5 Photos
Megan Conger, of the DockTauk fishing podcast, got this nice striped bass while fishing aboard the charter boat Push The Limit with Capt. Ben McCarron.
Aidan Murray got this big triggerfish while fishing aboard the Shinnecock Star out of Hampton Bays with his grandpa Bob. Deena Lippman
After weeks of unsettled seas that hampered fluke fishing, last Sunday of the season treated a lot of anglers, like Taylor Baratta, very well. Joe Baratta Joe Baratta
Aidan Murray got this big triggerfish while fishing aboard the Shinnecock Star out of Hampton Bays with his grandpa Bob. Deena Lippman Deena Lippman
About the time this column will hit newsstands, or web browsers, temperatures should be climbing into the 80s again.First of all, just because you hear this all the time: This is not Indian summer. The proper meaning of an Indian summer is when temperatures reach 70 degrees after the first frost of the fall. Think around Thanksgiving, when we get those balmy days and you’re surfcasting in shirt sleeves and bluefins are busting off the South Fork beaches. I think I’ll daydream about that for awhile.
In the meantime, the fishing across the South Fork has been pretty good. There are tons of striped bass all over the place.
Huge blitzes have fired off in Montauk almost every day, and have been accessible to surf fishermen on more days than not. The small fish have also formed up into feeding schools around Shinnecock Inlet and along the sand beaches to the west. The sand beaches east have had fish, although not in particularly big numbers.
There aren’t a lot of big fish in the mix — a few small keepers here and there and the very occasional fish in the teens or low 20s.
The bigger stripers seem to still be holding way out in the deeps between Montauk and Block Island, though they’ve gotten more scarce there too, and are being protected by hordes of big bluefish. The warm weather the early part of this week is not likely to convince them to move out of their cooler hangouts, but maybe the big temp drop later in the week will get them thinking about it at least.
The last weeks of the fluke season were frustrating, with big swells from successive hurricanes stirring up the bottom, but at least the final Sunday brought clean, calm waters and hungry fluke on most of the local grounds.
The meat-hunters fishing will now switch its focus to the wreck species like black sea bass and blackfish. Blackfish season gets underway next week, but there are tons of BSB on pretty much any rock pile one can find these days to keep coolers and freezers filling before then. Big porgies and triggerfish should also still be in the mix.
Catch ’em up. See you out there.
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