Weakfish run continues strong. Bigger bass being caught in the night. Plentiful porgies and black sea bass (out of season). Big tilefish offshore. Fluke fishing heating up with the water. Shad in the surf.
Long Island Fishing Report
Frank, from Bernie’s Bait and Tackle in Brooklyn, says the bluefish finally made it to the NY area. The last couple of days have been on fire with everything from giant gorillas to cocktails. They are all over the beach and in the bays. Go anywhere, and you should find them. There are lots of stripers around as well. They’re mostly schooling size. The warming weather this week should hopefully bring in the fluke.
Josh at Gypsea Charters in the Rockaways reports:
Bass fishing remains excellent, with fish of all sizes being taken on topwater, live bait, and trolling methods. The spring bass fishery has not disappointed and we expect the good fishing to continue for the next few weeks. On the fluke front, we have seen some improvements with the life in the area as the water warms up and the bait becomes abundant. Quality keepers continue to hit the deck with enough short life to keep things interesting. The highlight of the week was Stephen’s 7.15-pound pool winner. Their two boats are sailing from Howard Beach; the Gypsea is a 6-pack and the Star runs an open boat every weekend, by reservation only. Text for booking details: 516-659-3814.
Paul, at River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin hit the Sunken Meadow area with about 15-20 guys this week, and they all caught. Apparently, it was “sea robin pandemonium.” There were a good number of shad and short stripers in the mix as well. Paul had his bass on the backside in the creek. Paul hit Bay Park the other day and nabbed a few quality stripers there. The LI Flyrodders hit the Connetquot on Monday, and one angler had over twenty trout. Most everybody else did well also. The fish were chewing on black-nosed daces, streamers, and even dry flies. The Trout Unlimited guys ran up to the Pennsylvania streams. It wasn’t “twenty fish” productive, but they all had a good time. It’s been a bit tough because the water was so high for so long up there. It’s dropping now, and the fishing is improving. Same deal with the Connecticut rivers. There’s a ton of bluefish around right now. Paul happened upon a kayak fishing club at Bay Park and they had just worn themselves out battling blues.
Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside had some reports from Lloyd Malsin of “Nansea:”
On Sunday, they fished Reynolds Channel for 12-15 short fluke and then hit the ling grounds for a few dozen tasty hake. The wind kept them from further productivity, as it required 10 ounces to hold bottom. This morning he got out again and fished for bass to the far west. They went 12 for 15. Releasing three overs and two shorts. Seven slot fish went into the cooler. All the bass took Mojos. They nabbed one keeper fluke on the way home, in the bay.
The Capt Lou Fleet in Freeport is hosting a bunch of cool events in the near future. Check out their Facebook page or website, captloufleet.com for details. Fishing-wise, it’s been great. Amato took home the pool on 5/17 with a 6.1-pound fluke. Many more keepers came over the rails that day. Fast forward to the eighteenth, which produced a number of short fluke, one solid keeper, and a nice weakfish to end the day.
Point Lookout’s Super Hawk is sailing half-day trips daily for fluke. The first trip runs 7 am-noon, and the afternoon trip runs from 1 to 5:30 pm. This time of year they are hitting the bays, and the trips are great for both beginners and veterans. Call Capt. Steve to make a reservation: 516-607-3004.
Captree’s Laura Lee is on fire this week, catching every kind of fish you’d want. Consider Monday’s and Tuesday’s reports:
Monday: Today’s 7 am trip had 17 anglers who caught 35 fluke, four sea bass, 3 dogfish, and four sea robins. The 1 pm trip caught 36 fluke, 10 sea bass, 2 dogfish, and four sea robins. The evening trip caught 55 bluefish and one striper. Tuesday: 6 am trip had ten anglers. They caught 219 red hake, one flounder, one four-spot flounder, five sea bass, four ocean pout, and two cunner. The 7 am trip caught 60 fluke, 14 sea robins, four sundials, two mackerel, and two dogfish. The 1 pm trip caught 33 fluke and 14 blues. The 6 pm trip caught four weakfish and two blues. The weekend bite was better for stripers, where the anglers caught 17 bass per night.
Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale said the week was weird, with a tough saltwater bite and a stellar trout bite. He was out just looking for a bite this week, but couldn’t even convince a bluefish to take. He hasn’t even seen a sea robin. Out of approximately 100 anglers at Smith Point bridge, only three or four small cocktail blues came up. The trout fishing in the freshwater is on fire right now, as a consolation. Head to the water in the evening to witness and fish some great hatches. Bill’s friend had over forty fish last night with his pops. The fish have been active almost all day.
Mark at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport says the fishing this week was amazing. There are weakfish all over the place, and anybody can catch them. Focus on them in the early morning, and then again in the evening hours after they’ve built up an appetite. Employees have been making porgy jigs at the shop, and it’s a very fun way to fish for the pork chops. It works perfectly. As far as bass, there’s a ton of fish moving in from the west. There’s a solid combo of Hudson fish and residents on the chew. The water temps are around 54 degrees, and a bit higher in the back of the harbor. The bass are in the bay, on the outside, and transitioning between the two. You just need to figure out the time and tide to hit them. Fluke are up in the shallows, taking advantage of the sunny week. They’re between 8 and 15 feet. Gulp works great, and it never hurts to tip the jig with a bit of fresh meat. Work a small bucktail with a teaser, and you’ll have fish follow you right into the boat. It’s time to get out; the fishing is unbelievable!
Dave Flanagan of “North Island Fly” reports:
The mass of bluefish that I’ve been fishing have started to move off from where I was getting them. Seems they were congregating to spawn after the new moon. While they were finicky at times, we were able to get some good ones on fly and light tackle. The bass fishing is good and only getting better. Lots of bass are flooding in over the shallow bars and flats in the sound in search of a meal. I’m not seeing huge amounts of bait yet, but I have seen some good numbers of tiny two-inch sand eels. We had some really good opportunities over the weekend at bass on the flats, including the first one to fall victim to a crab pattern on my new flats boat. Ryan Rebholz stuck it on the new Rise Shearwater fly rod. The boulder fields aren’t really producing numbers yet, but with this warm weather week, I’m sure that’s about to change. The bays and harbors are also really lit up and I’m hearing the weakfish bite is stellar! I’m looking forward to what’s to come in the next few weeks.
Captain Stu Paterson of “Northport Charters” reports:
The fluke fishing was solid this week, with lots of shorts and a number of keepers here and there. That fishery will only improve as the waters continue to warm up here during the beginning of the season. The porgy bite has been quite good despite it being so early. The bays are producing plenty of pork chops to 2.5 pounds. Stripers to our west should be showing up any day now as the weather improves and the water warms. Call or text to make reservations: 631-707-3266. Or check out the website at northportcharters.com.
Celtic Quest Fishing Fleet of Jamesport has been hammering the porgies, weakfish, and black sea bass. Black sea bass are still out of season, so they’re playing catch and release with them. The weakfish bite has been ridiculous. It looks like everybody is going home with a keeper every time they target the “unicorns.” Porgies are biting two at a time, and the number and quality of sea bass bodes well for this coming season. They’ll be sailing regularly, weather permitting. Go to celticquestfishing.com to buy a ticket.
Steven at Wego Fishing Bait & Tackle in Southold says the fishing is good, but I could tell from his tone that “good” is an understatement. There are lots of jumbo porgies around, and really nice run of weakfish. Lots of 20+ inch weaks are getting caught, and he weighed in a few that were 5-8 pounds. There are jumbo bluefish up by Jessups beating up on boat anglers’ tackle. A run of solid bass over thirty inches came in this week too. Guys were picking them up on trolled mojos right before dark. Back in the creeks the shore guys have been finding some good bites. One kid was out hitting the sunrise tide and he heard tons of bass slurping the surface. The fact that he couldn’t buy a bite (plus other anglers’ observations) suggest he had stumbled upon a cinder worm hatch. The bait scene is ridiculous, with immense amounts of spearing and bunker.
