Weakfish show in the wash as Fire Island fluke settle into their summer groove

Last week the bay did what it always does heading into the Fourth — it settled. Wind backed around out of the southwest most days, nothing heavy, just enough to push a light chop into the inlet on the afternoon sea breeze and lay down again by dark. That kind of pattern lets the water build heat, and you could feel it standing in the wash at Democrat Point at sunrise — the ocean side's warmed into that comfortable, green-going-blue color that tells you the sand eels and spearing have moved in tight to the beach. Inside the bay, the flats off Sayville and the deeper holes by the Robert Moses bridges have been running warm and stable too, no big temperature swings, which is exactly the kind of steady water that gets fluke feeding on a schedule instead of sulking.

This week we're swinging toward the new moon, and that means the tides are building — bigger swings, stronger current through the inlet, more water moving on the last two hours of the ebb and the first two of the flood. That's the window I want for everything right now. Bigger tides mean more bait getting flushed out of the back bay creeks and past Oak Beach and Captree into the main channel, which is where the bass and blues intercept it. If the wind stays light out of the south like it's been forecast, I'd expect the ocean side to stay fishable dawn and dusk right through the weekend, with maybe a pop-up thunderstorm midweek that'll roil things for an afternoon and clear out fast.

The fluke bite has been the most dependable thing going. Boats drifting the Robert Moses bridges — both the Route 27 span and down toward the Fire Island span — are stacking keepers in 25 to 35 feet on the last of the incoming and the first hour of the outgoing, right when the current's still got some push but hasn't turned into a freight train. Four-ounce bucktails tipped with 5-inch white Gulp Swimming Mullets are doing the damage, but the boats fishing sand eel imitations — the slim 5-inch paddle tails in bone or pearl — have been separating themselves from the pack the last week and a half. That tracks with what's showing up on the beach: sand eels are thick right now, and every predator in this bay knows it. Drift the pilings tight, drop right to bottom, short hops, don't overwork it. Depths inside the bay off the Fire Island communities — Kismet, Saltaire — are producing shorts mixed with a few solid 4 and 5 pound fish, but the ocean-side drift at the bridges is where the bigger doormats are coming from, fish to 6 pounds reported this past week.

Here's the one that's got people talking, though — weakfish. A 26-inch, 7.3-pound weakfish came out of the Fire Island Inlet surf on a 9-inch sand eel imitation worked slow through the wash on the outgoing tide, right around first light. That's a genuinely good weakfish for this stretch of beach, and it's not a total surprise given how much bait has piled up along Democrat Point and the inlet jetty. If you're going to chase that fish, I'd be there in the dark, an hour before to an hour after first light, casting slim soft plastics or bucktails tipped with a strip of squid into the wash where the sandbars break, focusing on the outgoing when the current's ripping bait out of the bay and weakfish stack up to ambush it. I want to be honest, though — that's one quality fish, not a run. I haven't heard of a second one behind it yet. Treat it as a sign the fish are around, not a guarantee you're walking into a blitz.

Bluefish have been scattered but present — cocktail-sized fish chopping bait on the surface off Kismet and out toward the lighthouse rip most mornings, and if you see the birds working, a diamond jig or a topwater plug thrown into the melee will get bit fast. Nothing sustained, more of a here-today pattern that moves with the bait pods, so don't burn a tank of gas chasing yesterday's spot — look for the working birds fresh each trip. Striped bass have gone quieter as the water's warmed — the better fish have slid off into deeper, cooler water and the inlet rips, and the evening bite on bunker chunks fished on a fish-finder rig off Democrat Point at the top of the tide has been your best bet for a keeper, though it's a patience game right now, not a numbers game. Porgies are thick on the structure just inside the inlet and on the reef pieces off the south side — snapper rigs with clam or squid strips in 20 to 30 feet will keep a rod bent even on the slow days, good action for kids or anybody who just wants bent rods.

I'd be lying if I called this an easy week across the board — the fluke and porgy bite are solid and consistent, the weakfish and blues are real but you need to be in the right place at the right hour, and the bass have gone into their summer hiding pattern. If I had one trip to make before the holiday crowd hits the inlet, I'd fish the sand eel pattern in the Democrat Point wash at first light on the outgoing, then run out to the bridges for the back half of the incoming once the sun's up. That covers both windows the tide's giving us this week, and with the moon building toward new, the bigger water should keep the bait moving and the fish honest.

One more thing before you head out — the community lost a good man this week, Captain Neil, and if you've fished this bay long enough you probably crossed paths with him or one of the guys he built rods for. Tie a few extra knots this week and think of him out there. That's what this whole stretch of water is about — the people as much as the fish.