NY and New Jersey Saltwater Fishing Report for August 2, 2013

We kind of had the first northeaster of the fall this week, even though fall is still two months away. It messed up any offshore trips but the inshore boats were mostly able to tough it out. As we say it was “fishable”, which means you can fish even if you can’t stand up.

The little blow seems to have woken up the makos, because on Saturday there were a lot of them caught, with some boats hooking up with two or three or even four for the day. In addition, the JOYSEA had a 440 pound thresher. This all came just in time for the Montauk Marine Basin’s Sharks Eye all release tournament and next week’s Mako mania at star Island. The Sharks eye had ten boats entered, not very many, but for the first tournament of its kind with an all release format, I think it has to be considered a success. I don’t have all the details of who caught how many sharks, etc. but I will post them later this week. But the winners were;

1^st place – NASTY NESS

2^nd place – ROCKY’S RETREAT

3^rd place – REEL INTENSITY

There was another tournament held this week, the Montauk Canyon Challenge, held out of the Montauk Yacht Club. Boats were allowed a total of thirty-eight hours away from the dock with either two single days or one two day trip. I don’t have the results for that yet but I will later in the week and I’ll post them then

The bluefin are still snapping pretty good at the Coimbra, and there are yellowfins, longfins and occasional bigeyes in between  the Dip and Fish Tales. Nearshore it hasn’t really been happening. There are occasional bluefins or longfins caught out around the 600 line, but not enough in any one place to draw many anglers.

Inshore the fishing is about as good as it gets, with lots of nice fish. Most of the stripers being caught have been from twenty pounds and up with fish in the forty pound class common. And, they are being caught anyway you like it, trolling and live bait are working equally well, with the only problem occurring when occasionally some Cartwright type bluefish take over a spot.

Fred “Motor” Shay fishing aboard the Viking Star off of Ditch Plains in 30 ft. of water caught a 46.5lb Black Drum, which will become the New York State record, since no other one has ever been entered. He also holds the New York record for codfish with his 85 pounder caught back in 1984

I guess by now you all know about John Aldridge, 45, a part owner of the 44-foot lobster boat Anna & Mary, falling off the boat in the middle of the night while on watch with the rest of the crew sleeping. Three hours later they woke up and called the Coast Guard to report him missing and nine hours later he was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter forty some miles offshore. He stayed afloat by holding his boots under his armpits which acted as floats.

8/1/2013 – Fluke fishing has been hot everywhere from the Inlet, on the North Side, all the way out to Frisbies and Inner Cartwright. There were some doormats taken out by Frisbies yesterday evening, just before the Ebb. There was loads of bait around (sand eels based on what fish that were brought on deck were coughing up), birds like you might expect to see more at a scene in the canyons offshore, and schools of hungry blue devils all over.