Hot Tuna, but Not Much Else

In the absence of stellar fishing on many fronts, the inshore tuna fishing is once again making the summer season for a lot of anglers.

Keeper striped bass are hard to come by, fluke have been spotty at best for most of the summer, and only Montauk has really had what we would typically call a good bite, and just in the last few weeks, even black sea bass have not really been all that good.

But the tuna fishing has been hot and seems to be getting even hotter.

Yellowfin tuna up to 50 pounds and bluefins up to 500 pounds are being caught within sight of shore off Montauk and Shinnecock, making it as accessible a big game fishery as there is this side of Kona.

As much of a blessing as it has been for anglers, it has been even more so for the fishing industry. Tackle shops are selling tuna-caliber rods and reels, jigs and poppers, and leader material, marinas are pumping gas, and delis are dishing out ice and lunches to anglers for the boat.

Yes, tuna fishing is not for everyone, and no matter how “inshore” the bite is you still need a boat capable of heading toward the horizon, but the fishing has been a real godsend for anglers frustrated at the struggle to put fillets on ice.

That struggle has gotten a little easier of late. Fluke fishing off Montauk has started to at least show signs of the kind of fishery we used to expect from the fluke grounds in August. The fishing out in the deeps has been fairly consistent, and some pockets of good fish have been found in the shallows lately, giving hope that the end of the season could produce a flurry of action.

Shinnecock has not been quite so lucky. There are tons of fluke in the bay, but the keeper ratio is very low. Lining up the drift and the wind is the key to success both east and west of the inlet.

Many anglers, light tackle enthusiasts in particular, are eagerly searching for any signs of the fall migrations forming up.

There have been some bonito showing up along the South Shore, mostly very small ones, but a scattered few keepers have been caught off Montauk.

There are loads of albies out on the bigger tuna grounds, but there are few signs that they are the same ones that we’ll be expecting to see inshore in a few weeks.

Aside from the modest uptick in the number of bluefish this year over the past years, there is not a lot of hope for the sort of fall run along the beaches that we once saw. There are not a lot of the small stripers that typically formed the big blitzes that made Montauk a mecca of surf fishing for decades.

Anyone who doubts the need for drastic measures to rebuild the striper stock should visit Montauk on a September weekend. And yet, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission last week postponed the introduction of a new addendum to the striped bass management plan — greed and short-sightedness win out once again.

As good as it has been, tuna fishing should be just hitting its stride inshore. Fluke fishing could still get better as we transition to the post-Labor Day time frame, as we’ve seen in some recent years.

So get out there and, most of all, catch ’em up.