Long Island - New York Fishing Report - August 20, 2020

Cooler temps and cleaner water are driving fish crazy! Party boat action skyrocketed the past couple days.

Shark blitzes on the beach this morning. Whales and dolphins 50 yards offshore. Bunkermania!

First whispers of false albacore.

Great schoolie striper bite lately. Big bass and big sea bass off Block.

Porgies aplenty.

Shorelines all across the island are absolutely loaded with spearing, bay anchovies, and bunker.

Paul at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin hit the Connetquot on Monday with the LI Fly Rodders and his wife. They each had eight fish, all over 15 inches, all on dry flies, in about an hour and a half.

On Tuesday, they went looking for bluefish from the boat, and found some solid cocktails in the bay, all about two pounds. They also caught fluke and sea robins. No keepers, but that was the least of their worries on such an enjoyable day.

This morning Paul and his son got out on the boat again in the inlet. They saw a ton of Spanish mackerel, as well as some blues. They caught a couple fluke and some sea robins, all in about three hours before work.

Kathy from Freeport Bait & Tackle got a couple pictures from the “Porgy King” Santiago Lamas. He ran offshore to the Texas Towers for marlin, and caught an 8 foot, 250 pound blue marlin. He released it to fight another day.

Kathy said tuna fishing seems to be heating up. Bluefish have begun to show in good numbers, and she expects lots of bluefish reports in the week ahead.

Fluke is going steady, and there are more keepers getting caught now.

In the bays, blue claw crabs and snapper bluefish reign supreme. The bays are loaded with them.

Capt Lou Fleet in Freeport had a great past couple days on the water.

Yesterday, Captain Willie of the Starstream VIII got into some excellent fluke action in the morning, finding some quality keepers. He went back out in the afternoon for a nice mixed bag of fluke, seabass and porgies.

Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside heard a report from Capt. Herman, Carlos and Wa of “The Reel Limshady.” They went out to AB Reef on Friday morning and slammed seabass. They limited out within two hours, throwing back plenty of 15 and 16 inchers. A few porgies and mackerel bit their hooks as well. Puffer fish were abundant. Clams were the ticket to the consistent fishing.

They hit the bay on the way back to the dock, and only found a few shorts. They were back with a good amount of meat by 11:30 am.

Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale says fluke action remains steady with a lot of shorts and some solid keeper fish in the mix. The bay is holding fish on the flats, and the usual bay spots like the bridge, lighthouse, and coast guard station. Bucktails tipped with a Gulp! or Fat Cow strip put in work, and the classic squid and spearing combo will always put fish in the boat. The ocean is holding some bigger fish at the wreck and reefs. Drop a big bucktail, or fluke ball down for solid flatty action. The big sea bass are hitting the bucktails too, as well as jigs.

Lots of anglers are having luck with their heavy tuna jigs for massive sea bass. The offshore bite is on fire still, with lots of tuna hanging out close by. Jigs, poppers, squid, and spreader bars are all bringing fish to the boat. 

The docks are on fire with snappers which are getting bigger by the day. Tons of fun for the whole family! Blue claw crab season is still going strong as well. 

Night temps are already on the drop, so we may see some bass action sooner than later.  

Captree’s Laura Lee experienced better fishing as the weekend’s poor conditions waned. The water cleared, and the fishing improved dramatically. Absurd sea bassing highlighted the trips, with about 400 fish hitting the deck on most trips since Tuesday. Sea robins came in second, but at least they weren’t first. A good number of bluefish were found out in the ocean, and good numbers of other fish provided bent rods for all the anglers aboard. Pollack, cunner, kingfish, triggers, weakfish and mackerel accompanied the more regular catches of fluke and porgies. The past two nights at sunset, seabass fishing got crazy, with 745 fish on Tuesday and 502 on Wedsneday.

Surfcasting guide Bernie Bass returned to the surf this week, and got right on to some fish with his friend Kenny S. The guys caught a bunch of small stripers. There is a ton of bait around, and it looks like we’re headed for a productive fall run.

