Large stripers have entered the South Shore bays, and are also cruising the Sound along the North Shore.
Short stripers and blues of all sizes abound in the bays and ocean.
Doormat fluke to 15 pounds are being caught.
Weakfish appear to be making a comeback, with reports of dense populations across the island.
Plentiful porgies.
This is the year for light tackle opportunities. Porgies, kingfish, blowfish, shad, blues and schoolie stripers are all great targets for fly and light spinning tackle.
Paul at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin went out the other night and had a bunch of small bluefish from 2-3 pounds. The next night, nothing. It’s been pretty hit or miss for him, but he has heard about a lot of big bluefish ravaging the bays.
Freshwater has received more of his attention this week. He guided Norman at Blydenburgh on Monday. He caught one bass at about 2 pounds, and then maybe 50 bluegill over the next few hours. A constantly bent rod made for a very enjoyable outing.
Paul’s heard that the other island ponds have been very productive lately.
Paul is hosting a Zoom class tonight at 7 p.m., “an introduction to freshwater fly-fishing.” You can find the info on his website; or you can just input the Zoom ID number: 87870953644.
Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside is getting word of the big bass in around 50-60 feet of water. Michael Librizzi and his son Mike of “Blue Breeze” caught and released a 44-inch striper in 50 feet of water southwest of Debs Inlet on Sunday, while trolling green and white spoons.
Anthony Larocco of DilliGaff caught, weighed, then released a giant striper in 62 feet of water on Monday, while trolling a green/white TGT spoon.
Anthony Montifore fished the early morning in Jamaica Bay on Tuesday, targeting fluke with a Spro bucktail tipped with Gulp. He ended up bringing in a huge doormat, at 33 inches and 15.1 pounds!
Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale says there are lots of weakfish roaming the bays and beaches this week. Tom Luciano had a beautiful 6-pounder take a pink Bass Assassin. Frank Marro had weaks from 4 to 6 pounds chewing on Fin-S and small bucktails.
Fluke action has been improving too, with some really nice keepers coming up. Jake Farino was bucktailing the inlet and had a limit of keepers, with tons of shorts to keep the rod bent. Logan was on the fluke as well, with his biggest being 19 inches. Frank from the shop was out Thursday by the bridge and had lots of bluefish on topwater, and some solid bass and fluke on jigs.
The blues are still all over the place, and feeding like mad. Poppers, SP Minnows, bucktails, diamond jigs, whatever you can throw at ’em, they’re gonna eat it! There are plenty of cocktails, and lots of gorilla-sized tackle busters to peel some drag. Schoolie to 28-inch Stripers are roaming around as well, taking all the same lures as the blues.
The docks are getting fish finally too! Bunker chunks are doing the best there. Blowfish and kingfish have shown up already too, and they’re tons of fun for the kids.
It’s never a dull day on Captree’s Laura Lee, which has boated a ton of fish species this past week. The weekend bite provided lots of fluke to 6 pounds. Flounders, Searobins, blues, seabass, ling, cod, cape shark, skates, and stripers made up the rest of the catch. One angler caught a stargazer.
Monday saw a hake marathon, with anglers boating 644 big red hake. 230 sea bass and 62 ling were also brought to the deck. As the week progressed, a smorgasbord of fish were hooked. Some of the fish they’re getting are monkfish, red hake, weakfish, blowfish, mackerel, squirrel hake, whiting, haddock, ocean pout, and all the other aforementioned fish.
Phil at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport says a lot of guys are trolling up nice-sized bass in the Triangle and Cold Spring Harbor, using bunker spoons. The big girls are mainly sticking around Eaton’s Neck. Most of the fish hitting spoons are outside the slot limit, so guys fishing for meat would throw on an umbrella rig to cull out some keepers. The tides are great right now, and have been for a few days. The bass are mainly feeding on sandeels and bunker in the Sound.
Surfcasters are getting into some decent fish as well. There were a few cinder worm hatches earlier in the week with teen-sized stripers targeting them throughout the night.
Fluke fishing has improved for some. Phil says guys began fishing deeper this week, heading to 20, 30, even 40 feet. The bigger fluke are mostly hanging there now. The spawning porgies have mostly moved out, and their place has been taken by half-to-one pounders. This sized porgy will keep big fluke around rock piles, so don’t avoid them for fear of losing bucktails.
A couple guys are still getting cocktail blues, but not that many. There aren’t many huge bluefish around just yet, although someone had a 12 pounder about a week and a half ago.
Hickory shad have been around.
Guys are still getting porgies from the beach, of the smaller variety. It’s a great fishery for the kids, so pick up some clam chum and head out. The warmer water will have them biting up a storm.
Dave Flanagan of “North Island Fly” guide service in Smithtown enjoyed some quality light tackle fishing this past week with his clients. Some inclement weather early on didn’t hinder the striper bite. Dave said fish were all over the place about 6 days ago.
Yesterday was a lights-out day, right out the gate. He caught a good amount of healthy schoolie stripers, and some bluefish as well that were competing for sandeels.
