Bait & Tackle had a few cool reports this past week. Kevin Quinton had a 51-inch striper break his 50 pound scale. He caught the fish right off the pink hotel at Lido Beach in the morning. He caught a 40-pounder when he first arrived, then landed this 50+.

Joe Mazza fished on Little Bear Too for fluke around high tide in a Freeport creek. He caught a 22.5 inch, 3.85 pound fluke on green gulp. He had a few other keepers that day near the Loop bridge.

Andrew Sica fished the same area as Joe, and got a real doormat at 28 inches. He had another flatty to 20 inches. He was using green and white spro bucktails, with a pink teaser and hand cut squid from Freeport Bait and Tackle.

Guys are catching stripers, and there are a couple bluefish still around (not a ton).

Anglers are catching porgies on the north shore out east, in places near Riverhead and Port Jeff.

Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside is getting reports from 45- to 60-foot depths of large stripers. Michael Librizzi and Mike Jr. of “Blue Breeze” caught and released three nice bass to 45 pounds. All fish took green/white TGT bunker spoons south of Debs.

Mike McGuigan of “Wildflower” caught and released two 40+ pound bass south of Debs trolling a yellow/white bunker spoon and 24 oz mojo.

The “Out of Bounds” crew landed a 315 pound thresher after a two hour battle while fishing in 120 feet south of Debs. They had another thresher on first thing in the morning.

Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale says lots of big bluefish are all over the bay and they’re hungry! They’re chasing down everything, from SP minnows, poppers, mag darters, bucktails and diamond jigs to live bunker. Fish in the 7- to 10-pound range are common, with plenty of 15-plus-pound gators marauding as well. Frank from the shop had a great day Friday with blues over 12 pounds consistently.

Stripers are here too, taking small jigs, mag darters, shads and SP minnows. Jake Farino had some solid slot fish on Sunday with bass assassins and SP minnows. Bigger fish are getting hit on the troll, mojos being the favorite. Reports of fish up to 30 pounds are common.

Fluke action is improving quickly, with some solid keepers finally showing face. 10 year old Robert Lombardo Jr. caught a solid four pound fluke on Saturday with his father and friend George Troha.

Weakfish reports are crazy, with lots of fish in the 6- to 8-pound range being caught. Small jigs are key for them. Bucktails, Bass Assassins, Gulp and Classic jelly worms work very well. Logan S. had a 7-pounder on Thursday take his pink bucktail. The local docks are getting hit by some solid blues, as well as plenty of kingfish and some blowfish too.

Dave Flanagan of “North Island Fly” guide service in Smithtown says the big bass and blues have moved in on the bunker pods. Dave has been seeing some great action on the flats as well. There’s even some big blues in the boulder fields finally!

Lindenhurst Bait & Tackle saw a good amount of keeper fluke this week. A 3.5- and 5.5-pound fluke were caught earlier this week. Another couple nice ones came from the Great South Bay.

The shop owner took his nephew Steven out for a few hours on Saturday, and they were able to take home 4 keeper fluke. One of those was Steven’s first keeper!

Captree’s Laura Lee has been hitting all sorts of species hard when they get out. They had a few “hake marathons,” catching up to 780 fish. Mikey was high hook on Monday, catching 72 big red hake.

Fluking was great, as the boat typically boated about 50 to 80 fish when they were targeted, up to about 4 pounds. The sea bass bite also got hot quite often, bring in over 100 fish on some days.

They’ve been doing well on the smaller, slot-sized striped bass this week. A number of bluefish came up as well, alongside the usual suspects (sea robins, skates, dogfish, etc.).

Ling, cunner, weakfish, ocean pout, codfish, blackfish and oyster toadfish were some of the other species landed this week.

Bryce at Whitewater Outfitters in Hampton Bays says larger bass are moving down the beach chasing bunker schools. They’re spread out across the island, so you can stumble upon some at any given moment, anywhere.

The bigger blues have thinned out in the bay, but there have been lots of smaller fish around to take their place. 

Drifting in the inlet has been decent. There are plenty of slot bass willing to chew on clams, live spot and eels.  Clam chumming has been productive, but the percentage of slot-fish is lower with this method than the aforementioned tactics.

There are signs of fluke in the ocean, but Shinnecock Bay is the place to be. Guys are pulling up some keepers in shallow water, jigging gulp, bucktails and/or bait.

Porgies are still going strong in the Peconics. They are mixed in more with the blowfish, kingfish, and summer weaks now. The weakfish are right around keeper size. Guys are targeting the larger ones using little jigs.

The offshore bite has been great. There are plenty of small bluefin around, anywhere from 25 to 40 miles out. There are fish up to 200 pounds being landed.

Head out to the Canyon if you’re looking for big eyes, yellowfins, or very large makos. If you’re just looking to do some sharking, you can stay close to shore:

Bryce hooked a big thresher in 10 feet of water the other day just off of one of the south shore jetties. The fish was hooked from right inside a school of bunker.

