10/8/12

Striper fishing isn’t what it’s supposed to be at this time of year. The charterboats have been scratching out some decent catches, but a boat limit is not the usual. They are mainly fishing the ‘chutes but occasionally the eels. But trolling is the more productive method. With the number of boats fishing, it would be convenient to look to that as an excuse, but I think that there are just not that many fish here yet. I have yet to see any amount of serious bird activity like you would expect to see at this time of year.
On the beach it’s a bit of a different story, with periodic blitzes around the Point, with the fish right in the wash. Guys with those fifteen foot surf rods sometimes don’t have to cast, just stretch out the rod and dangle something small. But the fish aren’t always that easy to catch. They are eating paper clip sized baits and mostly spurning anything that can be cast. At Turtle Cove one afternoon every fish that I saw caught had been snagged. The fish move in and out, and the light tackle guys are there trying to get their fish too, so at times it gets to be a bit of Combat Fishing, with lures bouncing off boats.
The little parking area at the base of the Lighthouse only has six legal parking places and three are handicapped ones. Drive down there and you will usually see ten or more pickups crammed in, unless of course a guy in blue is also there standing by his pickup holding a ticket book.
There are falsies all over the place too. But they are not in packed up schools. Rather you see five or six of them pop up in a fifty foot area a couple of times and the they are gone

Star Island held it’s one day striped bass tournament on Sunday and the results are as follows;
Private Boats
1st place - LORI MARIE - 40.8 lbs
2nd place - BIG GAME - 37.6 lbs
3rd place - JILLY BIRD - 37.3 lbs
Charter Boats
1st place - VENTURE - 34.1 lbs
2nd place - HALFBACK - 26.7 lbs
3rd place - ELIZABETH - 24.0 lbs

Montauk Marine Basin’s “LAST HURRAH” runs until Sept 13. The standings are as follows;
Bigeye tuna - 176.4 lbs - SARAH B
Yellowfin tuna - 85.6 lbs - APRIL FOOL
Albacore - 61.5 lbs - SARAH B
Mahi Mahi - 33.8 lbs - CONSTANT CRAVINGS
Heaviest tuna - 176.4 lbs - SARAH B
Swordfish - 74.4 lbs - CANYON FLYER
Most points overall - 505.6 - SARAH B

The standings in the Surfmasters contest are as follows;
Wader Division
1st Place - Gary Krist - 29.15 lbs - 10/3
1st Place - Clever Oleas - 26.0 lbs - 9/22
2nd Place - Atilla Ozturk - 20.6 lbs - 9/20

Wetsuit Division
1st Place - John Bruno - 40.3 lbs - 9/29

Women’s Division
1st Place - Christine Schnell - 18.8 lbs - 10/2
2nd Place - Mary Ellen Kane - 14.0 lbs - 10/3
3rd Place - Cheryl Lackner - 11.8 lbs - 10/1

Youth Division (12 - 17 years)
1st Place - Dylan Lackner - 13.5 lbs - 10/1
2nd Place - James Kim Jr. - 13.5 lbs - 10/4
3rd Place - Phillip Schnell - 13.0 lbs - 9/26

Kids Division (7 - 11 years)
1st Place - Witt Holmes - 13.8 lbs - 9/26
2nd Place - Brian Damm - 10.2 lbs - 9/24

For more reports, etc. check it out the Montauk Sportfishing forum at http://www.montauksportfishing.com/forum.html.

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