Long Island - New York Fishing Report - August 6, 2020

Sharking is red hot. Montauk wetsuiters are catching 30-40 pound stripers that come to hand with missing tails.

Gator blues along the north shore. Fish were blitzing around Isaias’ conditions.

Big bass over at Block.

Best fluking is going to be found out east near Montauk.

Many stingrays in the surf.

Topwater in the lakes, ponds and rivers has been hot.

Blue claw crabs are everywhere, in good numbers and size.

Good whale and dolphin watching from boat and shore.

Vinnie from CrossBay Bait and Tackle in Howard Beach says the hot local bite is actually bullnose stingrays! Some guys have gotten completely spooled by them. Guys are fishing for some good sized porgies off Breezy Point and catching the rays as bycatch. Rays and scup are also being caught in the bay.  They’re eating clams and worms. Another bycatch is kingfish, and there are plenty of them.

For bluefish, you’re gonna have to head out in the early morning or at dusk. Fluke and striped bass fishing is pretty much dead from what Vinnie’s heard. There were some reports of small thresher sharks caught off the beach before the storm turned everything up.

Paul at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin ran a trip up to the Housatonic this past weekend for smallmouth, and the fishing was epic. Paul had over thirty fish, all good sized, about 12 inches plus. Everybody caught fish. During the day the smallies would hit poppers and streamers, and then in the evening they were preferring dry flies and small wet flies. It was tremendous fun on the 5 weight.

Right now that water is a bit high because of the storm, but Paul expects it to drop back to a primo level this weekend. He’s going to try to make that trip again.

Nighttime stripers are making up the bulk of the saltwater repots he’s hearing. The bay fishing slowed down a bit due to the storm. Out in Mattituck, he heard about guys getting into some weakfish.

A few guides Paul keeps in contact with are all targeting gator bluefish for the most part. They’re in Montauk and along the north shore.

Kathy from Freeport Bait & Tackle said lots of people came in right before the storm to stock up for the minute the sun came back out. Word is no fish have really shown since the storm.

There are blue claw crabs all over the place though, and there’s no shortage of people who want to catch them. Kathy just got a shipment of crab nets and minnow traps in, which have been in extremely low supply this year. Stop in if you need some!

Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain for New York.

Capt Lou Fleet in Freeport is running to the ocean wrecks for fluke this weekend from 7am-3pm. The black sea bass trips will be from 6am until noon. The sea bass bite was red hot before Isaias.

The Fleet’s “Atlantic Pearl” will be doing 2 hour sunset trips starting 8/15 at 7pm, departing from the Nautical mile. Not fishing, but it sounds like a nice evening on the water!

Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside had one report from Captain Pete of the 526 fishing club in Freeport last weekend. Pete fished the McAllister reef for fluke between 9-11 AM. Pete caught 30 short fluke, and his crew put the keepers on the board with Bob D. as high hook with three of their fifteen keepers. Pink gulp produced the best. About 50 boats were out there.

Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale says there’s consistent fluke action in the bays in the usual spots. There are lots of shorts, with a good mix of keepers. The ocean is holding much bigger fish on the wrecks and reefs. Big bucktails and big Gulp grubs are getting the job done. The sea bass out there seem to love them as well. These, along with clams and jigs, will put good numbers in the boat.

Striper action has tapered off to just a few local schoolies. Numbers will return in the fall. The local docks are still seeing great blowfish and kingfish action, as well as solid blue claw crabs. The lakes are on fire with largemouth bass and pickerel action. In the morning and evening hours, topwater is king. Frogs and poppers will trigger those crazy blowups. In the heat of the day, slow moving swim baits, jigs, and soft plastics will produce.

Trout action is rough with the current high water temps. On a cool night, though, they should be feeding pretty actively. Try out the morning bite as well for a few hours of fishing before the water hits 68 degrees.

Captree’s Laura Lee reports:

BEFORE the storm: the few days preceding Isaias, trips produced bountiful porgies, Black Sea bass, red hake and fluke to 5.2 pounds.  Cownose rays entered the scene, with 10 caught on the weekend. Sundials bent a couple rods, as did stargazers and weakfish. A number of bluefish were caught.

Monday produced 35 cow nose rays to 42 pounds.  Sea bass, ling, mackerel, and fluke were the other main catches.

Trips were cancelled Tuesday, and resumed on Wednesday morning in the bay. 8am produced 35 fluke and 37 sea robins. 2pm trip had 23 fluke, 7 sea robins and 11 sea bass. 6pm trip showed 40 bluefish, 2 weakfish, 6 fluke and 8 sea robins.

All trips moving forward are on as scheduled.

Phil at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport says the scene hasn’t changed much, besides the influx of big bluefish. Most of them are 8-12 pounds. Snappers also moved in thick. They are attacking rain bait and spearing close to shore. Guys fishing the surf will randomly catch a fluke that is targeting these fish. It’s all awesome light tackle and fly fishing.

