11/8/11

All you striper enthusiasts out there interested in what is going on with the “Fall Run”; well, right now it is
more like a walk moving toward a crawl. That just aren’t many fish around, and haven’t been for a while now,
even though we keep expecting a new batch to show up. The water temps are in the lower fifties, so based on
that and the calendar, we should have decent fishing. Typically the bluefish leave when it gets to be fifty
degrees, but the bass will stick around in much cooler waters. Back in the early part of October I made two trips
to use up my commercial tags and we brought back 180 bass. In the last three trips we brought back less than
sixty. I made my last trip Monday. We went straight to Pollock Rip for the beginning of the ebb and caught
eleven fish in about twenty minutes. Then they stopped. It took the rest of the day to catch seven more. That
seemed to be typical of the other boats that were out. It seems like there are a couple of fish on the choice spots,
but not enough to bleed over into the less choice spots. When you catch those fish, there are none left. I hate to
think that it is ending so soon, but that’s the way it looks. Years ago when bass fishing slowed down in the fall,
we would look forward to Capt Fritz Hubner declaring that “it is over”, because as sure as the sun rising, the
fishing would pick up again in a couple of days. I’ll have to check up with Fritzie to see what he thinks.
The gannets have showed up, but it really doesn’t mean what it has in the past. They were diving off
Shagwong on Monday, but none of the boats that fished around them caught anything.
The bottom fishing is pretty good now, although there are occasional flurries of dogfish. Virtually all the
boats doing it are fishing over south of Block Island for seabass, blackfish, porgies and even some codfish.
Usually this time of year all day charters catch a limit of bass before heading for the bottom fishing grounds.
However this year, most of the captains are opting to do the reverse, going for the bottom fish first and then
coming back to the Point to see what they can find in the way of bass.
Kathy Kronuch of Johnny’s Tackle shop passed away this past week. She had been sick for a while.
I won’t be fishing in Montauk again this year and I will start losing touch with what is going on, so I won’t
be posting this report as steadily as I have been all season. If something noteworthy happens I’ll let you know,
but I’ll be starting to pay more attention to what is going on in Central America. If you are looking for a warm
place to fish this winter, check out www.tropicalfishing.com.
The 33’ L&H that I have been running all summer is for sale with a more reasonable price. Check it out at
www.montauksportfishing.com/piper.html
For more info about fishing in Montauk, check out www.montauksportfishing.com and if you would like to
receive these reports directly, drop me a line at captaingene@montauksportfishing.com