Captain's Table Summer Fun

I took advantage of Friday’s great weather to do a little prospecting on the east side of Gardiner’s Island in preparation for some upcoming charters later this month. First scoped out the Porgy grounds and, as usual, no shortage of small to medium sized Scup. Next began hitting my favored Fluke/Sea Bass drifts and found fairly slow action to the southern parts of the grounds with only a few short Fluke and Sea Bass landed. Moved further north on my way to the Race for Slack tide and I did find a small pocket of Fluke where in less than an hour I decked 6 Fluke with a pair of keepers to 5#. On to the Race and picked up my limit of Sea Bass to 3.5# in about an hour. Then on the flood tide quickly nailed 2 short Stripers just to convince myself you can still catch some Bass in the daytime heat of summer!

Yesterday I had repeat customer Angelo and his 2 grandchildren join me for a half day bay trip. Once again, the Porgies were most cooperative with a constant bite during the 2 hours’ time, we spent on a local Peconic Bay drop. What was a pleasant surprise was the appearance of 2 Triggerfish which are really strong fighters and excellent table fare. Usually, we see only one or two of these fish and late in the season so this was special. We also did a few drifts in the East Marion area and managed a few short Fluke before having to call it a day so the kids could enjoy their special lunch courtesy of Grandpa!

I hear the Montauk Fluke bite has now developed and my first planned trip there will be next Saturday. Most days for the rest of July are taken but I do have some open spots in August for those looking to bag some oversized Fluke. Just give me a call.

Capt. Mike Bady

516-317-5423 cell