Mid-Summer Weekends

Mid-summer weekends are always interesting from a fishing perspective. Anything that can float is usually on the water and the beaches are packed like sardine cans. But amazingly fish are caught; sometimes a lot of fish are caught. Despite intensified angling pressure this past weekend was a prime example. The weekend’s fishing fireworks began for some lucky anglers on Friday fishing in the area of Smith’s Point in thirty feet of water. But from Jones Inlet to Shinnecock a number of persistent fishermen came upon some nice-sized bass on bunker. While most of the bass were caught on meat a number of quality fish were duped by bucktails and deep swimming artificials. Those bunker bass all seem to be in the range of twenty to forty-pounds and there were a solid number of them being caught during daylight hours. Very few fly anglers got into the mix since feathers were the last thing these bass wanted. Most of this activity was in the ocean off the south shore of the Island but quality bass continued to fall on the north shore, especially off structure near deepwater haunts. Areas of strucuture from Eatons Neck out to Herod Shoal all produced bass during the week. Small bluefish are a constant source of light tackle sport around the entire Island with schools of larger fish occasionally popping up. Fluke and porgy fishing remain strong. Adventuresome fly anglers from New Jersey to New England are gearing up for their shots at small bluefin tuna that are beginning to be caught. Very soon other small tunas like Atlantic bonito should begin to appear around the area. With all the available bait and the unseasonable warm weather they just might make an early visit.