Captain Stu Paterson of “Northport Charters” had a mixed bag this week, consisting of fluke, nice seabass and porgies. Some 4-6 pound bluefish showed up yesterday. There is still a lot of bunker in the bays and Sound. Spearing and bay anchovies are all over the place.

The recent cooler weather combined with the abundant bait is a good setup for a great fall run.

Mark at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport said some albies have popped up recently, although not in large numbers. Apparently there were some dolphins up there recently as well. Cool things happening along the north shore. 

The drop in temperature seems to have sent a lot of bait out of the back, and it’s all getting hammered along the beaches, by both birds and fish. Snappers and spearing are the main culprits. Mark said he hasn’t seen spearing this abundant in years. There are waves full of them pouring out of the back.

There are some decent fluke getting caught in shallow, probably sticking close because of the snappers and peanut bunker.

Phil from the shop had a few nice bass the other night that were hanging out deep underneath the bunker schools.

The bass bite picked up in general, as did most fishing. Some nice sized bluefish have moved in and begun to chew. They’re about 4-8 pounds, and are destroying the bait.

Dave Flanagan of “North Island Fly” is finally experiencing the doldrums. All he’s finding this week are schoolie stripers and blues spread out. It’s a typical summer pattern, with the best bites occurring in the early mornings and late afternoons. He’s fishing a lot of structure, just waiting for the hard tails to show up.

 

There’s a ton of bait around. Dave hopes these cooler nights continue so the water temps will drop a bit and get some bait moving.

The Celtic Quest Fishing Fleet of Port Jefferson has been hammering the porgies this past week. Sea bass fishing has been great as well. A nice mixed bag can be attained, with weakfish, striped bass and bluefish also chewing well.

Kenny at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor didn’t have much to say about the peconics. Snappers and blue claws are about the only bounty there.

He heard the first albie report from Craig Cantelmo, who spotted them south of Block Island. It shouldn’t be much longer before they hit our shores.

Chris Tracy has been hitting Shinnecock inlet and getting into some excellent fishing. Spanish mackerel are the main target, but shad, bluefish, schoolie bass and triggerfish are all bending rods.

There were lots of bass on the beach in Southampton this week. The Duryea boys cleaned up one night, with twenty something bass, only one of which was a keeper. There were tons of shad on the beach that you had to get below.

There hasn’t been much word coming to Kenny from Montauk. Guys who are running to the SW ledge at Block are getting nice Black Sea bass and stripers though. They’re all different sizes there. If you can get there in the morning, you’ll probably find fish feeding on top.

This Monday, the Primetime 3 was diamond jigging at Plum Gut. A kid on the boat was reeling in a bluefish, when all of a sudden the rod doubled over. Shortly after, he reeled in the remaining front half of the fish. Ten minutes later, the rest of the bluefish was spotted hanging out of an 8 foot Great White shark’s mouth.

Besides that, there’s been a good mix of bass and blues at the Gut. One customer was reeling in 20 incher after 20 incher there. Then he got into a twenty minute tug of war with a 45 pound striper, which he landed and released.

Block Island windmills have been very productive for those with the time to make that trip.

Kenny is stocking up his walls with super strike poppers, Hurley sandeels, and epoxy jigs, in preparation for the albies and fall run.

Rick from Harbor Marina of East Hampton reports:

After a washout of a weekend, boats were fueled and ready to head off shore early this week. Reports of abundant marine life at the Ranger had compasses pointing south/southwest from Montauk. Full days off-shore produced a range of knock downs, hookups, break offs and then landings of a few nice Yellowfin tuna. 

Shark fishing remains strong with a nice mix of species being caught in the usual spots and some in some rather unlikely nearshore areas. You may not have to go too far to catch a few nice sharks.

Nearshore Sea Bass and Porgy fishing remains strong with one species being more prevalent on a given spot and then the other species is next door on the neighboring rock pile. Fluking is still hit or miss, with fleets of boats trying well known spots with modest results; some guys are getting creative and picking up a few nice fish.

There have been a few reports of Mackerel, Bonito and Falsies but not enough to get excited about.

Not too much to report on the Striped Bass front but it is time to get ready for the start of the migration and a few great months of fishing ahead.