Jeff at Whitewater Outfitters in Hampton Bays says there’s tons of bluefish around right now. There are some gorillas, but it’s tough to get to them with the amount of small-to-medium choppers around. There’s a good amount of bass as well. Jeff heard of some nearing twenty pounds reeled in on the Peconic side. Shinnecock is mostly chock full of schoolies. Big bluefish are keeping the Shinny anglers plenty busy though. The porgy fishing in the Peconics has been good. There’s a good amount of weakfish being caught up there from boats. Fluke is starting up. Warming waters should heat up the fishing as well. It’s mostly small fish right now, with a few keepers in the mix. Up west, off Long Beach and New Jersey, are where the giant bluefin roam right now. Some medium-large fish have been caught in that region recently. We can expect some inshore action come the first or second week of June.
Rick from Harbor Marina of East Hampton reports:
Bluefish are ruling the Peconics and Gardiners Bay. Surfcasters and boaters alike are enjoying solid action on fish from 4-15 pounds. Hopefully, the new regulations are helping the stock recover. They are a tough fighting game fish, for sure. Porgies are abundant in Great Peconic Bay and Cherry Harbor to the East. Most catches are a mix of mediums with a few jumbos mixed in. Chumming on the bottom is key to getting a good bite going. Perhaps the best news of this spring season is the presence of the elusive weakfish. While their presence is still somewhat intermittent, when they are on the chew, they have been outcompeting the bluefish on some tides. Hopefully, we will see some consistency to their presence going forward. There was a great article on them in a past issue of On The Water, and their greatest predator was deemed to be dolphins, during their offshore/onshore migrations. Schoolie stripers are being found on the flats in the many backwaters and creeks of the Peconics and some bigger, slot-sized fish are being caught on the deeper inlets and cuts. We should see more slot-sized fish arriving on the east end daily. Not much on the offshore scene yet but if the reports from up west are any indication, it should be any day now. No sense holding back now, as it’s totally “game on” for the East End.
Montauk’s Viking Fleet found some mega porgies this week after chumming. Jorge Rodriguez from Bronx won the pool with his 3.25-pound fish. Many more pork chops came over the rails. Wednesday was extremely productive. Capt. Dave reports lots of action, and lots of movement to find bigger fish. They found a steady pick of large porgies and a half dozen weakfish. A number of sea bass also came up and were returned to the water. Cornell Williams from Fresh Meadows, NY took the pool fish with a 2.5-pound porgy. Capt. Steve Jr. took some guys out for their first offshore trip of 2021. Day 1 was stellar in the deep, and day two was a bit slower on the cod wrecks. Day 1 produced a bunch of big tilefish to 38 pounds, with a couple of barrelfish popping up as well. Later in the day, they came upon more tiles, with a mix of grey tiles, hake, pollock, and a few more barrels. Only a handful of cod were reeled up the next day on Georges wrecks. A bunch of huge cunner came from there though.
Surf Guide Bill Wetzel of the Surf Rats Ball hit the north side of Montauk point on 5/15. Light SW winds produced some really fishy-looking water. Mike picked a short bass on a black/gold SS darter. They headed deep into the south side at about 3:30 am. Bill was happy to see that much of the sand had been washed out of the rocks, making for some deep water close to shore. No hits down there, but Bill noticed lots of grass shrimp in the water. Schoolies began blowing up on their walk back, and Tim picked one on a bucktail.
