May 24, 2010

The boat I run isn’t in the water yet, so I took a little ride down to the Lighthouse on
Saturday just to see what’s going on. But couldn’t see anything because of the fog, a sure
sign that summer is on it’s way. On Sunday I tried again around mid-day, but didn’t see a
single boat even with about two miles visibility. Of course I couldn’t see around to the
south side where the fluke boats were likely to be. But, when I went down to the docks
there were only two charter boats out from the main dock and two from Star Island. On
Saturday about half of the charterboats that I would expect to see out were. It looks like a
rocky start to the business.

The striped bass fishing is about as good as it gets right now, with a lot of medium sized
fish and once in a while something a little larger up to around thirty pounds. They are
eating parachutes, umbrellas and diamond jigs. On any decent charterboat you can expect
an easy limit in a half day - plus a bunch of legal throwbacks.

Fluke fishing is another story. There are some nice size fish around, but not very many of
them. The two most recent hot spots - maybe warm spots is a better term - were
Pocketbook and the south side down as far as the Radar Stand. But, the fish seem to be
moving around a lot and it ain’t easy. A boat with two guys in it can spend the day fishing
and catch a limit, but put six guys on that same boat, probably not. Of course a limit is
only two fish per person, so a whole day for two fish isn’t really that exciting.

The seabass season opened on Saturday, but I haven’t heard about anybody going nuts
about it. I did hear of one of the charterboats that went south of the island to try for some
cod and got eaten alive by the doggies, so they are likely to be a problem with the seabass
as well.

I guess everyone knows that you need a fishing license, unless you are fishing on a
charterboat or head boat that has a blanket license. If you are from Connecticut or Rhode
Island, your state license will be honored here in New York with a caveat. You have to be
fishing in common waters. That means Connecticut boats are covered in Long Island
Sound and Rhode Island boats are covered in Block Island Sound and that’s it. I haven’t
spoken to anyone in Rhode Island, but I assume that New York boats fishing in Rhode
Island Waters south of Block Island will need a non-resident license from that state. If all
the powers to be start checking licenses on the water I bet there are going to be quite a
few surprises in store. I know if I was with the DEC doing it, I’d keep my eyes open for
boats with a “CT” on it. You can get your license online here;
https://nyfgisales.appsolgrp.com/fgnyia/html/index.jsp

If you would like to receive these reports directly, drop me a line at
captaingene@montauksportfishing.com