Fishing Report For Eastern Long Island

• Lots of summer species out there: sheepshead, black drum, wahoo, cobia, jacks, etc.
• Offshore has produced a number of big wahoo. Tuna bite has been great; lots of guys finding bluefin inshore.
• Albie reports starting to flow in.
• Solid striper bite on the north and south shores.
• Bottom fishing still going off. Some big, double digit fluke caught this week. Jumbo porgies and sea bass coming up.

Captree Bait and Tackle reports:
It’s a blowfish bonanza down at the local dock, with many puffers prime for the picking at the pier. Folks’ crab traps have been chock full of them too!

The Fishfinder of Captree reports:
The past couple of 10am trips have been spent offshore in 70-100 feet of water. We’ve been catching keepers and short fluke, and sea bass. The pool fish has been about 5-7 pounds. Bucktails tipped with gulp, or bait rigs with gulp have been getting the job done. Earlier in the week we had a pick of blues and sea robins as well, with shorter fluke taking the pool.
Give them a call at 516-287-3704 for trip info.

Mark at Cow Harbor Bait & Tackle in Northport and Huntington reports:
It’s been extremely busy in the shop the past few weeks. LDW produced a ton of fish from a ton of anglers who were about to get out. Bluefish, striped bass, and even cobia have been getting caught in Huntington Bay. The spanish mackerel bite is a huge thing lately.
An enormous shrimp hatch is underway.
Lots of peanut bunker are present, but the Sound is pretty much devoid of adult bunker. Word on he street is the governor is letting bunker boats into the Sound. You should send a letter to her and let her know that you don’t want that occurring.
Loads of fish species are in the Sound right now, probably more than there ever have been. This fishery has been developing over the past few seasons.

Captain Stu Paterson of Northport Charters reports:
Paul, Chuck and the boys remained entertained on an outing mid-week by some big bluefish. The fish were super aggressive.
Call/text Stu at 631-707-3266 or check out Stu’s website to book a trip: northportcharters.com.

Capt. Dave Flanagan of North Island Fly in Northport reports:
It’s been a productive week with some nice weather. Gator bluefish have been keeping our arms tired this week, with some schoolie stripers in the mix to keep it classy. The bluefish were chomping on porgies in the boulders.
Check out Dave’s website to book him for a charter at northislandfly.com.

The Celtic Quest Fishing Fleet of Port Jefferson reports:
The bottom fishing has been great the past couple days. Lots of scup are coming over the trail, with some nice ones in the mix. The sea bass that are coming up are pretty large as well. Our striper and bluefish trips have been extremely productive during both the day and night tides. There have been a lot of shorts, with some slot sized bass in the mix. The beginning of the week saw a pick of bigger bass and blues. We were picking up the occasional weakfish while bottom fishing also; they’re not small! We’ve been seeing some turtles while on the water this week.
Call them at 631-928-3926 for booking info, or check the website/Facebook for more info.

The Peconic Star 3 of Greenport reports:
The fall run is in full swing! There is all kinds of life everywhere you go. We’ve had nonstop porgy action on the full-day boat, plus fluke, sea bass, bluefish and stripers. The porgies range up to 3 pounds, and there’s lots of big ones. They’re perfect for getting a kid hooked on fishing. Half day trips are seeing mostly scup, but there are bluefish, weakfish, blowfish, kingfish, spots, toadfish and more. The half-day trips are 5 hours and occur in the calm, sheltered bay waters. Porgies to 3 pounds and sea bass to 5 pounds have been coming over the rail, and we’re picking limits of both species. We’re in bonus season now too, which means we can take 5 sea bass and 45 porgies.
We’re running full day trips daily, from 7:30-3. The weekends have half-day options, from 7:30-12:30, targeting a mixed bag. For booking info, call Captain Paul at 631-522-2002.

Rosie Fishing of Moriches Bay reports:
Today’s primo high tide occurred right around 4pm. We’ve been doing pretty darn well. Terry picked a limit of beauty fluke yesterday, and we had a bunch of limits throughout the week. We’ve been catching fluke 7 pounds, and we caught enough puffers to fill the box mid-week.
Keep an eye on our website for sailing times, reports, and trip openings. Give us a call for booking info: 631-905-5829.

The Shinnecock Star in Hampton Bays reports:
1 hour into our trip the other day, we already had 14 keeper fluke in the box. The skinny water has been on fire. September has been the best month for big fluke for the past few years, so make sure you come on down and hop aboard! KJ picked his first keeper fluke ever on Saturday, alongside his father and grandpa. Ed picked a nice keeper that morning that had a big spot (fish) in its stomach that helped him tip the scales to win the pool.
Monday’s trips were spectacular, with 25 keepers for ten anglers on the afternoon trip. The pool fish this week has mainly been between 5-6 pounds. A fluke ribbon and a spearing or peanut bunker has been a solid presentation.
They’re sailing out of Oaklands Marina daily from 7am-2pm.
Text or call Capt. John for info : 631-728-4563.

The Hampton Lady of Hampton Bays reports:
We’ve been catching a good number of keepers this week, plus some bonus catches. Some banded rudder fish and a couple of almaco jacks came over the rail midweek.
Text Capt. James for reservations: 631-521-3366. We’re sailing 6am-2pm.

