10/19-20: Albies still at Montauk

[Tuna]

Got out Friday a bit before 10 am. Some blues inside Shagawong/along Gin Beach, small pods of albies outside.

Kept going to the Point. Albies way out (to 50 feet of water) in the rips. Hard to stay near them (with wind and tide moving the boat), but when they were around, they were biting.

Seemed like a new class of fish - not quite as long on average, and not as fat as the albies up to last Friday. Had a number of fish never make it into backing.

As the tide shifted to outgoing, the albies came closer to the Point. A few really good hours in the afternoon. Not as good as last Friday, but pretty darn good.

Had some luck that day - caught fish I shouldn't have (2 fish caught that were kind enough not to run when I had big knots in the fly line, 2 fish caught with line wrapped around leg and last second hop before fish ran, another that waited to run until I had gotten line untangled from cleat). Another sunny day with lots of visuals - albies racing through the water, visible even when not surfacing.

Schools of something around Shagawong on way in.

Saturday was not quite as good, but still a good one. Feeds at Shagawong on way out. More albies way outside the Point in the rips. A bit breezy in the morning.

Albies came closer to the Point on the outgoing tide again, but didn't form up quite as well as Friday. Feeds at Shagawong on the way back.

LOTS of bay anchovies still around, and water is still pretty warm. Might have albies into early Nov.

But I hung it up Saturday, drove my boat back to East Hampton for winter storage (didn't see anything on the way back past Shagawong). I like ending a season on good days in good weather. Friday and Saturday were the kind of days I like to go into the winter remembering. Nice to hit double digits on the last two days (last season, had a pleasant last day, but caught no albies).

Altogether a great albie season. The bass kind of disappeared with all the big blows that came, but the albie fishing was hot, and on average they were bigger than last year.

Now I am getting excited about fishing the flats next May.

[AndyF]

After being stuck out of town unexpectedly on business for a few weeks, it was nice to get back on the water. Only had a few hours Saturday, time for a quick run up to the point.

Yesterday I decided to give it another shot late afternoon despite the winds that kicked up and managed to get one, although it was a doozie. I went out to Gardiner's (not enough time to make it to the point) and the conditions were laughably difficult, but there were lots of albies. The birds helped a lot because you almost couldn't tell the pods from the whitecaps. As long as you could get downwind of a passing school, manage a backcast against the wind and hold on there were shots to be had. Just when I was about to call it a day, I hooked up with an albie that sent my reel smoking--I had about 10 yards of backing left on the first run. It took close to 40 minutes to get him in the boat. By that time, I was exhausted and the sun was almost gone, and all but two of the boats had left. I measured him at 27 inches before tossing him back.

The run back to Three Mile Harbor, although not far, was very rough. I heard two coast guard calls responding to distressed boats. I also only had a prescription pair of sunglasses with me, which didn't really help in the dark, and I was soaked.

All in all, it was one of the most challenging afternoons I can remember and an awesome couple of hours.

Peter: I'm going to miss your reports. Don't worry, only about 6 months until May!