Chris Albronda gave me the goods on Montauk:
Fishing continues to heat up in Montauk. We saw our first double-digit fluke of the year, with some serious jumbo-sized black sea bass bycatch. The fluke fishing has been improving daily. Striped bass and bluefish are being caught from boat and shore. The fish are blitzing randomly on bay anchovies at almost all stages of the tide, something you don’t see very often. Last week there were fish to 25 pounds that were caught and released off Montauk. The north side by the light has been very productive for surf guys; they are eating nearly everything from bucktails, to paddle tails, to topwater presentations. Chris highly recommends doing an offshore trip with the Viking Fleet. They’re catching some big tilefish. Chris is working on a new charter boat this year, “Tailwrapped Sportfishing,” and he is hoping you’ll book your Montauk trips with him this season!
Long Island Forecast
It would appear that “unicorn” could now be considered a misnomer for the beautiful weakfish. They earned the name from their elusiveness, but it seems they’re no longer hard to find, at least this year on Long Island. Party boats are absolutely hammering them. Surf anglers are also cashing in on the seemingly plentiful stock. I took my own keeper a little over a week ago; it was the first weakfish I ever harvested, and it was one of the best eating fish I’ve ever had. After stuffing my face, it was easy to understand why people would harvest one whenever it came to hand. What a treat. And how nice is it that we all have the opportunity to taste one.
I never knew much about weakfish, as I never really caught any before this year. I figured that they were much like the gator blues, in terms of having a cyclical stock. The twenty-plus pound blues apparently only come to our shores once a generation. I was fortunate to get my autumn fill (and then some) for three years. Then they stopped showing in the fall. I don’t have all the answers, but I figure that was the upcycle, and we’ll hopefully see those monsters again in another 15-30 years.
The reason I mention the cycles of bluefish is that I figured weakfish populations operated in the same manner. It would make sense, as anglers along the entire east coast lamented their apparent depletion, right before they showed up en masse this year. Now we are neck-deep in the “unicorns.”
After seeing one skilled angler lament the current rate of weakfish harvest, I did some research (and where better than the On The Water archives?). Anglers and scientists way wiser than I considered the stock to be depleted some years ago. They had a multitude of reasons why the weakfish population had plummeted; I believe predation and overharvest were the main concerns. I saw the word “cyclical” once in an article, but apparently, the decreased stocks never rebounded since their last upcycle, which I believe was in the 70s. Fifty years later, out of the blue, the weakfish are here again. I’m sure most people are flabbergasted and excited. But that one angler’s concern loomed at the front of my mind:
We are in the midst of our second or third year of solid weakfishing. After fifty years of little-to-no fish, does it make sense for us to harvest these fish at an alarming rate? I didn’t feel bad about killing my weakfish; is one fish from one person really going to have a negative effect? Consider the thousands of people going out for them daily and taking one fish daily, though. Cumulatively, it will have an impact, especially if this is the weakfish’s last hurrah.
Dolphins were cited as a primary predator of weakfish. I can only imagine the fleets of net draggers tearing up the seafloor will have a negative effect on them as well. Recreational harvest no doubt plays a part. Perhaps there are many more factors that I’ve not even considered.
Maybe more bunker in the water means fewer cetaceans predating on weakfish. But the human factor is still at large, and I think we’re inclined to be greedy when things seem great.
What do I know? These are just some of my thoughts on the topic. I’ll be releasing any other weaks I happen to catch this season. It just makes good sense to me to act conservationally.
The full moon occurs this week. After so many consecutive warm days, I know the fishing is going to be stellar. Consider the forecasted temps of 60-80 degrees, and you can assume the potential is very high. Furthermore, I’m loving the wind forecast. There will be a lot of erratic wind changes, from east to west and north to south. This could keep the ocean somewhat mild. I can’t comment on the potential swell, but the chop and sweep shouldn’t be too hardcore because of the constantly changing winds. I also know guys have been catching over-slot fish, so need I say more? The full moon phase should produce some big fish.
Better get out there as often as possible this week.
Take care of the fish when you’re releasing them. Ditch your tail trebles if you’re still using them. They’re preventing you from landing fish, and also from releasing them safely.
Til next week, tight lines.
Single barbless hooks. Any weekend yahoo can land a fish with a lure dangling six barbed hooks.