Surf guide Bill Wetzel of the Surf Rats Ball fished the heavy northeast winds on 8/15 and slammed schoolies with Charlie from New Jersey. They fished high tide on the south side when the stripers started blitzing. Bill believes it was a new school of fish (by the looks of them); he says that may indicate the beginning of the fall run. Who knows, though.

Bait-wise, there’s a TON of white bait around.

Bill warns of the shark activity on the north side of the point.  Anyone who plans on wading out there should be wary of “a variety of sharks all over the place the likes of which have never been seen” since he has been fishing there.

Montauk’s Viking Fleet has been getting into lots of jumbo porgies and knothead seabass around the Montauk light. Triggers were also in to 3.5 pounds. Diane Vest from Birmingham won Tuesday’s pool with a nine pound fluke. An eight pound fluke was caught the same morning, after picking through lots of shorts.

As of yesterday, seabass are in thick. Lots of shorts, with plenty of keepers. Porgy fishing was slow in the morning, but picked up substantially for the afternoon trip. The water has been clearing up over the past few days, and the fishing has improved along with the water quality.

Chris from Double D Charters in Montauk says striper fishing has slowed to a crawl, with mostly shorts available for angling.

Black Sea bass fishing has been the highlight for many of their trips. They’ve taken a lot of jumbos on light tackle lately.

The fluke grounds have been producing doormats for those who time it correctly.

Porgy fishing is phenomenal. Chris says it’s as good as it gets, on the south side.

They’ve been catching a variety of sharks, including 1 hammerhead each trip. October should produce some BIG sharks, and they have a few available slots.

Now is a great time to see whales, dolphins, and other sea life down the beach.

Long Island Fishing Forecast

Get excited. These colder, rainy days are providing much reprieve after a hot few weeks. It felt like Autumn at points this week! The wildlife thought so too. Swallows flew around in typical albie-season fashion, attacking the infinite airborne bugs. 

The cool winds and rain rekindled the marine ecosystem. I surveyed miles of shoreline this morning, with and without the drone. I saw predators terrorizing multiple massive bunker schools a bit after sunrise, and my friends Nico and Stephen had their eyes on one just out of casting distance. I observed another nearby, which got pushed right into the surf zone. Occasionally, large sections of water would turn to froth as the menhaden were chased down by hungry sharks. I watched it all on the drone, with the intent of casting a huge pencil popper out there when the drone’s battery died. The blitz didn’t last too long though, and much of the bunker moved down the beach before heading offshore. Nico, Stephen and I tore up the surface with our poppers, to no avail.

I came back home to start this report. I couldn’t finish a single paragraph for the first two hours, because I kept getting texts about the presence of whales and dolphins 50 yards off the beach. I droned, then wrote, then droned, then wrote. Now my batteries are dead so I’m back to the keyboard.

What a great start to a day off. I can’t wait to get back out.

Prior to the influx of bunker this morning, I had been working the surf with skinnier lures to imitate spearing and anchovies. The water was filled with these long, slender baits. The shad had a field day, every day, as did the terns. The presence of stripers was less obvious, and they required work to find, especially since the strong winds and new moon tides created intense sweeps and rips right up front. I compensated for that by throwing some lures a tad heavier than usual to find the stripers hanging out under the shad. I would also avoid setting the hook after the first bunch of hits occurred. Shad hit quickly, and they spit lures quickly. So I let it hit the water, sink below the ravenous shad, and retrieve it slowly across the bottom. Striper hits feel different, and you have more time to set the hook after the hit.

Also, night time was definitely more productive for me this week.

I have no idea what the bait situation is going to look like moving forward, but I think there’s a good chance of some shark blitzes occurring in the next day or two. I feel like I could be missing one as I type.

I didn’t realize people would have already seen albies, so that’s exciting.

Mike Wright sent me a picture of a huge bonito from the Pt. Judith area this morning, so I’m REALLY hoping for some of those to come through. More excitement.

The amount and variety of bait everywhere equals more excitement.

The potential is just ridiculous.

The anticipation I’m feeling is akin to sitting at the top of a roller coaster.

And I think the drop could be all-time.

Get out there and catch something crazy. Tight lines!