Montauk 11/1

[fmw]

Fished all day at Montauk Saturday and caught blues, blues, blues, mostly between 5 and 10 lbs., the fish chasing peanut bunker.

In the early morning, left the harbor to find acres of birds at Shagwong. Caught a bunch of blues and when it started to break up, headed east and found acres more between Shag and the Point.

Then, headed to the Point and around to the South Side where there were more birds. It got a little more interesting around Caswells. Aside from the blues coming up and going down, there was a concentrated area of birds continuously working tight to the shore and against the rocks of Caswells. This patch of birds crept slowly west over the course of an hour or two, from Driftwood Cove, around the Caswell's boulders and on west to the Warhol house and beyond. These fish, I believed, were bass utilizing a classic bass trait: feeding in the white water. Trouble was, there was a 5 foot southeast swell that put these areas off limits. I watched two boats chase the fish in close and then almost get swamped, their boats literally flying out of the water as they gunned it over breaking waves. Later, I noticed another boat washed ashore at the Sewer Pipe.

In the end, I could not buy a bass. Even when I pulled out my spinning rod and cast a rubber shad as close to shore as I possibly could, I hooked a blue. I tried blind casting around Caswells, using a sinking line in the bluefish blitzes, diamond jigging underneath the blues. In the end, all was unsuccessful with the bass and I was forced to content myself with catching blues till I was arm weary.

The blitzes ratcheted down as the day wore on and by the time I headed in, there was almost no surface action anywhere. Nary a bird at Shag.

As albie season is now over, there were only a few guide boats out and the amount of light tackle/fly anglers was very light . . . which made things pleasurable.

This morning, when I took a drive down to the beach in East Hampton, there were multiple schools of fish working two or three casts offshore.

Later today, headed back west and went out for a few hours with my Dad and brother on my Dad's skiff in Cold Spring Harbor. A nice day but the fishing was poor and we only landed one schoolie. We had heard reports of a schoolie blitz yesterday in late afternoon, but it did not occur today.

The good news is that CSH is packed to the gills with peanut bunker, the schools lining the whole length of the harbor.

With so much peanut bunker still in LISound harbors and water temps around 60 (where they were 2 weeks ago), I have to believe that there is still several weeks of good fall fishing ahead.

[teds]

fmw
The Southside of Montauk had bass moving west from Caswells to Ditch Plains for a couple of hours on saturday.The fish were in real close, like 2 feet of water. I had a good flyrod session from the beach at mid day.No one else around and bright sunshine.I never fish the beach at noon but it's november and you never know.The bait was so close it was washing up on the beach.I would call it Banana bunker now not peanut bunker the bait was 5 inches long.It was great to see it flying out of the cresting waves to get away from the bass. You really couldn't get a boat in that close because of the breakers, I even got swept up by a wave on the beach.This is the time of the year to try the flyrod in the high surf.I'm sure some surfcaster will take a 50+ in the next week or so.

teds

[fmw]

Ted: I'm sure those were exactly the fish I was talking about. Glad that you got into them. Amazing how the north side was packed with surfcasters and there was hardly a soul on the south side. I guess everyone follows yesterdays news. Outside of the breakers, it was all blues. Later in the afternoon, after I was dog tired of catching blues, I saw the fish come up again against the rocks moving between the Sewer Pipe and Caswells. . . . I thought of packing it in on the boat and taking a drive to Camp Hero, but didn't have the energy.

[wally gator]

I, like the rest of the reporters, tired my arms on bluefish at Montauk on Saturday. Fishing off Caswells's the birds did occasionally come off the beach well behind the waves rolling in. On one drift the whole mass of birds and fish passed right off my stern. It's an awesome sight in clear water to see the bait balled up with the blues casually turning on thier sides to suck up the bait. I did see bass in the mix off the beach, but only caught one earlier in the morning just off the light on the south side.

[fmw]

wally: I think I was probably fishing right next to you . . . what kind of boat were you in? I am in a Grady 20 ft. center console. I saw those blues slashing and bait spraying as well and it was a great visual. Did you notice the boat onshore and/or have any idea how it got there?

[wally gator]

I have a 21 Seacraft, Windhover II. I fished Shag early, then north and east of the point and headed to Caswell area around around 9:30-10:00 or so. I saw the heavy bird, bait and fish action when I first arrived and thought things were really going to explode, but the action slowed and the fish seemed to spread out.

[fmw]

Is yours the white Sea Craft with the small American flag on the hull??

[wally gator]

yes

[Tuna]

Keep dem reports coming in. I could almost visiualize dem blues rolling on dem bunker. Dem's a good sight.

