Long Island Fishing Report
Good variety in size of stripers to the west. Lots of keepers reported.
Slot Stripers in the Surf in Suffolk.
Whispers of Weakfish in the surf.
Solid bite offshore for cod, tog, porgies, etc.
Big, chunky largemouths are on the feed on warmer days.
Josh at Gypsea Charters in the Rockaways reports: Bass fishing got off to an excellent start, with arm-tiring action on every trip. Flutter spoons and shads were the ticket. Most fish fell into the slot-range, with plenty of shorts and overs released to be caught another day. We anticipate the fishing to remain strong over the next few weeks; we’ll switch over to fluke once the regs get announced. For now, we’re sailing daily for stripers at 5am, by reservation only.
Jerry Ruff of Fish Your Way on YouTube tied on a super strike popper to catch his first open season striper on April 15. Two fish hit at once, one breaking the teaser off his rig. Jerry reckons the one that got away may have been a bluefish. The one that didn’t get away was a solid keeper striped bass. Jerry managed another schoolie, and broke off a big girl before calling it a day.
Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside reports: Lloyd Malsin got out last Thursday to fish the reef for tog. Crabs and clams both produced. He threw the fat females back, and kept 3 males to 5 pounds. They also boated about 15 cod, just under legal size, and kept one at 24 inches. 1 flounder also came up. Lloyd got out this Monday before the east wind arose, and found stripers feeding under the birds. They released 25 fish and kept 4. The fish were eating mojos and small spoons. Friday saw some good striper action to the west, where Team Fighting Irish put some fish on the boat. The bass were eating Ben Parker flutter spoons in Raritan Bay. The crew of “Baby 6” fished west of Raritan Bay on Friday and managed two bass on Mojo and shad rigs. The fish were both right around 15 pounds, caught in 30 feet of water.
The Capt Lou Fleet in Freeport is sailing their final seal-watching cruises of the season this weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will all host trips. Book with them at their website: www.captloufleet.com.
Point Lookout’s Superhawk is sailing daily at 6am for blackfish, cod and more. This weekend’s trips will also focus on ling, porgies, pollock, etc. Saturday’s is a special offshore wreck trip. They’ve had plenty of catches and filled boxes. Call today to make a reservation: 516-607-3004.
Captree’s Laura Lee sailed Monday with 18 anglers. They caught 51 codfish to 14 lbs, 11 blackfish, 90 cunner, eight cape shark, 2 ocean pout, and 2 big red hake. Friday’s trip caught 33 codfish to 20 lbs, seven blackfish, 77 cape shark, seven cunner, one sea bass, six ocean pout, and one big red hake.
Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale reports: Striper season is wide open and the bass are here! From Manhattan to Montauk, we’ve been getting reports every day. The holdover fish are starting to move, and the migratory fish are on their way! Back bays, flats, and inlets are all swamped with stripers. Locally we have tons of schoolies, with some slot bass and over-slots rolling through as well. Light tackle and fly gear will have the most success this time of year. Bucktails, swim shads, shallow divers, and poppers are all getting smashed up. Fly guys are using small spearing and bunker patterns to lay into the schools of fish coming through. Spring tautog season is coming to an end, but the bite is still hot! Most anglers are coming home with their limit, as well as a solid cod bycatch. Weakfish are starting to show face around the bay on the early morning tides. Fish light, with bright colors on your jigs for the most success. In the freshwater, everything is starting to wake up and eat. Bass and Pickerel are out cruising and crushing swimbaits, lipless cranks, jigs, and soft plastics. Yellow Perch and Bluegill are schooled up and hungry. They love tiny jigs! The classic worm and bobber will always catch numbers as well. All of the stocked trout lakes are still fishing well, especially with inline spinners and Trout Magnets. Crappie season is super hot, and they are very active at this time.
Chris Paparo of Fish Guy Photos has been watching the Shinnecock ospreys bring bunker and alewives back to their nest this week. Alewives are thick in the creeks, running towards freshwater via alewife ladders. Raccoons are plucking them out of the water, leaving only skeletons and scales behind. Gannets were spotty this week, although there was a massive flock off of Moriches last week. In his un-baited minnow & eel traps by Stony Brook Southampton, he’s finding big killies, blue crabs and inch-long herring larvae.