Many of the bass around are micros. Some guys who are chunking at night are getting into some bigger, slot-sized fish. Guys jigging in the Sound have been getting on the bass and blues pretty good. Phil’s friend works on the James Joseph, and he reported blitzing bluefish out in the Sound.

Other customers came into the shop reporting a blitz building by the bridge. Bunker fueled the frenzy of bluefish the morning of Isaias.

Phil happened upon another bluefish blitz while wet suiting by Eaton’s Neck. Unfortunately this one was just out of casting range.

The porgy bite is still good. It should remain that way until late October.

Seabass is about the same as well. Nothing huge, really, but there are plenty of fish. Check the deeper water for a better chance at quality. 

I’ll mention snappers again, as fishing for them is a great outdoor activity to do with the kids.

Captain Stu Paterson of “Northport Charters” is still reeling in a mixed bag of fluke, porgies, seabass and cocktail blues. There are a lot of bunker schools in the bay and LI Sound. Snapper blues have begun blitzing in the bay, and there is lots of life!

The Celtic Quest Fishing Fleet sails out of Port Jefferson, and has been putting their clients on the porgies, puffers and kingfish. Some decent fluke and Black Sea bass were also chewing before the storm.

Steven at Wego Fishing Bait & Tackle in Southold says the Gut and Race are holding bass and blues. Some big monster bluefish just showed in the Race. They’re hitting on the outgoing. You’ll do better with the bass at sun up, sun down, and night time. There are some nice sea bass and porgies up there too.

In the bay, you have blowfish and weakfish still. There are some really nice kingfish being taken up in the bay. Buoy 17 is holding cocktail blues on the incoming.

The shark scene has been productive in close. You don’t have to go very far to get into some nice threshers.

There’s a lot of guys going deep for tuna, and they’re getting them.

For fluke, head to Gardiners, and east to Montauk. The best fish are going to be in the deep water. There are a lot of shorts in the bay at 17-18 inches. You gotta work hard for keepers, but it’s good fishing.

Kenny at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor says to head east out of the peconics if you want to catch fish. He’s heard of some weakfish in the early mornings, but besides that it’s pretty much just crabs around. The crabs that are around are big, beautiful and plentiful. It’s a good option for an outdoor activity. He saw one snapper this past week, and it was skirting a school of shiners that were larger than it.

East of Gardiners, the black sea bassing has been good. Fluke fishing is improving.

We are definitely in the summer doldrums. If striped bass are being caught, it’s mostly at night. Some guys are still swimming out to the Montauk rocks for them at night. Kenny saw a few pictures of 30-40 pound stripers being held up by wetsuiters, and the fish were missing their tails. Ken and I reckon that form of fishing is about as safe these days as hand-feeding tigers filet mignon.

One customer brought in an 8-pound fluke he caught on the reef outside Shinnecock. The fluking has been somewhat tough, so Kenny recommends bringing a light sharking outfit when you go, and you might be able to boat a 150-pound thresher while you’re bottom fishing. The number of sharks around is pretty incredible.

Rick from Harbor Marina of East Hampton reports:

If the activity south and east of montauk is any indication of the quality of the fishing, then it is surely a banner year. Covid related interest in local boating is quite apparent as the boating traffic from 3 Mile Harbor to the East side of Block Island was “off the hook” this past weekend.

In spite of the heavy boat traffic serious fishermen were able to find some elbow room and get into some quality fish. West of B.I. produced some fine catches of quality Sea Bass and a few nice fluke. The eastern Midway rips off Montauk were also fun, with a lot of action, but mostly short fish. The south side of Montauk was ok with a mix of reports from great to only so-so.

The boating pressure did seem to taper the striped bass bite, with even the best free dive crews off of Block struggling to find a decent body of fish. Fishing lower activity times of day/week is important this time of year.

The off-shore scene has been really good and I hope the recent tropical storm did not mess things up.

I am not sure how the storm re-shuffled the deck, but I am looking forward to getting back out there and fishing some very diverse late summer conditions.

Montauk’s Viking Fleet reports:

Whale watching on Saturday was successful; the boat found two humpbacks putting on an awesome breaching show. They also happened upon about 100 Bottlenose Dolphins. 

On Sunday the jumbo porgies stole the show, but nice sea bass and some large fluke also hit the deck. Pool winner was Joe Roshinko from NYC with a 7.5-pound fluke.

Monday the Starship steered clear of the lighthouse due to the full moon tide. They found a steady pick of big porgies, some seabass and a bunch of triggerfish. Lloyd Steward from Brooklyn won the pool with a 3.1 pound porgy.

Later in the day, the Star hit the porgy grounds, and then found some seabass and fluke during the last hour of their trip.

Wesley Quinn had a seabass in the morning that hit 5.25 pounds on the scale.

Chris from Double D Charters in Montauk says striper fishing has been phenomenal, with fish of all sizes being caught. Porgy and sea bass fishing has been lock ’n’ load… you hit the bottom and you got ‘em.

