8/15-16: Some bass, much bait at Montauk

[Tuna]

Got out of work early Thursday in NJ and was lucky to get to LIE before the lights went out.

Friday, still amazed at Thursday's events, got out late (9:30 am?) to see TedS coming in - he said a guide had seen a bluefin surface near frigates a half mile out south shore.

Beautiful calm day, I got nothing at the Point.

Got nothing at Caswells, but saw lots of small bait - some real visible on the surface, some very light colored in balls under the surface.

Got 20 bass to follow my first cast outside the surfers - this spot was also loaded with different types of small bait. Had a heck of a time getting bass to hit, but saw many in clear water and overhead sun. Saw pods of 10 or more keepers at a time with a dink here and there. Also saw giant pods of porgies. Tried to keep the porgies from hitting, but ended up with 3 of them between 3 dink bass (each of which followed by many keepers).

Now and then the frigates would move into the area. After woring the spot for a while, I chased frigates for an hour, looking around for something else near them. Nothing.

Took off for Gardiners, where there were blues feeding. The ruins looked asleep, so were the Gulls.

Hit the water by 5:30 Saturday morning.

Nothing at the Point.

Skipped to the surfers. Nothing (other than a few taps from porgies). Saw Frank, who had gotten nothing at Caswells.

Ran the shore to Gurneys looking for anything, saw nothing.

Tried the surfers again, saw lots of porgies and a few bass, but got nothing.

Worked my way back to Caswells - near it, I got a skunk buster dink (with a keeper following).

Hooked up at Caswells but lost it.

Then got my fish of the weekend - a nice 15 pound bass.

Caswells had small bait all over near shore.

Saw Frank again, who had seen the frigates at the Elbow.

Tried the Point again, nothing. Went home early.

There is a LOT of small bait around. OK, scrombrids, come on in!

[Albiemanmike]

Tuna,
Nice report. It has been tough of late with the flyrod. I have been trying very unsuccessfully to hook the big bass I am getting on shad with the flyrod. They are in that meat mode and it is very difficult to get them interested in anything but that. I have been trowing a huge 16"+ fly that a friend of mine tied on a 12 wt. w/650 gr. deep on the reef with nothing to show for it. But as soon as you put a live shad down they are on it like flies on ****! Very frustrating but fun. We have been getting alot of smaller fish to about 15 lbs. on the fly on top chasing butterfish in shallow water. Also got into surface feeding fish in the western sound while bonito fishing the other day. Not many bones, I got one on a popper about 4-5 lbs. There is an enormous amunt of bait around and if the Albies show it is going to be a free for all. I can't remember seeing this much bait last year at this time, I could be wrong but it seems like the most small bait I have seen in a while. Have you ever had any luck catching the frigates on the fly??? I ran into them last year over by Block and could not get them to hit anything. They are real skittish too, it was difficult to get the boat cloae enough to get a shot at them. Those would be some awesome live bait I bet:D .

Tightlines,
Mike Mayo

[JGH]

Albiemanmike -- how far west in LI Sound did you see bonito? (No secret spots -- just a town name, please.)

[Albiemanmike]

To quote BonesandBass,

Mike, head across the big pond,from your homeport, a little SSW, think ferry

My home port is Milford. That's all I can tell you as i was not the one that found them and don't want to make anyone mad at me for giving away their secret. There was not many fish around to be honest and I may have missed it but they were there last week.

Tightlines,
Mike Mayo

[peter mac]

Albiemanmike,
Frigates will certainly hit the fly, we had them last year off of Manasquan inlet and Montauk, they are extremely skiddish. We tried everything we had in the fly box and nothing worked until we put on 1" bay anchovie or 1 1/2" spearing patterns, those they hit HARD!!!!......they are a blast! and for a 1-1 1/2# fish they run and fight great, they jumped and ran us under the boat, lots of fun.
Peter Mac

[Albiemanmike]

Thanks for the info Pete. I would like to get some and use them for bass bait sometime. If they are around where Tuna is seeing all those big fish following his other fish I bet if you threw out one of those Frigates they would be all over it in a heartbeat.

Tightlines,
Mike Mayo

[fmw]

Don't have too much to add to Tuna's post. It was first time out in my boat that I had the big goose egg. Frigate's around. Small bait showing around Caswell's.

The most I can say is that I took a drive up to the Gulls (Once again Josh, I was going to give a call, but when I left the city on Friday morning, my cable modem was still out and I couldn't pull off an email or phone #). There were some bass rolling on the surface well away from the structure as Josh reported last week. Very picky and I struck out on them. Back at the dock, I met Brendan, who had stopped to pick up a charter. He told of a similar experience at the Gulls earlier the same morning. He talked of good fishing in the afternoons at a spot east of the Gulls. Was going to try to get up there yesterday, but got weathered out. I also found the same experience as Josh in that while it was blowing around 15 from the southwest across Gardiner's Bay, when I got to the Gulls, it was eerily calm.

By the way, after escaping from the city on Friday, I did go out for a few hours with friends at Friday dusk, mostly to enjoy the nice sunset. Found blues, as usual, at Shag. On the way back in, as it was getting dark, a few fly fishers were casting into the lights off of Gosman's. Presumably, there are bass hanging out there.