We took advantage of the fine fall weather and excellent fishing twice over the past weekend. On Friday I had an old college buddy join me who lives in the northern Catskills and only gets to fish with me about once a year. His mission was to go home with as many tasty fillets as possible for the long cold winter ahead in his neck of the woods.
Facing a screaming New Moon tide our window to fish Sea Bass on some of the outside spots in the Sound was pretty short so we made the best of it icing 9 keepers for the 1-hour slack period in the morning. Knowing I had to find a spot somewhat sheltered from the tide we headed over to Fishers and anchored on a favorite Blackfish piece. Here the action was fast and furious with a mix of huge Porgies, nice size Sea Bass, and even a few short Stripers jumping on the clam and squid baits. In fact, the Sea Bass in the photo of the double header was almost as big as the Striper! We quickly filled out our limit of Sea Bass to 4#, took about 25 of the largest Porgies and I went to work filleting the catch while waiting for the flood tide to start. Then we moved on to part 2 of this marathon trip.
Neil and I set up in the Gut for the start of the flood about 90 minutes prior to sunset. The Bass action was very consistent on bucktails and during the period leading up to sundown we landed 11 Bass that were mostly short. However, with some perseverance we ultimately came up with one nice 30” keeper. So, Neil did head back upstate with some very full bags of fish and a nice mix of species!
Sunday, I had a half day charter with Mike S. and his family who join me every fall for this outing. Mike has a smoker and his entire family love Bluefish, especially in his signature fish tacos! So, it was off to the Gut where his boys who are now 11 were able to work the heavier tackle on their own and managed to crush the school sized Blues for about 90 minutes. The school sized fish turned out to be a blessing as they are much better to eat. I also doubt the young boys could have handled the teen sized gorillas I know have taken up residence in the Race. After putting 20 fish in the box we headed back inside the Peconic’s where the family had a ball for the last 90 minutes of the trip wailing on the Porgies along with some throwback Sea Bass and a lone kingfish. They too left the dock with bags full of fish and, I suspect, some very tasty Tacos to munch on later!
It’s hard to believe that we are only 10 days away from the start of Blackfishing in the Sound. Weekend dates are starting to fill up so now is the time to call me if you are restricted to those time slots only. Also, for all those who love to jig with the spinning tackle I have a full repertoire of shallow spots where you can practice the craft.
Looking forward to fishing with you soon.
Capt. Mike
516-317-5423 cell
[email]racerock166@aol.com[/email]
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