Montauk 11/4

[Glory]

Morning calm waters with loads of small bluefish lazily feeding on rainbait. Larger blitzes of primarily bluefish at the onset of the ebb tide. A few small bass were caught and released. Didn't see any larger bass caught by anyone including trollers or eel dippers. Maybe a dozen or so boats. Left at about 3:30.

[Perch]

Interesting about your encounters with bluefish. I was over there, too, having cast an absentee ballot. (My theory that election day would thin the crowds turned out to be true.) I found just the opposite but on the incoming--tons of schoolie bass and only a few bluefish (but enough to be a pain and cost be four gurglers). It’s nice to see so many stripers. On the other hand, 25-inch bass in 30 feet of water on every other cast doesn’t do it for me. Gets very old very fast. I stayed with them for a couple hours and then went looking for tuna. Again, an expensive boat ride. I’m done with tuna hunts unless I get some very specific intel.

[fmw]

I was out yesterday from late morning (I voted early) to dusk (end incoming to outgoing) and basically found what Perch found . . . mostly small bass on the south side. A generally smaller size class than what was there a few weeks ago -- I caught no keepers. I agree with what Perch says about catching these fish and so, after catching a about dozen and being convinced that there were no big fish around, did what I never thought I would do during a fall run day: had gotten a tip so headed to Frisbees for bottom fishing for an hour where I caught a few nice sea bass for dinner. I then went back to the point for the late afternoon into dusk blitz and there were birds out the wazzoo and alot more blues around -- but still small bass also. Right at dusk the bass were doing that thing where they fly out of the water like a school of bunker being harassed by blues as if something big was chasing them. I usually think that its nothing, but in this instance it really looked like there might have been something big and fast swimming through the football field sized school, i.e., bluefins.

[peteD]

Are the gannets there yet?

[fmw]

No gannets. Fish eating rainbait like they were two plus months ago.

[Glory]

A couple weeks ago I witnessed a pod of small BFT surface a couple hundred yards off the Lighthouse and then disappear. That was more exciting than catching a couple nice bass.

Let's hope some bigger fish are coming our way.

[venture]

I've seen Blue Fins running through schools of bluefish at the Regal Sword off Nantucket. Normally when you see the bluefish flying, you see the blue fins flying and busting too. When the BFTs chase large quarry, they usually make a pretty big show of it and stick around if there is a good size school of blues, or perhaps bass.

Several times while fishing the beaches off Dogfish Bar on the Vineyard I've seen what seemed to be an entire school of bass leave the water at the same time. The sight is totally sur-real. They all leave the water at the same time, especially if their is a good size school feeding. On both those days, fish were hitting flies on almost every cast, then all of a sudden at least 50 bass leave the water at once, shutting down the action for a few minutes. It usually is caused by a big aggressive shark, like a Mako, Great White or large Sand Sharks.

Howie

[Perch]

I was watching this at Montauk a couple weeks ago. Saw no signs of bass predators and nothing on sonar. My theory is that the stripers get so thick they spook themselves.

[Albieaddicted]

For what it's worth, did see gannetts in the sound on October 27. Not crashing the surface, just flying, but I thought it was a little early and warm to be seeing them.

And with all of these smaller fish, isn't it time for a slot limit? (#$119) It's great to see a good population of schoolie fish, but the big ones are all being culled out. While we're at it, how about a 28" or 30" limit on weakfish - there's a beauty fish with way too many predators to deal with.

[Perch]

A slot limit is halfway there. But I've always wanted a MAXIMUM size limit. Say one fish UNDER 24 inches. Then the bait guys kill their fish and go home instead of gill- and gut-hooking upteen 27-inchers, waiting for their 28-incher. Also, the current MA, CT, and RI minimum size limits (worse than NY) select for smaller fish. As Lee Wulff put it--like killing everyone over six feet in a town, and then trying to field a winning basketball team.

[peteD]

I could not agree more about the weakfish. I would also love to see a season for them. To many guys killing breeders in the spring.