Chris Albronda gave me the goods on Montauk:
Our first real run of striped bass has hit the shores of Montauk. They are being caught on both the south side and the north side. There have even been some scattered reports of weakfish biting along the sand beaches. Some nice flounder were caught from shore out in Montauk this week on bloodworms.
Bill Wetzel of the Surf Rats Ball fished the Port Washington area on opening day from 3-6:30am. A black/gold SS darter enticed a bite on the first cast, from a small schoolie striper. The first-cast-curse was put to rest by another fish on the same darter a short while later. That one was in the mid-upper teens. The rest of the night was quiet. Bill saw a lot of spearing up there, but no other bait. Rob got out two days ago for the late afternoon bite on the western north shore. Muddy water and high winds made for a slow sesh, but Rob got a bite early on with a decent bass on a 5 inch shad. Another fish broke the surface a short while later; those were the only two signs of life he and Jon noticed. Subscribe today at www.longislandsurffishing.com.
Long Island Fishing Forecast
IT’S GO TIME!
Stripers are in. They are in good. Rarely have I experienced such a high quality first-run of stripers in the spring. A bunch of anglers have been picking slot fish in the surf this whole week, right through the storm. I expected that storm swell to muddy the waters and turn the fishing off, but the water actually stayed quite clean and the fish remained hungry. I should mention that I haven’t caught a single one in the surf. I put a few on the banks of some bay spots this week, but I’ve yet to catch out front. I didn’t allocate much effort towards the suds though; 95% of my work is still going towards the largemouth.
This week wasn’t too crazy for me on the freshwater front. I had one awesome day in the brackish water targeting perch; little did I know I’d be targeting bigmouth bass by the end of the session! There were some chunky bass in there willing to feed upon the same marabou jigs I was tossing to the perch. Only difference was the largemouth wanted it even slower. That was kind of crazy, seeing as the perch wouldn’t eat it unless it was sitting still for a few seconds.
For the largemouth, I could hardly move the lure at all. The jig would land and I would wait at least five seconds before beginning any retrieve. My retrieve would only collect about 6 inches of line every ten seconds. Most of those 6 inches came in the form of a strong lift off the bottom. The rest of my action occurred when I would tap until I’d feel the weight in my rod tip and then let it go limp. The extremely light touches would just make the hairs on my jig dance, without moving the jig itself. The bass came a’runnin’. Big perch and pretty big brackish bass made for my best session of the week. Besides the marabou jigs, the senkos and Heffty baits I was using worked extremely well. Black was my favorite color in the sweetwater this week.
Yesterday probably would have been my second best session, but I screwed the pooch on that. I hit a freshwater body in Montauk with some friends. Between the three of us, we hadn’t a single nibble in two hours, save for one missed opportunity on a live killie. As my friends were packing up and we were saying our goodbyes, I felt the tap on my motionless senko. Despite the extremely light tap, I leaned into something very heavy. It bent my ultralight rod all the way to the cork, and as I strived to lift the fish off the bottom, my line snapped at the jig. It wasn’t a bad knot, it was just 4 pound line with the drag set a hair too tight. As my jig-less line went flying over my head, I turned around to lament the loss to my friends, who were as surprised as I was.
Heck, the thing could have just been a snag for all I know.
But then I hear a huge splash behind me, coming from where I just broke off. I turned around to see a length, girthy bigmouth shaking its head as it breached from the water. My black senko went flying through the air on the far side of it. My lure and the fish splashed back into the water, never to be seen again.
Can’t win ‘em all, but at least I didn’t get skunked. Still, tough loss. I’m out for revenge this week… and some surf stripers.
The whispers of weakfish along the beaches have me excited for this coming week. I wouldn’t have expected to come across any until a week from now, at least. Then again, they’re still a huge mystery to me, and I’ve only begun finding clues in the past couple years.
That being said, don’t hesitate to fish the bottom of spots you usually wouldn’t. Fish light tackle, risk the snags and break-offs. The reward of a tiderunner weakfish would be well worth the risk of losing a few jigs.
After a highly volatile week of strong gales, I’m looking forward to some lighter winds this coming week. The temps are going to stay up in the 50s for the most part, so expect the fish to be chewing pretty regularly.
Get your butt out of bed in the mornings this week and hit the surf. That’s probably going to be my main approach these next seven days.