Luyen’s Reel-Time FLog

Went to Montauk with Josh to try to find some respite from post-9/11 blues, and to get in on some of the hot albie action. The tunoid fishing had been smoking two weekends prior, with albies, bass and blues all frothing the water at the same time at various points. Unfortunately, the weather had been doing some backflips the past two weeks, mucking up the water and scattering bait. Saturday started with rain and mild temps. But as we drove out on the LIE Saturday, we could see a deep blue line of cold, clear Canadian air pushing the warm rain clouds out to the southeast. There was a distinct bite to the air as we finally arrived in Amagansett.

We awoke at 5AM Sunday to get an early start on the fishing. Coming out the Montauk cut, we decided to make a left turn, a set a course towards Gardiner’s Island. The Point had to be pretty stirred up with the last few days of south blow. We took a real beating trying to make our way against wind and tide, and quartering our way to Tobacco Lot. Needless to say, it was a very wet ride. Conditions at Tobacco Lot couldn’t be nicer, however; we fished nestled in the lee of Gardiner’s Island. I caught an albie, despite sacrificing numerous epoxy sand eels to the bluefish that were mixed in with the hard tails. As the morning bite slowed, we decided to head south towards the Point. We had heard others on the radio talking about good numbers of happy fish (and supposedly some bonito as well) around Shagawam and the waters between the harbor and the Point. Sure enough, we found large numbers of birds and fish feeding on bait in the Shagawam rips. Tough fishing we figured, so we decided to poke around the south side of the Point in the hopes that we would find fish there as well.

Unfortunately, it was as dead as it was calm on the south side of Montauk Point, so after puttering around a bit, we decided to take our licks in the wind with everyone else. I hooked two more albies in the rips; one pulled the knot from the fly, the other made an impressive series of runs, taking me deep into the backing of my Vortex before I was finally able to bring the bruiser boat side. I thought for sure I had caught a record bluefin, but amazingly, it was just a typical 6-pound Montauk albie that had so thoroughly kicked my butt. I’m still trying to knead the cramp out of my right hand.

After some more pounding, we decided to give Gardiner’s another go (Blinken radioed to say they were showing pretty well again around Tobacco Lot). This trip upwind was even worse than the morning’s commute. It felt like an hour before we got to the sheltered waters on the east coast of Gardiner’s Island. Sure enough, we found albies around the northeast point and boiling blues no more than 10 feet from shore. We couldn’t get the albies to eat, so we had fun fooling with the blues on poppers. Finally, we decided to head back towards the cut thinking we might be able to ambush a few more tunoids before calling it a day. Sure enough, the birds were still working the waters outside the inlet, but the seas had continued to swell making it even harder to keep our footing while casting into the waves. After a first pass through the birds, we decided to pack it in.