7/26 Around East End

[Tuna]

Got out Saturday morning not expecting much, as the wind was supposed to rise and the swell from the week would reduce my shots near shore at Montauk. Pretty much found what I was expecting.

As the winds were still low, I passed the Point and headed towards Caswells to see if the bass were there again. Although the wind was light, the combo of larger swell from last week and less clear water led to a hitless long drift. I wasn't getting in as close as last week because of the swell, but I was close enough for action and nothing doing.

Headed west for the dark bottom outside the surfers - stayed away from the main beach and on the outside of the zone to avoid being chased away again. First cast over dark bottom brought me an energetic 24 inch bass, with 3 of the same size following it and one keeper. Got another of the same size on the same drift, again with several followers, one keeper.

Had another boat join me - they must not have understood or heard when I said "they are over the dark" (maybe they thought I said "its my spot you old farts"), as they set up away from the bottom structure and left before I got another hit and a miss on the second drift.

Third drift I got another 2 of the same size, again with fish following.

Fourth drift I got one, no follows. Generally, this spot is good for a few drifts, then dead. Sure enough, next few drifts all I had hit were porgies.

Headed back to the Point, but the water was sandy where I know the zones, so I gave up quickly.

Saw clear moving water at False Point and took another mid twenty inch bass on my first drift. It had another larger bass follow, and it chomped down hard on my thumb knuckle as I got the fly out. Bleeding thumb seemed like good luck, but my next few drifts resulted in blues stealing flies and breaking a rod while casting. Figured my luck had turned and headed to the Gulls.

Wind was real light as I headed there, saw birds there but not much doing.

Heading back to Montauk, the winds started to rise, and I called it a day early afternoon before the bigger winds came.

Water temps around the Point were up, almost 70. Not sure if I am pleased (as warm water usually preceeds the scrombrid arrivals) or upset (the bass may start getting more lethargic around the point).

[joshr]

Yeah, the water definitely heated up an amazing amount in a week. I had house guests this weekend so couldn't fish much, but Ted S and I put the flats boat in the water for a few hours early Sat morning before my guests arrived. As soon as I stepped in the water to launch, I noticed how much warmer it was than last week.

Anyway, poled a few beaches and flats from 6:30-10am. Lots of small blues on the flats, so several swiped flies. Water was slick calm before 10, and we had lots of finning fish that we hoped were bass but mostly turned out to be blues. Still a bunch of sand sharks around. We did get one sight caught bass--a dink about 18"--on a flat by Promised Land.

We had to quit right as prime visibility was arriving, but as far as I could tell in that brief session, the bass have largely left the shallows--a few here and there, but not too much to get excited about. Nice that the flats season stretched as long as it did this year, but I sure wish we'd had the nice sunny weekend days earlier in the season!

--Josh

[fmw]

You know, at this point in the season, I think the water really warming up is a good thing. After all, who wants to go into the end of August with cold temps? Do we really want a two week albie season where water temps are below 60 before the end of September?? It will be very interesting to see how the cold winter/spring/early summer weather patterns impact the fall run. Will things get going right after Labor Day? How will it impact the bay anchovy picture? etc., etc.

I've also been meaning to throw out onto the board a few questions to spark a discussion regarding pre-albie arrival exotics on the east end:

While it seems that skippies, bonito (and lets thrown in mahi) etc. in the vicinity of the shore is kind of an unpredictable, rare and special thing, is it at all worth making any late summer "near offshore" trips from Montauk for these fish -- i.e., from 3 to 10 miles from the point. It seems like I often read about late summer Mahi and skippies at places like the Cholera Banks further west (which, I believe, is 10 miles or so from Jones Inlet). Or are they going to be found, except in the rarest instances, 30 miles on out to the canyon????

[venture]

Funny thing is that when the inshore doldrums begin with the hot water, the offshore big game begins......and this weekend marked a solid beginning......offshore that is.

Although the Venture participated in a family fluke tournament inshore, some reliable reports have come in from the canyons and the flats leading up to the canyons......the troll bite picked up substantially, and the sharpies using flouro leaders and little hardware, took fish on trolled ballyhoos and plastics.
Yellow and albies were rewarded to those who arrived early and took the initiative to fish the flats 10 miles north of the edge. The little fish tails was red hot with several boats getting six to eight yellows and some long fins thrown in....

And there are many Mahi in the warm eddies this year.....Some gaffers mixed in with the small ones. But as far as them coming within 20 miles of the beach, I would think twice.......It is very rare to see them that close, so I would not waste time fishing for them unless you are prepared to run at least 40 miles minimum.......Perhaps you can get lucky like Tuna did several years ago when he hooked a nice mahi right off the beach...But that was very rare, and he was quite a lucky man...

Oh, by the way we landed 66 fluke for the day, with a three way tie for first place..........

Howie

[Tuna]

One of the reasons I fish south shore Montauk this time of year is because sometimes the skippies show there, sometimes mixed with bonito.

They showed there last year (Howie got in on it on Josh's boat, although his wrist was in a sling so he had to use light spinning). A few years back, they showed early July when I was out with my cousin (and got my first skippy on spinning, as my cousin had been hooking up on spinning and I was blanking on the fly). A few years before that they showed when I was fishing with my brother.

When I fish outside the surfers, every few moments I look out to sea, as that's where I have found them in the past.

Skipjack are an awesome fish for a false albacore lover. I find them a lot harder to catch as, unlike bonito and false alabcore, they do NOT seem to swing back to the same pod of bait after crashing it - they just keep moving like demonic mini torpedos. So getting a fly in front of one is tough, takes unlearning what works with tunny and bonito, get the fly out WAY ahead of them and MAYBE you'll get it in front of a mouth. Then, if you hook one, pound for pound they are a stronger fish than an albie. I got my first one on the fly the day Howie was fishing with Josh last summer.

Josh - thanks for the flats report. My original plan Saturday was to move west and wade flats after I had looked around Montauk. But by the time I left the Gulls early afternoon, there was a thin cloud cover and I decided not to try. Sounds like I mostly missed bluefish, and I am OK with that.

[Albiemanmike]

I got my first skippies last year off of Newport and they are much stronger than any Albie I have caught and I have caught Albies to 15 lbs. The skippie I caught was about 10 lbs. and it kicked my butt on a 9 wt. I hooked another one on the same trip but unfortunately the damn line wrapped around my hand while it was screaming toward England and I popped him off. They have showed consistently off of Newport for the last couple of years, just depends on the warm eddies from the Gulf swinging in close to shore to bring them and the rest of the exotics in to feast.

Tightlines,
Mike Mayo