If you thought the fishing action seemed a bit slow this week past, you weren’t alone. It’s not unusual for catches to slip slightly toward the end of June as various fish species transition from their spring to summer patterns. Stripers, weakfish and fluke seem particularly prone to feeding shifts, the first two moving to deeper water as temperatures increase while the latter may perk up over shallow flats.
That would seem to be the case in Shinnecock Bay where stripers, which were on the eastern flats, have worked their way back into deeper waters around the inlet and off Ponquogue Bridge. At the same time, fluke have come alive in the shallows, smacking bucktails along channel edges at mid-bay.
In the Moriches area, the fluke bite has been slightly better inside the bay than in the ocean. The keeper ratio is better inside, too, especially around buoy 14, where several fish in the four to six-pound class have fallen to bluefish and sea robin strip baits. If you are looking for stripers, get out early and work the west bar, just outside Moriches Inlet, with clam baits.
Up inside Great South Bay, fluke have been responsive from Fire Island Inlet east to the Fire Island Lighthouse. A few weakfish have fallen to sandworm baits off Ocean Beach. According to John Mantione, at J & J Bait and Tackle in Patchogue, blue claw crabs are in good supply in the eastern bay at Blue Point, Mascot, West Sayville and Patchogue docks. There are also plenty of crabs being caught on rising tides at Babylon Town Dock.
On the West End, some keeper fluke have been caught in the shadow lines around the Atlantic Beach and Marine Parkway bridges. Fluke are best in 50-foot depths southwest of Jones Inlet. The large stripers that had been patrolling the south shore in search of bunker between the Jones Beach Needle and Cedar Beach have become difficult to find, as have the bunker. Some decent bass have, however, fallen to clam chum and bunker chunks at the Wantagh and Meadowbrook Bridges. Night tides have been the key.
On the North Shore, the waters outside of Hempstead Harbor and Oyster Bay are still producing plenty of bluefish, plus some stripers, on bunker chunks. Look for the best action to be early and late in the day. Fluke are around, but picky anywhere west of Port Jefferson. Porgies are now setting up off most prominent points with Eaton’s Neck and Oldfield producing well for those anchoring in 20 feet of water.
Heading east, Jordan Demcheck and his dad, Paul, have been culling keeper fluke from among a reasonable supply of shorts, in 20-foot depths about a mile west of Mattituck Inlet. Bluefish continue to visit the beaches between Wading River and Southold just about every evening, although they do take a night off now and then. Poppers and tins have both tempted the blues. Out at Orient, stripers remain hot and heavy in The Race while blues dominate the action at Plum Gut. Fluking is decent off The Ruins and around Gardiners Island. Porgies are now the mainstay inside Peconic Bay. Try for the scup off the southwest corner of Robins Island, or in South Race.
Over at Montauk, the charter fleet is hauling limits of stripers on a daily basis. Most of the linesiders are falling to trolled tubes, umbrellas or parachute lures, but some have fallen to chunk bunker. Fluke fishing has been inconsistent in the North Rips and along the south side, but a pleasing number of fish weighing more than six pounds are coming over the rails. The open boat Marlin 6 Princess (www.marlin6princess.com) ran offshore on Thursday where more than 60 cod to 37 pounds, plus 20 big pollack and dozens of ling, hit the deck.
Speaking of offshore action, Rob Michalowski and his father, Joe, took their 24-foot Hydro-Sport center console out to the Glory Hole on Wednesday. At 10:00 a.m. they enticed a 480-pound thresher shark to inhale a bluefish fillet in clear, 60-degree water. The big whiptail took four hours for the father and son team to bring to the gaff – and then it took six hours to tow in to Bay Park Fishing Station where Mark Keller served as the official weigh-master.
In my last blog entry I wrote about using black Jitterbugs to imitate cicadas when targeting largemouth bass. My son, Ryan, and I proved the theory again last night, catching six solid bigmouths. Ryan drilled the top fish for the evening, a very healthy six-pounder, which he gently released. Like stripers and weakfish, largemouth bass are fond of feeding after dark during the summer months. They are also suckers for big night crawlers, which is what Chris Moffett used at West Lake in Patchogue to fool a 6-pound 10-ounce bigmouth on Wednesday.
Correction:
In today’s Outdoors Column, “State sues feds over unfair fluke limits,” the minimum size limit for New Jersey fluke was incorrect. The correct minimum size is 18 inches.