7/13/09

Shark fishing is more typical of mid June than mid July. Water temperatures are in the low to mid sixties and there are
bluesharks up the whazoo, maybe too many. Threshers are being caught daily and makos are pretty scarce. Plus, there
have been at least two porbeagles caught and possibly a third. But the makos that are being caught are mostly under 200
pounds, whereas in a normal year the first makos that show up are usually larger fish.

The MBCA held their shark tournament over the weekend and the results were pretty impressive, especially when you
consider there were only thirty boats entered. There were fifteen sharks weighed in, nine threshers, five blues and one
mako. The results are as follows;
1st place - Tuna Tangler Too - Blueshark - 387 lbs
2nd place - Maria E - Thresher - 332 lbs
3rd place - Our Lady - Blueshark - 327 lbs
The second place fish was weighed in at noon on Saturday and the winner was weighed in five minutes before closing on
Sunday.

Locally, I guess there are some bluefin tuna around, but you have to be pretty dedicated to fish for them as you are more
than likely to come back dry. Offshore there are yellowfins near The Edge, mostly on the flats, but most are pretty small
with only occasional fifty pounders being caught, along with some nice sized mahi, but you have to find the right piece of
debris for them.

Inshore the fluke fishing is pretty good with lots of shorts but enough keepers to make it worthwhile. You’ll have to do a
lot of catching, but you could wind up with a thirteen pound flattie like the one taken on the Marlin Princess.

The striped bass cull is getting better as well with bigger fish showing up every day. Forty pound fish are becoming more
common with lots of twenties around to top off the box. If you like to use the scup for bait, but hate going through the
drill of finding the barely legal ones, or worrying that the sub legals that you have in the well will wind up getting you bit
by the guy in green, Star Island has just the thing for you. They’ve imported a bunch of spot from the Carolinas and are
selling them for around $5 a pop. There is no size limit on them and they are much more slurpable than the legal porgies.

Every morning I take a tour around the docks to see who has sailed. Before July 1, during the week there were rarely
more than a half dozen charters out. Then on July 1, with the opening of the commercial bass season, that all changed,
with lots of boats getting out. The price for bass started out at 44/pound, but sine has dropped to around $2/pound, so
now it’s back to only a couple of boats getting out.

If you would like to get these reports sent to you directly, drop me a line at captaingene@montauksportfishing.com and
I’ll put you on the list.

Capt Gene Kelly - Montauk Sportfishing