7/19: Some Bass at Montauk

[Tuna]

Saw Frank Saturday morning gassing up - he said he only had a few hours or might be tempted by Howie's report of BFT off Block, I said I thought I'd look for bass near shore but might be tempted out later.

Never could see Block Island while I was out, so I focused on mostly small bass.

Got a few 20+ inchers at the Point and a few more working shore towards Caswells. South shore was slow when I got there, but after a few follows got another 20+ inch one. Talked to Frank again who had gotten a nice 32 inch fish and a breakoff at the hit he thought was probably also a bass.

Wind shifted a bit north and I started working closer to shore just as the tide picked up a bit. Started getting more steady action, but the hookups were all these cookie cutter 20+ inch fish (they fought well, though, making me think a few were bigger). With low wind and little swell, I was able to work areas closer to shore than usual and see a lot of the hits. Finally saw a nice one follow close to the boat and coaxed it into hitting - my best of the day, a little over 14 pounds.

Things slowed down there, so I went west to a spot near the surfers I've done well at in the past few summers. I had onlyy looked there once before this year and was sad to see less bottom structure. Looked about the same Saturday and was about to give up early when a good fish crashed the surface on the outside of the most defined dark bottom area - looked like what the bass had done last year on porgies. Continued the drift and got a smaller keeper. Tried another two drifts and got 2 porgies and another 20+ inch bass.

Then tried east to the main beach area. I started just outside some surfers and worked dark bottom out. A kayaker came out to greet me - ends up I was violating rules, gotta stay 500 (?) feet (he couldn't have said yards, could he?) from the surfers. I said OK, started reeling in but was interrupted by another 20+ inch bass.

Even if it was feet not yards, 500 feet is almost 2 football fields - means the bonito and skipjack I got last summer were in that zone, the mahi I got the fall before too, plus numerous albies over the years. I wonder if they'd chase me away again if I stayed a few hundred feet away. 500 feet is one heck of a lot of prime fishing grounds. Hmm, guess I'll find out as the season progresses.

Went back near Caswells but the wind was onshore, cutting my drifts, and the water was moving slow and I couldn't buy a hit there.

Tried a bit at the Point, which still had moving water, got my last 20+ inch bass there. Its a sign of a great day when you can't remember how many fish you got, but at 2 PM, I left having gotten 2 blues, 2 porgies and maybe 17 bass (of which 2 were keepers, all the rest were 20+ icnhes).

Not fireworks kind of fishing, but a lot of fun on a calm, sunny Saturday.

The real fireworks were that night, in 3 mile harbor. Another good show!

[fmw]

Tuna's report pretty much said it all for me. Due to social commitments, only got out a few hours on Saturday morning. Stayed out late the night before and didn't get out on the water until around 8:30 am.

Based on the fishing, my guess is that from first light on it would have been very hot fishing. I headed straight for the general vicinity of Caswell's and, using the sinking line, had a good hit on my first cast, second strip. I lost the fly and think it was a bass and had a poorly tied fly rather than a blue break off.

About 5 minutes later, I had a 32" fish. What made it interesting was further tackle problems in that there was a knot in my backing and as the line peeled out, it came to a complete stop. I managed to land the fish by starting the engine and backing down on it each time it approached the knot. The bass came home for dinner and its stomach contents were two crabs.

Except for a jumbo porgie, that was it for the remaining hour and a half or so and made me think I caught the tail end of a great early morning bite.

[Albiemanmike]

