Eastern Long Island Fishing Report- November 3, 2022

(Above) Beautiful evening conditions like these were commonplace on the East End this week. (Photo: @southforksalt)

Suffolk County/Eastern L.I. Fishing Report

• Schoolies invade the surf. Slot fish getting caught at night.
• Big bass to the west, and on the north shore.
• Double digit tog on the north shore.
• Squid run at night.

Captree Bait and Tackle reports: 

Casey sent us in a picture from a south shore beach, of the first bluefish we’v e seen in a while! We hosted the FG south shore surf classic this week, and not a single bluefish was entered! Striped bass were the main quarry, and some decent ones were entered into the tournament. Frank Mercurio took first place with his 15.5 pounder, just nudging out Michael Rivet’s 14.8 pound bass. Allen Vollmer took third with a fish just under 14 pounds. The fish that was in first place at just under 35 inches was knocked off last second by these three smaller fish!

The Fishfinder sent in an update on the fantastic jig bite for stripers. 5 days ago, they picked a limit of bass in 1.5 drifts! They even released some fat over-sized bass on those drifts. Fishing went down just outside the inlet in 30-40 feet using diamond jigs.

Captree’s Laura Lee reports:

Yesterday’s morning trip caught 445 tog, 8 triggerfish, 22 sea bass, 1 toadfish and 1 cunner. The 6pm trip caught 5 stripers, keeping 2 slots and releasing three overs. The 6 p.m. express kept 6 slot stripers. Tuesday’s trips were similar, with some better striper fishing. The 6 p.m. trip had 15 anglers who caught 15 stripers, keeping 9. Two slots were released along with 4 overs.

Triggers and tog were biting on Monday, and the striper fishing was slow.

Sunday’s trips were pretty awesome. The 7 a.m. local caught 415 blackish to 7.54 pounds, 9 triggerfish and 14 sea bass. Thirteen triggers and 447 tog were caught on the 1 p.m. trip, along with 17 sea bass. Striped bass fishing during the day wasn’t anything to write home about, but the 6 p.m. trip caught 8, three of which were oversize. Saturday saw some stripers to 40 pounds. It was more of the same at the beginning of the week.

• Looking for the Western Long Island and NYC Fishing Report? Click here to read what’s happening around Nassau, Kings and Queens counties!

• Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain on Long Island!

Capt. Dave Flanagan of North Island Fly in Northport reports:

The bite is on in the central LI Sound! Morning and afternoon blitzes have been occurring, producing both bass and bluefish. They’re coming up in all shapes and sizes. There are a lot of slot fish, plus some overs. Bluefish range from 7-10 pounds mainly. Peanut bunker is the most prevalent bait, but there’s a lot of snot bait and spearing present as well. If you’re looking for a shot at albies, they’re still chewing over here; they’re just a tad trickier to find nowadays in the late season. Water temps are just below 65, and this run could potentially go well into November, possibly even December. Dave’s still got some availability in the second week of November. Check out Dave’s website to book him for a charter at www.northislandfly.com.

Ed from Warren’s Tackle in Aquebogue reports:

Black fishing has been good locally. Lots of shorts are getting caught amongst the keepers. There are plenty of tog around. If you’re fishing in the deeper water, you’ll find some sea bass mixed in. There’s some solid sea bass being taken too. Lots of albies have been showing up off the eastern north shore beaches. On the south shore, by Moriches and Shinnecock, you can find some striped bass, although the bites have been spotty/sporadic. All is relatively quiet on the Peconic front. You can still go pick some porgies, but effort is down in the back bay for the most part. Most guys are after the blackfish.

The Celtic Quest Fishing Fleet of Mattituck reports: 

Tog and sea bass were the catches of the week, putting up great numbers for anglers to take home. Porgies were hungry, and some stripers provided our anglers some good battles. We’ve been picking a lot of keeper bottom fish out of Mattituck this week. Port Jeff was all about the porgies. We even caught and released a big pufferfish early in the week. Fish were biting better on the slower parts of the tide. Call them at 631-928-3926 for booking info.

