Plum Gut bass push through on new moon tides as Sound water cleans up

The new moon brought what I've been waiting for all month — clean water pushing through Plum Gut and bass following the tide lines like they're supposed to. Been fishing these waters sixty years, and when the Race starts running clear green instead of that chocolate milk we had all spring, you know the summer pattern is finally setting up.

Best action this week came on the flood tide, two hours before high water, right where the Gut opens into the Sound. Bass to forty pounds hitting live eels drifted on fishfinder rigs, 6/0 circles, just enough weight to hold bottom in the current. The key is positioning yourself in that sweet spot where the deep water from the Race meets the shallower shelf — fish are using that edge like a highway. Had one morning where three different boats were into fish at the same time, all working that same 200-yard stretch of water.

What's driving this bite is bait, plain and simple. Bunker pods have been thickening up in the Race approach all week, and the bass know it. You can see them on the fish finder, thick clouds of bait suspended at twenty to thirty feet, with the big fish marking just underneath. The trick is getting your eel down to where the bass are holding without spooking the bait. I've been using just enough lead to tick bottom on the drift, letting the current do the work.

Live eels are the ticket right now, but don't overlook fresh bunker chunks on the same rig. Cut them big — hand-sized pieces — and fish them on the same 6/0 circles. The bass want a substantial meal, not some little strip bait. Been getting fish on both, but the eels are producing the bigger bass. Something about that swimming action in the current that drives them crazy.

Water temperature finally stabilized around sixty-eight degrees, which is perfect for this time of year. That's warm enough to get the bass active but not so warm they go deep during the day. The thermocline hasn't set up yet, so fish are spread throughout the water column, though most of the action is coming in twenty to forty feet of water.

Rocky Point has been producing steady action for smaller fish — schoolies to twenty-eight inches on soft plastics. White Gulp Swimming Mullets on three-quarter-ounce bucktails, worked slow on the bottom. The structure there holds bait, and the smaller bass move in to feed when the current slacks off. It's not the glamour fishing we're getting at the Gut, but it's consistent, and those fish fight hard in the shallow water.

Horton Point has been hit or miss, depending on the wind. When it lays down, the porgy fishing picks up in the deeper water off the point. Small pieces of clam on high-low rigs, fished tight to the bottom. Nothing huge, but good eating fish to two pounds. The blackfish are still around too, though they're getting finicky as the water warms up. Green crabs on small hooks, right in the rocks.

Weakfish showed up this week for the first time since May. Not the numbers we used to see, but enough to get your attention. They're hitting small bucktails with pink or chartreuse tails, worked just off the bottom on the incoming tide. Most of the fish are running fourteen to eighteen inches — not keepers, but a good sign that the population might be coming back.

Looking ahead, this full moon cycle should keep the strong tides running, which means more bait movement and better fishing. The Race has been running clean for three days now, and as long as we don't get any big storms to stir things up, I expect the bass fishing to stay strong through the end of the month. Water temperature should hold steady, maybe creep up a degree or two, which will only make the fish more active.

Key thing to remember out here is timing your trips with the tide. The Gut fishes best on the flood, Rocky Point on the slack, and Horton Point when the current is just starting to move. Fish the structure, watch your fish finder, and don't be afraid to move if you're not marking bait. The fish are here — you just have to find where they're feeding.