Chris at Wego Fishing Bait & Tackle in Southold says if you drop a hook down looking for one, you’re catching a porgy. They’re coming in all sizes now, from just smalls to jumbo. They’re biting heavily on clams, and can be caught from shore.
Bluefish are here now. The cocktails are in thick, and there are also some big bruisers with them. They’re attacking anything shiny.
There have been a few reports of weakfish in the bays. They’re hunkered down at the typical spots like Jessups and Greenlawns.
There are tons of 25- to 26-inch striped bass in the area, and bigger bass started moving in recently. Surf guys have been doing okay in the Sound with plugs. Other anglers are opting for bait, namely clam bellies. The boat guys are getting them on diamond jigs.
Fluke fishing has been picking up as the water warms. They’ve been here, but they just haven’t been active. There’s been a handful of fish weighed in around 7 and 9 pounds. They’re biting on squid/spearing combos, and bucktails tipped with Gulp.
Surfcasting guide Bernie Bass says this week was up-and-down for him. He had a few good nights in the suds with some good numbers of small bass. Other nights required a grind just to catch a couple. Big stripers eluded him, but there’s always the next outing. The bluefish bite, however, continued to be red hot this week.
Bernie is running an unbelievable fundraiser raffle right now, to help the family of a fellow fisherman and friend who just passed, Michael Regensburg. The winners of this raffle are going to be gear-rich, with lots of great prizes offered. Head to his instagram (bernie_bass) for info on how you can enter to win. It runs from tonight until June 18.
Jeff at Whitewater Outfitters in Hampton Bays says fluke fishing has been a grind but guys have been able to pick a few. Theres a decent quantity in Shinnecock, but the bay is lacking in quality right now. Peconics have been more productive for larger flatties, although that is also a grind.
We just had a good push of big stripers show up. A number of mid 20s to low 30 pound fish have been caught in the Peconics, and also out in the ocean under the bunker schools. Peconic is definitely the place to be though.
Bluefish are in thick, going crazy, biting anything.
There are a lot of good sized sea bass out on the wrecks.
Offshore is starting to produce. Bluefins were caught in the canyon this week, and the fishing on the edge has been really good. Jeff expects them to push inshore in the near future.
Jeff was just docking his boat when we spoke, having just come in from an insane bluefish bite. The big bruisers are still in thick.
Bill Wetzel of the Surf Rats Ball hit Montauk’s north side during the non-human hours on Saturday morning for a first cast cursed bluefish. Word on the street is the night bite has been productive for bass and blues, and a 50 was recently taken on a SS popper. That night Bill went back with Joe to hammer the blues. One of them was about 16 pounds. Bass were willing to chew on SS needlefish and SP minnows later that evening.
Other surf rats hit the Montauk suds the past few days and had similar experiences to Bill’s. One angler observed a blitz occurring a good ways out.
Chris from Double D Charters in Montauk says it’s been a light tackle fisherman’s dream in Montauk this week. Scores of blitzing blues and stripers have been popping up from shagwong to ditch. There’s a variety of sizes; jumbo bluefish and cocktails alike are taking diamond jigs, flies, topwater lures, and umbrella rigs. Stripers are hitting the same.
The fluke scene has the potential to produce some doormats if you put your time in.
Surfcasting has been very productive. Stripers, fluke, bluefish and shad are bending rods. Sunrise and sunset have been the most productive times, regardless of tide.
David at Westlake Marina in Montauk says there’s not a whole lot going on. There’s a mixed bag of porgies and fluke, of all sizes. There’s not a ton of huge fluke, but one regular customer weighed in a doormat this week. He had caught three fluke that just made the keeper mark, and then an 11.8 pounder!
There are plenty of small striped bass still, same as last week. David’s been seeing a few keepers in the mix as well.
The charter boats have been finding some fun using light tackle on both the stripers and bluefish. They are having a tough time finding anything to bring home for the table though.
Long Island Fishing Forecast
When a tarpon guide is lucky enough to bring a hooked silver king boatside, that fish stays in the water. The fish is revived after the fight, towed away from any potential predators (like hungry sharks perusing the area), and it is released as quickly as possible. These catch-and-release methods are part of a strategy called “best handling practices,” and we need to implement them in our best handling practices in our striper fishery.
I mention this because we now have to release every striper we catch that is larger than 35 inches. So when a huge bass gets taken out of the water, flops on the ground or deck of a boat, gets hung by its lip on a scale, and then is the subject of a photoshoot, that fish was not properly released.
Striper stocks won’t rebound if anglers continue to treat big bass poorly by hauling them onto the boat, holding them vertically without supporting their weight, and keeping them out of the water too long for photos.
It feels like summer outside, finally. Thursday was a beautiful day. We will see more days like this throughout the week. Night time temperatures will be near 60 degrees, making all-nighters a comfortable possibility (and necessity for some). Now is the time to prioritize fishing. It’s June…big fish month. Do what’s necessary to get out there when you think you should.
Hit the moon tides hard. And treat the fish with respect.
Tight lines.
If you want to be featured in this report, please reach out to me on instagram at @SouthForkSalt, or email me at tkregan12@gmail.com.
Where was Matt finding Bluefish in the shallows?