Fall Fishing Begins

We had our first taste of cool weather, with overnight temps near 50 degrees. It was last May since we’ve seen those temps.

Along with the air temps, the bay water temps are also heading down. Over the weekend, the bay was 62 degrees.

We had a hurricane, Fiona, go by out in the Atlantic this past week. Hurricane Ian is heading into Florida as I write this.

We are getting much-needed rain, along with some wind, as fall has arrived.

Last week, I did have a chance to do some haul seining in the bay. It’s so nice to see the young-of-the-year fish. Several hauls produced plenty of kingfish, porgies, sea robins and blowfish. There were also mullet in the bay. The cold snap inspired fish to start moving.

I also saw the first scoters in the bay over the weekend. There were some nice porgies moving in the bay, with small sea bass mixed in, too. There still are weakfish, but they seem to be scattered and mixed in size.

Locally, striped bass should start to show up. There still are good numbers of bluefish at Jessups. Fish the flood tide with jigs and small tins. Most days see breaking fish under birds.

Now is the time to head to the Sound or Montauk if the weather permits. You can get your last licks in before the blackfish season starts on October 11. There are large and jumbo sea bass in the Sound, along with large porgies. Remember, the sea bass are still in the deep water. Bluefish and a few bass are in the Gut and Race.

Montauk also has some great bottom fishing. Porgies and sea bass are south of the Light and at Block Island.

There are still party boats mixing in some fluke fishing with some success. The fluke season is open until October 9.

Larger striped bass are at Block Island for the wireline trollers. Some bluefish are mixing in, too.

It’s almost time to start looking for squid around the local docks. The season will peak in October. We have had good runs over the last years.