The Peconic Star of Greenport reports:

The week started on a very high note, with double digit blackfish coming over the rail. Dennis picked an 11 pound brute of a tog, and a bunch of fish to 7 pounds came up. A bunch of nice sea bass accompanied the tog. The next day, Danny picked his first double digit tog. Despite the wind, the tog were chewing!

Yesterday morning gave us some strong tides and high winds to battle, but those conditions improved by the afternoon and we got into some solid fishing. Half of the boat picked a limit of blackfish to seven pounds. We also saw a good number of black sea bass to 5 pounds.

Capt. Phil of Fishy Business in Orient reports:

It was a busy week on the blackfish grounds, with loads of chunky white chins going home to grace dinner tables. Sea bass were a common bycatch, and there was a decent amount of short life to keep the rods bent and anglers entertained.

They sail out of Duryea’s in Orient. Give Phil a call to book a trip: 516-316-6967.

• Looking for the Western Long Island and NYC Fishing Report? Click here to read what’s happening around Nassau, Kings and Queens counties!

• Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain on Long Island!

The Shinnecock Star in Hampton Bays reports:

Pete picked his limit of tog a couple days ago. Fishing was solid around the boat, with many anglers putting together a catch. A nice triggerfish came up, as did a big, beautiful pinfish! They sail out of Oaklands Marina on the west side of Shinnecock Inlet. They’ll be targeting local tog and offshore sea bass this week. Call Capt. John for trip info and reservations: 631-728-4563.

Chris at Westlake Marina in Montauk reports:

There are lots of small bass around; plenty of short life with a good amount of keepers mixed in. You can find them pretty much anywhere. Blackfish and sea bass fishing has been pretty good. One guys weighed in a blackfish that went 13+ pounds on the scale. A good amount of bluefish moved in last week, right after the giant bluefin season closed. There are some chub mackerel around chewing jigs and the squid bite has been hot lately at night.

Montauk’s Viking Fleet reports:

Tuesday’s bite was excellent, with big fish and good numbers. Vasilios Papagiannis took the pool with a 3.25 pound porgy. We also had about 6 cod, some really nice sea bass and very few porgies.

Monday we targeted quality over quantity, finding some really nice porgies and sea bass to 5 pounds. We put 15 cod on the boat, and had some very steady fishing. Ray Tang picked a 3.5 pound scup for the pool.

Sunday afternoon’s tog pool went to Rafael Nieves from the Bronx, who caught an 8 pound fish. Whey An had a 4 pound sea bass for that pool. Geremy Sanagustin from NJ picked a 6.7 pound cod in the morning for that pool.

Saturday was up and down, with an excellent morning and a tougher afternoon.  The morning saw tog to ten pounds and nice sea bass. The wind picked up for the afternoon bite. Porgy fishing got tough, but we picked about 6 cod and mixed-size sea bass. Call the office to book at 631-668-5700, or book online at vikingfleet.com.

Bill Wetzel of the Surf Rats Ball reports:

After skunking in the peconics, Bill and his charter headed down to the beach in Southampton to find a handful of schoolies on darters and needles after midnight. The next day, he ran to Shirley with his daughter Rosie to get her trained up on the VS 150 bailless. She killed it, but no fish were had; no other casters pulled any fish either that morning. Fast forward to Tuesday, and Bill’s back in Montauk. There was white bait, spearing and shad all over the north side; there they picked a few stripers on bucktails. There’s a lot of big shad in the suds. They ran to the sand beaches for zilch, and headed back to the north side after dark to finish up; there they picked one last bass on a darter. Word is the weekend was awesome, with lots of blitzes. Then the netters found the bass. They set up nets from Shag to Cavits and all over the sand beaches, pretty much wiping out whatever was there.

Kevin M. hit the south side hard on Halloween. The day bite was so strong, he didn’t bother with the night tides. He had a ton of fish in two days, from low teens to mid-twenties. There were very few shorts, but they took bucktails and flies.

