9/3/12

I’m getting the feeling that the end of the fluke fishing is getting near. There are still some real nice double digit fish, but it seems like you have to work harder to get them. Unless you are lucky, you have to spend just about the whole day, and they are in deeper water than they have been, with the best of it in almost 80’ at Cartwright. There are still sea bass mixed in, so you can at least catch them while you are waiting, but most of them are on the small side. Block Island is a better choice for them.

Striped bass fishing is slightly improved, but the numbers still aren’t there, but the cull is still pretty good with the quality making up for the quantity. For years, channel 19 was the place to go for fishing info, but now the cellphones have taken over and an incident this week is an indicator of why. One captain was moaning about how poor his morning had gone when another told him about “loading” up on Joneses. The next morning Joneses was a zoo.

Apparently the albies have been showing up around Plum Island, or somewhere up that way, so they should be making a showing here in the next week or so. Maybe that will lessen a little of the traffic on the stripers.

Shark fishing is on the slow side with one or two bites about all you can look forward to. And those bites can be bluesharks, mako, hammerhead, brown shark or something else that I didn’t think of.

Some borderline legal school Bluefin tuna are being caught southeast of Block Island. No big numbers, just a fish or two here and there. There was also at least one giant taken by a Rhode Island boat as well as a couple of other hookups, so maybe it will start to get busy over there. Canyon fishing depends on your attitude. Do you like fishing, or do you like catching? If it’s catching, maybe don’t want to make the run.

If you like tournaments, the 2nd Annual White Water Sportfish Challenge is being held out of Star Island next weekend, with fishing on Friday and Saturday. It’s outboards only (you know; those forty footers with four outboards). 1-Striped Bass, 1-Bluefish, 2 Tuna and 1 Shark (mako or thresher) per day per boat will be eligible for prizes.

I’ve finally got the Montauk Sportfishing forum in the proper way. Check it out at http://www.montauksportfishing.com/forum.html and contribute. It won’t work if I’m the only one posting. Let everyone know where you fished, when and what you caught. Or ask questions. What’s the down side? NONE.

If you would like to get these weekly reports sent to you by e-mail, drop me a line at reports@montauksportfishing.com and if you need any other information about fishing in Montauk check out www.montauksportfishing.com

Capt Gene Kelly