Montauk’s Viking Fleet reports:
Yesterday’s fishing was pretty good. It took a few drops, but we eventually started picking at some keeper porgies. There were only a few small sea bass mixed in, so we made our way east. We only found a handful of keepers out there, and we had to pick through a lot of short life. We had a large striped bass come over the rail, and released it. Daryl Butler’s 2.5 pound porgy took the pool. Labor Day saw some really great fishing and perfect weather. We didn’t have a lot of anglers, and there were lots of keeper fluke reeled in by them. We had a nice pick of jumbo porgies and some medium sea bass.
Whale watching over the weekend was pretty awesome. On Sunday we saw a few dolphins before spotting our first humpback whale. We saw 4-5 more after that while heading in for the day. One of them ended up slapping the surface with its tail for us.
Call the office to book at 631-668-5700, or book online at vikingfleet.com.

Bill Wetzel of the Surf Rats Ball reports:
On Saturday, Sean fished some pretty big water on the south side of the light. Tried bucktails and needlefish, for one hit all night. That fish was a thick slot striper that took a large white needle. The heave made it difficult to stay in touch with the lure, resulting in many snags. He ran back to the same spot in the morning for first light. The tide was extremely low, but the water had cleaned up beautifully. After striking out with a needlefish, he began bucktailing the whitewater. Eventually, the sun came up and schoolie bass began feeding on peanut bunker. It was a small scale blitz. He picked a dozen, one of which was slot sized, and a couple that were about 40 inches. White bucktails with red tails.
Bill took Daniel to the north side last night to start. There was a lot of white bait. It bodes well for a great fall. We didn’t pick any fish, so we ran to the south side, where Dan threw Darters and I threw an SP minnow. There’s snappers around, so a darter is a good bet. We had fish take the SP instead, so Dan threw one on and picked a slot fish on the rocks. On the walk back, we had some really hard hits; I connected with a good one, but lost it. Eventually I put a mid-20 fish on the beach, feeding close to shore. The only bait I could see was spearing.
Subscribe today at www.longislandsurffishing.com.

Chris Albronda from Montauk reports:
Last week produced some of the best fluke fishing of the year, and that bite has remained steady. The striped bass fishing has been great, especially for the guys targeting the night tides. There are gigantic bluefish and lots of sharks around.
Multiple sightings and catching of inshore bluefin has been pretty common lately. There have been lots of green bonito around this past week.
Shoot Chris a text at 631-830-3881 to book a trip. He’s available for offshore trips, and to privately captain your vessel on Sundays and Mondays.

Long Island Fishing Forecast

The past few days have probably been the most ridiculous wildlife days I’ve seen this year. Part of it is the sheer quantity of life, and the other part is the species I’ve seen and the spectacles they’re performing. Since Monday, I’ve watched tuna explode on bunker within 100 yards of the beach. I saw bunker parting like the Red Sea at one point, from my drone’s vantage; I believe a tuna was the culprit, and this one was within casting range of the beach (definitely would’ve needed a good long cast to reach it). I saw 2 big bluefins within one half hour; they both hit the same bunker school, which was very interesting to me… there were many bunker schools, but they chose this specific one. A Minke Whale was rushing through bunker schools. From shore, I figured it was a humpback whale, but I could tell something was awry when it didn’t lunge feed. It wasn’t long before I realized that the pectoral fins were too small to be a humpback. It’s not often I’m visited by a minke whale, but they are always so intriguing. I feel like they move faster than the humpbacks, so they don’t have as many barnacles or scars (at least from what I’ve seen). Their colors and sheen remind me of a common dolphin’s. The birds probably get me even more excited than the whale and tunas. First there’s the sea birds; terns have been appearing in great numbers, working big schools of small bait offshore. I’ve been hearing about all sorts of bait species lately: sandeels, spearing, anchovies, needlefish and peanut bunker. I can only imagine there’s many more out there. To me, they mean the hardtail fishing is about to explode.

I’m really looking forward to throwing a fly line for some albies this year. The only ones I’ve been getting in the past couple years occur right off the open beaches. I went to the inlets plenty, but never got lucky. We crossed paths near the rocks one or two days last year, but the finicky fish wouldn’t take my offerings. I haven’t found them to be like that at all on the open beach. If you’re lucky enough to come across a school, you can toss ‘em anything and they’ll eat. Those tend to be some of my favorite days of the year: driving the beach to chase splashes for miles along the coast, losing them and then sniffing them out again 20 minutes later, sprinting barefoot towards the breaking fish and casting a bullseye into their trajectory, and watching them sprint through the crystal clear waves upon release… Those are the days. I’d really love some bonito too. They’re definitely one of the best eating fish I’ve caught from shore, and one of the only surf-caught fish I’ve eaten raw. Spanish mackerel was just okay. I’d take a couple of those if the opportunity arose.

The striper bite has been solid. If you put your time in on the beach, you’ll get into a fish. Some guys have been picking some solid fish at night. That is probably the best bet, considering these super hot days we’re having. Sunrise is a very good idea too… give the water the whole night to cool off a bit. Man, there’s definitely some serious predators feeding in close at night too. I think this would be a really cool time to chunk bait. Perhaps I’ll give that a go this week. There’s plenty of bunker out there to take for a few nights of chunking.

Bluefish are back in the mix on the beach too. I don’t think there’s anything huge, but you stand a chance at catching some in the surf and in the bunker schools. But, let me get back to the birds quick.

Those terns have been working like 300 yards off the beach. I haven’t seen any schools of small bait getting worked close to the beach though. I’d imagine there’s some kind of fun, tasty mackerel harassing those same fish the terns are feeding on. Enough about the terns though.

Hurricane Lee should send some serious surf into our area. They’re forecasting it as a potential Category 5 hurricane, peaking in strength this weekend. The models are suggesting something different every hour, and rarely does one correctly predict these storms’ trajectories. Point is, get your fishing in now, especially if you’re boating, because we may have a prolonged period of heightened seas in our near future. Especially considering how calm the water is right now… get the heck out there.