Could you taste that hint of autumn approaching on the
late-night breezes this week? As sure as big yellow buses will be chugging down the street within a fortnight, the fishing season will take on a fall flavor during the coming weeks.
No need to panic yet; there is still plenty of great fishing ahead, including the fall blitz of stripers, bluefish and false albacore that begins in September and continues through November. It would be prudent, however, to squeeze in a few trips for hot-weather favorites that soon will be off limits because of season closures or a southward migratory urge come fall.
Consider summer flounder. Unless regulators offer a last-minute reprieve, the season ends on Sept. 1. That's an especially tough break for anglers as it will cut off the peak of the building Ambrose Channel run. If you are thinking of heading out for the summer flatties, Montauk holds your best shot at keepers right now, although some decent scores also have come from 60 to 90 feet of water in the ocean east of Shinnecock, due south of Moriches, southeast of Fire Island Inlet, and in 58 to 65 feet of water around the Atlantic Beach reef.
The season for weakfish is open all year, but the summer schoolies that inhabit bay waters often slide out to the ocean in early September. There has been some solid fishing for 12- to 20-inch weakfish during the past few weeks inside Great South Bay between Patchogue and Sayville. Anglers bouncing small white bucktails, tipped with squid, off the bottom have scored well at dawn and dusk by drifting across the main east/west channel.
There are also some school weaks taking Berkley Gulp. Sandworms to the west, mostly in the deeper holes of Reynolds Channel off Long Beach Hospital. While fewer in number than in eastern Great South Bay, some of these weaks have tipped the scales at between 4 and 6 pounds. Southold Bay and Roses Grove, both in the Peconics, are also worth a try for weakfish, as are the deeper pockets inside Centerport Harbor. Drop a small hook baited with clam to the bottom in any of these areas and you might also entice a kingfish.
Bluefish seem to love the spring, summer and fall so it should come as no surprise they remain in good supply across Long Island, and probably will until nearly Thanksgiving. Chopper fans heading out of Sheepshead Bay, Freeport, Point Lookout, City Island, Northport, Port Jefferson and Orient have hammered the blues on diamond jigs. Snapper fishing has been good, too, especially at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai, Shinnecock Canal and Sand City inside Northport Bay.
Porgies remain reliable targets in Long Island Sound from City Island all the way east to Miller Place. While fluke fans will rue the day, many porgy fans are anxiously awaiting Sept. 1 because the possession limit for the tasty salt water panfish expands from 10 to 45 for those fishing aboard party boats. Some anglers, I imagine, simply will bring along their fluke gear, replacing the bucktails and wide-gap hooks at the end of the line with smaller, beak-style hooks and high-low rigs that make catching two scup at a time sometimes the norm.
E-mail: outdoortom@optonline.net
Hot spots
Ambrose Channel (fluke)
City Island (porgy)
Sheepshead Bay (bluefish)
Atlantic Beach Reef (fluke)
Sayville/Patchogue (weakfish)
90' South of Moriches Inlet (fluke)
Mount Sinai (snapper, porgy,
cocktail blues)
Shinnecock Canal (snapper)
The Race (striped bass)
Montauk (striped bass, fluke, blues)