Tuna,
I ditched my plans to work south of Block in favor of fishing Southside with a guy I met online who has fished that area recently. We fished it Sunday morning and got there around 5:30 am. or so. Fish on top as son as we got around the point but they did stay up for long as it was getting light out and sun was up and rising. We headed in close to shore and saw many, many big fish all morning. These fish were some of the biggest fish I have ever witnessed with my own two eyes, truly exhilerating. But unfortunately they were not at all cooperative in the catching dept. I ended up with the big skunk but Kevin saved the boat skunk by landing a couple bass up to about 12 lbs., I did have a close encounter with a very large fish that chased and turned on my fly, I did not see the fish (glare) until the last minute and when I felt the line come tight I jumped the gun and yanked the fly out of the fishes mouth. I was fit to be tied after that as I had no action at all most of the morning and the onetime I did tease a fish into striking I blew it. Oh well that's the way the ball bounces sometimes. I would like to get back over there for another try and do a few things differently, but I don't think there was much we didn't try, the fish did not seem to be actively feeding and looked to be just cruising in close to shore all morning. We had trouble getting in close enough to really target them successfully, with all of the large boulders and the swells we were constantly having to move the boat back out to safer distance to be sure we didn't get dropped on top of one of those huge rocks while fishing. When we were able to get in close Kevin was able to hookup and catch some fish. I think my nerves coupled with watching out for any rogue waves diverted my attention most of the morning and that is why I was not able to really fish effectively and catch some fish. We were talking about how we thought if we had some live bait we might have been able to entice some of those giants into striking, but we hung with the flyrods and worked it pretty hard for 6 hours. Still fun to see those fish under the boat and have a chance (albeit little) at hooking them. I am also wondering if we had tried a crab type pattern if maybe we could have fooled one of those big girls.

Tightlines,
Mike Mayo

[Tuna]

I'm still not really sure how to get them to hit this time of year. I tend to stick with big half and halfs, cause they sink well and look good when moved, but my guess is if I knew what I was doing I could take more big fish.

Saturday, I definitely had better luck when the wind turned north and I was willing to get in REAL close, so all my casts were over dark bottom. I also changed my retrieve to a quicker cha-cha-cha tempo than usual, as I was seeing many fish follow but not take. But I was seeing fewer big fish than usual, they were probably over pathces I wasn't looking at.

What's gonna get them to hit once the sun rises probably changes from time to time.

The fish Saturday, and the fish two Saturday's ago (when I took some nice ones, and lost what looked like a better one), did not look like they were feeding. They were hanging out, and maybe feeding if the opportunity came to them. Most of the big ones I get mid summer I see lazy following near the fly and find a way to coax them.

NOAA is now forecasting SW 10-15 for Saturday, which will make it more difficult to get as close to shore on the south side as I did Saturday, but then I'll just focus more on the shore from Caswells to the Point.

Anyone trying this, look up from time to time and look for stuff outside you. Its around this time of year we get a bonito and skipjack run. Hope we get one this year.

[fmw]

Tuna: Do you see getting over the dark bottom to be the key to fishing on the south side??

[Albiemanmike]

FMW,
I can't speak for Tuna but I can for my trip on Sunday and the answer is yes for us. We never found any fish over light bottom, only found them hovering over darker bottom. This I would think is because the dark bottom areas were all spots where there was significant structure hence the dark bottom. This also made it difficult to see the fish, we would see them by spotting the white areas of there fins and tails then you could concentrate on the whole fish. Occasionally we would have fish follow up close enough to the boat to get a real good look but mostly it was the fish down deeper that would catch our eye. I am sure there were many more fish there then what we actually saw, my friend in the bow saw many more fish then I did at the console and he would say school of 20-40 fish when he would tell me to stop the boat.

Tightlines,
Mike Mayo

[riptide]

Hey Mike,

If the weather gives us a window give me a call. I think we might be able to persuade those big girls to eat. Your boat or mine. I've got some gel coat I'm willing to part with. Email me when you get a chance.

[Tuna]

Yup, the key for me is to work dark bottom spots. If the surf has kicked up sand or the swell is too big, I don't even try (except for the Point, which also has dark bottom structure).

I always thought of the spots as natural structure - bait will be there, there may be "extras" for the bass like mussels mixed in, the bass don't feel exposed. The spot near the surfers I got chased away from also often holds porgies, and sometimes the bigger bass crash those babies.

And over the years, that's where I have seen the most fish. Now and then, there will be many bass and there can be chances over sand bottom, but its rare. I'd generally find them by accident - one year, I chased a pod of albies in towards the surfers - it was a calm, sunny day, and when I got near the break I could see dark bottom structure and big bass hanging out. Another year, I was trying to find fish for my cousin Stan and it was calm and I went near shore under the cottages and wow, there were big bass hanging over dark bottom.

There's a lot less of it there this summer, maybe cleared out by winter storms and cold. But there's still enough to find fish.

My current approach is to watch where Jim Hull fishes - he knows lots of bottom structure, and his clients catch a lot of nice bass (sometimes on spinning, sometimes on fly).