The fluke grounds have produced some nice double digit doormats for those anglers putting a full day in.

Shark fishing has been phenomenal, with the potential for anglers to target a wide variety of species.

Tuna fishing has also been quite productive.

All in all, you can’t miss.

Long Island Fishing Forecast

I have a little announcement before we get into the forecast. I’ve been working with these organizations recently to spread awareness of a proposed evolution in fisheries management. The ASMFC just voted unanimously to implement the new management strategy, which regards Menhaden (Bunker) specifically. 

Not long ago, there was no regulation of the menhaden harvest. They were overfished, harvest was then curbed. When their numbers increased a bit, the harvest resumed, but with limits. The bunker population rebounded quite well, and would be henceforth managed in a way that made it sustainable for human “consumption” (like making fertilizer, dog food, fish oil pills, and collecting bait for fishing). We have seen the positive effects of their management in the amount of marine life throughout the northeast. Whales and dolphins are being seen more than ever near shore as a direct result. Blitzes are occurring more often. Life’s damn good when bunker’s in your hood.

A new proposal arose, to manage menhaden differently: rather than harvesting the maximum amount we could to do human things with them, we’d have to factor in how necessary these fish are to the ecosystem at large.

This is how I understand it. If there’s 100 tons of bunker, and we need, say, half of it in the water to ensure the health of future fish generations, then we’re going to leave at least half in the water. That means we could have harvested 50 of the 100 tons.

NOW, menhaden will be managed according to Ecological Reference Points, which essentially means that we’re going to account for how necessary they are to marine life as well. So instead of taking the 50 tons to ensure a healthy future bunker population, now we’re only allowed to take maybe 40 tons, so that we can also maintain healthy populations of anything that eats menhaden (whales, sharks, dolphins, stripers, ospreys, etc.).

Those are just “for example” numbers, and I probably didn’t explain it 100% perfectly. But you get the jist at least. Menhaden will now be managed with the purpose of acquiring maximum harvest while keeping enough fish swimming to keep the marine web of life well fed. It is likely that in the future, other bait species will be managed similarly. You can read more about that here. 

So that’s really, really cool.

Now to the forecast.

Isaias really turned the waters up this week. What an amazing experience that storm was. I’m lucky that there’s no trees in my area, and my power stayed on. Sorry for all you who are dealing with that inconvenience. That wind, though… that was radical.

The ocean got HUGE for a hot second there. Now, it’s relatively calm in comparison. It’s really cool how it happened. I’m going to talk a little bit about it.

The three days preceding the 30+ mph east winds were plagued with medium-high winds out of the southwest. A strong sweep (a current that moves parallel to shore) formed as a result. You needed some heavy metal to stay on the bottom during those days. A 2 ounce deadly dick caught me some solid schoolie stripes. There’s a lot of spearing around, so it worked. 

What was most interesting to me was how long it took for those insane winds to actually build the ocean. The most important thing I look up EVERY single time I go fishing is the wind. I like to know the tides, but they’re not really that important to me. Wind is important because it dictates how much water is going to be moving across a fishing spot, and how fast. 

A south wind fills up the holes along the beach with more water, and it pushes that water farther up the beach. So the rip currents are going to be stronger as that water washes back towards the deep.

A north wind empties those holes and pushes water out to sea. It diminishes wave height. It pushes seaweed out. It brings bunker in. It tends to clear up the surf zone. It turns big mushy waves into righteous gnar, ripe for the shredding. It’s my favorite type of wind.

East and west winds affect the surf similarly, in that they create sweep.

Opposing winds cancel out each other’s effects, and that principle prevented our coastline from getting absolutely hammered by Isaias. I watched and felt the wind pick up. Sand stung my face as it whipped off the beach and over the dunes. The sand travelled over 100 yards north from the beach where I work. Despite these incredible gales, the ocean was pretty darn calm 2 ro 3 hours into the blow. Had there been no easterly sweep when those crazy east winds came on, those winds would have pushed water right up to and over the dunes.

The ocean eventually did get monstrous. Waves broke for as far as the eye could see. They looked like a vast mountain range on the ocean.

Then we had some more medium-high west winds yesterday. Now the ocean is down again. A nice swell remains, pushing some decent little waves into the shore.

The north winds we’ll experience the next few days should knock the water back down, clean it up, and bring the fish back in. There have to be some tropical fish close to shore after this. I think there will be more strange catches this coming week than usual.

I think the predators are going to be primed for action as well. I anticipate a productive week in the surf.

One neat report before I sign off, and that’s on light tackle from Mark Sedotti. He was fishing Block this weekend, hucking a 1.5 ounce bucktail with a light baitcasting outfit and 20 pound braid. The man caught a striper that was almost as tall as him.

I hope you all have a very cool week on the water, and catch ‘em up!

Tight Lines.