Almost went on a party boat with best friend Bob Sunday. Opted out, he went out, entire boat only caught 3 bass, he and his son nothing. Water temps around NYC were mid 60s, the capt said it was too warm out there.

Looks like the Montauk action was better.

Thanks for dem reports.

[b.clancy]

I observed the same casual bluefish feeding thing in RI on Sat., although the action wasn't as sustained as the action described above. I've never seen this behavior before. It was fundamentally different from early season action when the blues arrive on the flats and often just cruise around sunning themselves and not being aggressive. Here, they were rolling and sometimes even slowly poking their noses out of the water looking for all the world like a trout. I also had trouble hooking these suckers. I had lots of short hits, and several casts into the middle of a school w/ no hits, prompting several fly changes and leading me to the conclusion that these fish were uncharacteristically fussy. Perhaps I should have been using a very slow retrieve or dead drift? What was working at Montauk?
Oh, and Tuna: I had a couple of shots at albies. One take, but alas no hookups. It was a nice, unexpected adrenaline rush however, and a great way to finish the season.
Bob

[Tuna]

Not sure what worked last weekend, but the weekend before (when the blues were also on bunker and acting kinda funny) most of my flies did NOTHING, crease flies got some hits, and a big half and half (my go to when fish are on small bunker) did the trick. Rather than having to make sure my crease fly was in escaping bunker (the only way I got the blues to hit the crease fly), a cast anywhere near the blues with the half and half got quick, aggressive hits.

Clancy - great to hear you got some albie shots. Means anyone still on the water at Montauk has some chance of some late rounds of albies. I'll be starting on working on "Fishin' with Bob and Dave... and Bob" soon and will need your address later this year to send you the 2003 rock and roll salt water fly fishing videos.

[teds]

Tuna,
The fly that worked from the beach was a stubby Garstide type fly.I make them from the half inch surgical piping he sells.Very simple with a tail and epoxy eyes.The fly starts out at 3 inches long then gets stretched by each fish that takes it until it gets shredded at about 5 inches.The 5 inch length was about the size or the bunker running out of the water onto the beach.This fly worked all summer fom the beach.I have to get you into a good surf session next season.I hope I make the cut on your video this year!

Teds

[Tuna]

Teds - I was difficient in my video capture this year. During the albie season, I spent most of my time catching. I wanted to get new faces, like Mike Mayo, but I saw him on great days and kept catching albies. Hopefully next season the albies will be around a little more longer (in earlier and out later) and I will get more people with fish on tape.

Even though I didn't get Mike on video, I'm gonna try to infect him with Rock and Bob's Rock and Roll Flyfishing Videos anyway (including some of the 2001 and 2002 ones I did).

Right now, the 2003 video looks like:

1) Bob and Dave catching bass after bass at mystery NE shoal with mystery bait.

2) Bob and I catching blues in the rips at the Race a few weeks before the albies come in.

3) Bob and Dave and Bob catching albies the first week they came in (this is where I got the most video). Mostly Clancy and Dave battling as to who would get more albies (the fly guys or the spin guys) - if I remember the spin guys won.

4) "After Bob abd Dave and Bob" - a few minutes of bass, albie and blues feeds after #3 above.

5) Absolutely unrelated video (me getting a nice wave on my Morey-Pope [last and smallest surf board I used in my surfer days] about, um, 35 years ago at South Hampton town beach).

I may can 5 (its film recorded to VHS transferred to mini DV so its gonna be low quality), but I almost get tubed on the wave so my guess is I'll throw it in.

[brushfly]

Hey FMW,

Yesterday, early morning outgoing, went out on the boat for what most likely will be the last trip. Picked up one schoolie in Huntington Harbor and another in Lloyd. Didn't see the peanuts you came across out my way. Saw a few small pods both in the bay and out near Eatons Neck. Nothing on the surface out in the Sound,( Eatons, 13 and the rips). In hindsight, maybe I should have tried the big boulders over at Marshall Fields. Never caught any fish there but boy does it look "bassy". I swear the boulders there are almost the size of the boat sitting just two feet below. I've only gone in there when theres no wind and little boat traffic. One day I know it will yield a large cow...just got that feeling. It will make me get through the long cold winter.

[fmw]

Brushfly: Surprised you didn't notice bait as I found CSH to be paved with peanuts in thick pods from the head of the harbor all the way out to the Sound. It helped that the water was flat calm and bait thus easy to spot. Also, surprised that so few bass were around. You'd think with all that bait around there would at least be a few more twinkies. But we didn't find any in regular spots. . . jetty outside sand hole, rockpiles, docks, etc. Also went out to buoy 15 and it was dead there. Never actually fished the Marshall Field boulders but I know what you mean. I think that theres still gonna be good fishing there as there are usually plenty of schoolies around during first 2 weeks of November.