Eastern Long Island Fishing Forecast

That’s the best fishing week I’ve had in months, and I’m chipper as heck because of it!

I was down in the dumps lately. I think I get this seasonal depression type thing. I know most people around here experience that in winter. Mine happens to occur in October, at the peak of the striped bass season. After looking back through my instagram (which is the closest thing I have to a fishing log), I found that I seldom post in October. I believe I’m fighting the same doldrums every year at that same time.

It’s a little weird to admit that fishing can so greatly affect my emotions, but I know that anyone reading this can relate. Some of our highest highs and lowest lows are caused by fish. I guess the really weird thing is that my lows routinely arrive during the most dynamic month to be targeting stripers.

It’s because I see the same thing every year. Big winds, rain and moon tides send summering fish scurrying for the bays’ exits. Many make it out of the inlets and around Montauk point. They swim tight to the beach as they migrate westward. Consistently calm weather allows the ocean to settle down, which riles the fish up. A few days of that produces a glassy surface. Stripers begin to find the schools of fish, and more arrive daily. The excitement of the stripers is palpable; I feel the same exact excitement they do. They sloppily swim around the schools, hoping to catch a fish off guard. Eventually, as more stripers arrive, they discover power in numbers and begin to attack one after the other, capitalizing on the resulting chaos. A blitz forms. It grows. It comes right on to the beach.

For days the same thing occurs. For weeks even. But that doesn’t really happen anymore.

Every year, the gill nets are placed along the sand beaches in October. They cancel any momentum that was forming, bringing this whole saga back to step 1. Then it takes time again; and if the weather doesn’t cooperate, then you might just not see any blitzes.

That pretty much where we’re at this season. I have seen one bout of surface activity, and it was glorious. I wouldn’t even call it a blitz though; there weren’t enough stripers to actually make the thing happen. The bass were big though, and the bunker were flying.

It sucks that that’s part of my reality. The commercial boats have been doing that a long time though. I get that, and I’m used to it, so I don’t complain about it. Those guys gotta eat, and I’m just trying to have fun catching fish.

I think the part that messes with my emotions is the fisheries management aspect. I do a lot of different types of fishing, so I see a good bit of how fish are handled and harvested. I observe with curiosity rather than criticism. I’ve seen some seriously bad etiquette from rec fishermen in my days, and I have seen the same from the gill net boats. The net fishermen are handling fish en masse though, versus just one at a time. One or two guys handle hundreds of fish a day. I’ve seen some handled well, and some handled poorly, same as the rec fishermen. It is what it is.

But the statistic everybody always talks about when it comes to management is “recreational release mortality.” You’d be hard pressed to find the phrase “commercial release mortality” in any of those management documents. I believe they do account for some loss, but it’s way less than the presumed recreational release mortality.

So that’s what depresses me. Managers govern this fish under the assumption that I am more of a problem than the commercial guys I regularly see mishandling hundreds of breeder bass at a time. Releases can take over 20 minutes to execute due to the sheer quantity of fish in the net.

Man, I could go on. But I’m going to stop there. No need to talk myself back into that depression. There’s fish to be caught!

I had a lot of fun targeting blackfish this week. I was surprised they were still close enough to the beach to target from shore. I guess the water temps are still way up there though.

Stripers provided me some very fun nights. Surfcasters shining their damn headlights on the water made those nights less fun and more frustrating. The bite stopped every time a googan burned the surf with his lamp. It would start back up 10- to 15-minutes later, but then the goog would bright the water again. I ended up leaving a couple sweet night bites due to frustration.

I saw the beginnings of some blitzy-looking water yesterday. It was just as I described above, a small amount of bass finding the bait. More bass are on the bait as I type. I think I have a good afternoon and night ahead of me. I’m gonna get to it. Take advantage of these warm days ahead! They should provide some awesome fishing days and nights.

Tight lines.