Big bass still hunting the Execution Rocks ledge as the Sound settles into summer patterns

We came off that full moon at the end of June with some real water moving through the Sound, and it did what big tides always do this time of year — it pushed the bait around and it woke up some big fish that had been sulking in the heat. That moon is waning now, heading toward last quarter around midweek, which means the tides are easing back toward neap. For those of you who don't live and die by the tide chart the way I do, that matters more than people think. Big tides in late June meant strong current at the rips — Exec Rocks ledge, the Stepping Stones drop, the flow off Hart Island — and strong current concentrates bait against structure. As we slide into these smaller neap tides this week, that current slackens, and the fish that were pinned tight to the fast water start spreading out into the eddies and the flats to feed on their own schedule instead of the tide's. That's the difference between fishing the structure hard on a two-hour window and having to actually hunt fish for the next several days.

Water's been climbing steady — we're pushing into the low seventies now in the open Sound, warmer in the back bays like Manhasset and Little Neck where the sun cooks the shallows all afternoon. That's classic early July. The bunker schools that stacked up off Matinecock Point in June are still there, thick as ever, rolling along the bar in twenty to thirty feet, and everything in this Sound with teeth knows exactly where to find them.

The striper story right now is a tale of two bites. During the day, especially with the sun high and that warm surface layer sitting on top, the bigger bass are holding deeper and don't want much to do with a hot afternoon current. But get out to the Execution Rocks ledge on the evening outgoing and it's a different world. Guys trolling big Mojos — bone and white, some chartreuse in dirtier water — down over that ledge structure in eighteen to thirty feet have been connecting with genuine slob bass, forty-plus inches, some pushing fifty pounds. That pattern's been consistent: morning bite slow, but once the tide really starts moving out in the afternoon and evening, the current stacks bait against that rockpile and the big females come up to feed. If you're going to invest an evening this week, that's where I'd put it — troll the ledge on the last three hours of the outgoing, wire line or leadcore if you've got the current for it, umbrella rigs if the bait's thick.

Bluefish have been the more reliable daytime action mid-Sound. Real gators, eight to twelve pounds, cutting through those bunker schools off Matinecock and out toward Hempstead Harbor's mouth. When you see the birds working and the bunker showering, that's your cue — snag a live one on a treble and free-line it back into the chaos, or just throw a big Hopkins or a Kastmaster through the school and hang on. This bite doesn't need finesse. It needs you to be there when the blitz happens, and lately those blitzes have been mid-morning through early afternoon, which is a nice complement to the evening bass bite if you want a full day on the water.

Fluke fishing has been the honest disappointment of the last couple weeks, and I'll say that straight out instead of dressing it up. The doormats that some guys found in late May and early June off the deeper flats have thinned out — I think the warm water pushed a good number of them out toward the deeper basin water where it's cooler, and what's left inshore in fifteen to twenty-five feet off Hempstead Harbor and around Manhasset Bay's mouth is mostly shorts and the occasional teenager. Four-inch white Gulp Swimming Mullets on three-quarter ounce bucktails, dragged slow on the drift, are still the right call — but you're covering a lot of bottom to put two or three keepers in the box. If you want a better shot, work the deeper edges where the bottom drops toward the channel, twenty-five to thirty-five feet, and slow your drift down with a sea anchor if the current's running.

Porgies have been steady and reliable, which is more than I can say for some of the glamour species — Stepping Stones and the rockpiles around Execution have been holding good numbers on bloodworms and Fishbites, six to twelve feet of water, and that's a fine way to fill an afternoon with the kids while the bigger stuff sorts itself out. Weakfish, I'll be honest, remain a ghost in this part of the Sound the way they've been for a decade now — the occasional one shows up mixed in with the porgy catch, but nobody's targeting them with any confidence, and I wouldn't build a trip around it.

Looking ahead, that last quarter moon settling in means smaller tides through the weekend and into next week, and I've seen this pattern plenty of times in past Julys — smaller tides slow the current at the rips, and the big bass that were pinned to the ledge on the strong outgoing start to spread out and hold in the eddies instead, feeding more on their own clock than the tide's. That could mean the Execution Rocks trolling bite gets a little less predictable, but it also opens up structure around Stepping Stones and the drop-offs near Hart Island that don't fish as well when the current's screaming. If I had one evening to fish this week, I'd still start at the ledge on the last two hours of outgoing, but I'd have Stepping Stones as my backup if the tide feels too soft to move fish. Either way, keep an eye on the bunker — where they go, the whole food chain in this Sound follows, and right now they're not going anywhere.