5/14/12

It was a pretty lousy week, weatherwise, but Old Mother Nature celebrated her weekend
with a couple of great days.

Striped bass fishing could only be better if there were some bigger fish around, but based
on the numbers, it would be hard to complain. All the charterboats that got out were
easily able to catch their limits of fish, mostly from 10 - 15 pounds or so, as well as a
good supply of bluefish. Trolling with the ‘chutes worked best, but diamond jigging was
equally effective as long as the anglers had a little skill on the rods.

It would be nice if the fluke report were as good, but it isn’t. Everybody cheered when we
got the new fluke regs (4 @ 19.5"), but it’s only good news if the fish are there to be
caught. Right now there is only one place that has any kind of a consistent bite and that is
to the south of the Elbow. Boats have tried all of the normal fluke hangouts, but to get
anything they have to come back there. A couple of keepers per boat is about average,
although there are some real nice sized fish being taken. As a sign of how the fishing is,
some of the head boats targeting fluke have been spending time diamond jigging the bass.

The Montauk Surfmasters is now running a spring tournament, in addition to their
fall-long bass tournament. It started this week and will run until the end of July. In the
past the only weigh stations were the tackle shops in town but now in addition, Star Island
Yacht Club and West Lake Marina are participating.

Pell’s or the Montauk Fish Dock, the fish packing place on Duryea’s Dock in the harbor,
burned up this week, apparently from an electrical short.

Of course the fishing in Central America will still be hot through the spring and some of
the lodges that were booked up through the winter months are starting to have some
availability. Give it a thought and check it out at www.tropicalfishing.com

If you would like to get these weekly reports sent to you by e-mail, drop me a line at
reports@montauksportfishing.com and if you need any other information about fishing
in Montauk check out www.montauksportfishing.com

Capt Gene Kelly