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There’s a lot of tense talk on the beaches and docks these days. The big question is now part of every conversation: Is it over?
There’s some clues out there that may hint at an answer we don’t want to hear.
Toward the middle of last week the fairly reliable surf bite that was spread up and down the beaches from Moriches to Napeague the last few weeks started to thin out. The shots at bigger fish got more scattered and then just faded away. Eventually the pick of rats and micro bass slowed as well. At the same time, boats off Moriches were banging bigger fish on jigs in deep water well off the beach, and the surf lit up to the west, between Fire Island and Breezy Point.
That smacks of a body of fish—the same bunch, no doubt, that vacated the rips a month ago for the beaches of East Hampton and Amagansett—moving west toward the deep wintering grounds off Jersey and Delaware.
Of course, the west winds that have prevailed since early last week have kept the water just a tinge of drab off the clean green it should be, which is not helpful. This week’s forecast doesn’t look like it’s going to be conducive to a cleanup either.
Who knows what ever became of the bunker that had been living in the Peconics this year? They certainly never migrated through the surf zone, the first time in a decade that hasn’t happened. Granted, it didn’t seem there were many peanuts around on the South Fork this year, and they’re the ones that usually hug the beach on the way out of town, but there sure as heck were plenty of adults about, so I don’t know why a whole year-class would have passed us by.
The bunker never coming through may explain why there are still hordes of giant bluefish in Block Island Sound. Those brutes usually terrorize the bunker as they move around the point and then follow them right down the beach and out of town by mid-November. But the bunker didn’t go by and the blues didn’t follow. Maybe there’s also enough other bait like herring, sand eels and whatever else to keep the blues there, too.
The good news is there are still striped bass around. The deep rips east of Montauk have some fish on them still. The sandbars beyond the color line outside Shinnecock and Moriches were still producing a few stripers last Friday. And the herring are likely just starting to show up outside Montauk Harbor.
If the herring come in big numbers, there’s still a chance that there will be one of those spectacular bites off Shagwong and the Point and then, God willing, in the surf zone. It’s been exactly two years since that happened, so maybe we’re due.
Otherwise you can go blackfishing, which has been good straight through. Or duck hunting (our tally for the first five days of the season was one beautiful, banded drake mallard—and several unharmed escapees.)
Here’s to hoping for a red sky at night.
Catch ’em up. See you out there.
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