Surfcasting guide Bernie Bass says there’s good numbers of small bass in the peconics and along the south shore beaches. There are some decent bass to be caught on the night tides. 

Gator blues and cocktails remain abundant in the bays and on the outer beaches as well.

Bernie didn’t catch any huge fish this week, but he came across some stripers in the mid-high teens range. A few of his buddies caught some nice ones from shore, and one friend slammed some big girls snagging and dropping from the boat.

Kenny at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor says bigger bass moved in this week over by Jessups. Guys are picking them up by trolling wire, drifting eels, and chunking. Any technique that gives you the most confidence should work just fine. There is no “best method.” Just go put in the time and you stand a chance at doing well.

Fluking has been improving. There are more fish being caught, and more keepers in the mix. Sea robin strips have been producing very well.

Lots of big sea bass are being caught, but they are out of season.

Bluefish are still thick in the peconics. They are a little bit smaller in size, but no less plentiful. Kenny’s friends were at Jessups the other night and had bluefish every cast.

The blowfish run is occurring at Long Beach. They’ve become a lot smaller recently, but they’re there.

There is a run of big bunker on the south side beaches. Guys are catching fish from 30 pounds into the high 50s. Kenny’s friend was on them and saw 100-pound bluefins exploding on the bunker. Other guys saw them right behind the surf out east. I saw them about 200 yards off the beach and filmed them.

Rick from Harbor Marina of East Hampton reports: the western peconics are firing on all cylinders with bluefish, stripers and weakfish in the mix. Better quality stripers are starting to show in the Gut and Race, but it has been somewhat inconsistent and weather-dependent. 

The porgy bite has been solid and the bigger fish are starting to make their way back out of the bay into deeper water.

Fluke are making their presence known with a fair amount of shorts and a few keepers for those anglers willing to put in a full tide of bottom fishing. Rick’s received reports from Gardiners Bay and eastern LI Sound that are pretty consistent in regards to fluke.

The BIG news is the bluefin bite relatively near shore. Rick saw footage of nice-sized bluefin near the Coimbra, near shore on the south fork, back out to the butterfish hole.

The season is in full swing with a target-rich environment. Please continue to be safe, and tight lines.

Chris from Double D Charters in Montauk says this week was filled with action in Montauk. There are still pockets of fish on the surface, although they’re not as obvious. These fish are mostly reachable from shore. Striped bass ranging from rats to keepers are being caught. Bluefish are in thick as well.

Fluke fishing has been tough. Anglers who focus on it all day have been producing some doormats.

XXL-sized porgies have invaded the south shore and are great fun on light tackle.

Bluefin were spotted along the south side to Cartwrights. They were football-sized to 40 pounds.

We are eagerly awaiting the bunker schools to arrive in Montauk. It should be any day now, and large bass should be in hot pursuit.

From the surf, one can find fluke, porgies, blues and stripers on the north side, from the point to Navy rd.

If you’re looking to book a trip on the Double D in the next couple months, get on it because their schedule is filling up quickly.

Long Island Fishing Forecast

Some of my buddies got into some 50+ pound stripers on bunker schools the other day in 25 feet of water. I was filming those schools with my drone a few miles away, unaware any boat fishermen were seeing something similar. I thought I was watching bluefish and sharks. After reviewing my footage, I could see there were giant Striped Bass in the mix. I was also lucky enough to quickly capture two giant fish on camera, which I assumed were Great White Sharks. 

I emailed the video to a professor at Stony Brook, who shared them with shark biologists. They all decided the “sharks” were actually Bluefin Tuna. We were all surprised to see them so close to shore, only a couple hundred yards out.

Apparently some other guys on the South Shore saw them come even closer to the surf.

It was a crazy day. Here’s some of the drone footage.

Here are the regulations for HMS ANGLING-PERMITTED VESSELS direct from NOAA’s HMS page:

“Effective May 2, 2020 through December 31, 2020, the BFT daily retention limits are the following. For HMS Angling-permitted vessels: 2 school BFT (27 to <47″) + 1 large school/small medium BFT (47 to <73″); for charter boats with HMS Charter/Headboat category permits, when fishing recreationally: 3 school BFT + 1 large school/small medium BFT; and for head boats with HMS Charter/Headboat category permits, when fishing recreationally: 6 school BFT + 2 large school/small medium BFT. These limits (which are per vessel per day/trip) are effective for all areas except the Gulf of Mexico.”

Trophy tuna (73 inches or greater) may not be harvested.

The experts I consulted about the fish in my video insisted I mention the tuna regulations so that nobody accidentally poaches any.

Hopefully there will be more of these days. If so, make sure you practice responsible catch and release. 

It’s up to each individual angler to decrease release mortality. Keep the fish wet and minimize time out of the water.

There’s a huge amount of possibilities on the table right now. Our waters are loaded with life. I got some beautiful pictures of people blue claw crabbing the other evening. I saw lots of guys this week getting on the tuna and huge bass.

This week should be glorious. Don’t sleep on the bite. Tight lines.