Sound shore bass stack up as bay water hits 74 degrees

Water's telling a story this week, and it's one I've been reading for sixty years. Great South Bay hit 74 degrees while the shelf water's holding steady at 67 — that six-degree spread is what's pushing bait tight to shore and stacking bass along our Sound beaches from Mattituck clear to Orient.

Best action's been on the Plum Gut approach, where the current splits and eddies back against the point. Tuesday morning I watched three boats work that water on the tide change, and every one of them had bent rods. Bass to 32 inches on live bunker, fished on fishfinder rigs tight to the bottom. The key's been hitting it right at the turn — incoming slack to first hour of ebb. Fish are sitting in that back-eddy waiting for the current to flush bait out of the gut.

Spoke with Captain Mike at Orient Harbor yesterday, and he's been running his fares to the same water. White paddle-tail soft plastics on three-quarter-ounce bucktails, worked slow on the drift. He's seeing fish from 24 to 28 inches, with the bigger bass coming on the peanut bunker. "They want it moving natural," he told me. "Soon as you jig it hard, they spook."

Rocky Point's been producing steady porgy action for the shore crowd. The rocks that show at low water — you know the ones, where the old-timers used to pull blackfish — they're holding scup from keeper size to two pounds. High-low rigs with size 4 hooks, tipped with sandworms or clam bellies. Fish the incoming tide when the water's moving over those rocks. The porgy follow the current right up into the shallows.

Horton Point's been spotty for fluke, but the few boats working it are finding fish in 25 to 30 feet. Bucktails with white Gulp, bounced slow on the bottom. The southwest wind we've had all week pushed the warmer bay water east along the shore, and that's where the flatfish are feeding. Look for the color change — where the green bay water meets the blue Sound water.

Mattituck Inlet's been quiet for bass, but the bait's there. Saw massive schools of peanuts in the back bay Tuesday evening, thick enough you could walk on them. That bait's going to move with the moon — we're coming up on new moon Friday, which means spring tides and strong current. When that bait gets flushed out on the big ebb tides, the bass will be waiting.

Weather's been cooperative, but keep an eye on the wind. Block Island buoy's showing eight-foot seas from the southwest — that's a distant storm, not local conditions, but it means we'll see some wrap-around swell by the weekend. Nothing that'll shut down the fishing, but small boats might want to stay inside the three-mile line.

Water temperature's the real story here. That 74-degree reading in Great South Bay is pulling bait out of the ocean and concentrating it in the shallows. The bass know it, the blues know it, and now you know it. Fish the temperature breaks, fish the current, and fish the tide changes. That's where they're feeding.

Looking ahead to the weekend, I'm watching that new moon tide. Friday night into Saturday morning should see the strongest ebb flow we've had in two weeks. If you can get to Plum Gut approach for the dawn ebb, that's when the big bass will show. Bring live bunker if you can get them, or work the white soft plastics slow and steady. The fish are there — you just need to be there when the water moves them.