Live Snappers can make terrific bait for big Fluke and Weakfish, so many people will try and put a few in the livewell on the way out.

Instead of catching them one at a time, try catching a few at time on a Sabiki, or “Bait Catching” rig! With 3, 4 or 5 hooks on a rig you can fill a livewell pretty quickly and get out to the Fluke spots even quicker!

The ONLY trouble with this is when the Snappers get big enough to bite the little lures off the Sabiki rigs!

Don’t forget the regulations though… you’re only allowed to keep 10 Snappers per person, so don’t put more than your limit in the well!!!

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Thankfully, the Snapper fishing remains consistent in this area. High tide, as usual, seems to be the more productive tide… especially in the way back bays and canals.

We had a few reports from Jones Beach Piers and from Wantagh Park, with good snapper fishing using Spearing and small live Killies. In fact, the people that have been bottom fishing have been complaining that the snappers keep steailing the baits!!

Many of our customers have reported plenty of snappers in the canals along the south shore as well. Basically, they are throughout the bay now and shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Good times to take the kids fishing before they start school again, although some of us can’t wait for school to start… LOL.

Any small shiny lures like Kastmaster’s and Sidewinders for example, will catch the snappers. Another great lure to use are the Fin Strike Snapper Poppers… can’t go wrong with these!!

As for bait rigs, the size 4 long shank Snapper Hook is a good way to go now… with the Snappers getting bigger by the day now, they’ll soon be able to bite the smaller snapper hooks off! We always recommend to people to put the hook 18 to 24 inches below the float… at least to start, then adjust the hook up or down depending on how they’re biting.

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When fishing with a partner or a bunch of people… try mixing up your rigs, lures and technique’s. Often, one particular rig or style or bait or lure will out-produce the others and once you notice what the fish are looking for everyone can re-rig or change up what they’re doing fill the limits!

For example, Chris (from the shop) and I used to do a tremendous amount of lure fishing in the back bays for Striped Bass. Chris would start fishing with… let’s say a popper of some kind, so I would tie on something different… maybe a swimming plug or a Bucktail. This way we covered more of the water column and when one method started to show signs of being the way to go… we would both concentrate on that style.

Give it a try…. it can help figure the fish out a little faster!

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No significant changes around here at least… still pretty slow on the ocean beaches. We’ve heard of one or two Bass here and there and a few Blues here and there as well but nothing consistent at any particular place… kind of scattered all about. The few fish we’ve heard about from out front have been on bait too, fresh bunker and fresh clams.

The back sides of the inlets, like West End 2, Democrat Point and the Sore Thumb have provided slightly more action than out front though. There have been a few schoolie Bass and some small Blues in the inlets at first light and it sounds like the people that are casting small lures have been able to out-fish the bait. Kastmaster’s, Charlie Graves tins, Point Jude tins and Bucktails are a good bet along with plastic swimmers like the Storm and Tsunami shad style baits. We’ve heard of a few fish caught on poppers too… like the Super Strike Little Neck and the Tsunami Talking Poppers.

Once the water temps begin to cool a bit and we get some bait moving around we should see some imrpovements, but till then it’s just a hunt and peck type deal!!

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UH-OH… a dramatic decrease in fish all of a sudden. In the past few days, the ocean fishing has significantly dropped off in our area. Hard to say why and in our opinion, these fish did NOT leave, but maybe just moved. Hard to imagine that a body of fish THAT large could just up and dissapear… our first guess is that they just moved somewhere. Considering that those fish seemed to be holding on a body of Squid that was around, we would have to guess that the Squid moved and so did the Fluke. We noticed that the commercial Squid boats have moved somewhere too, so if you can find the commercials that are squid fishing you have a good chance of finding the Fluke too. Let’s see what happens in the next few days with people doing a little scouting around, someone is bound to find them!

However, the fishing in the bays seems to have stayed rather consistent with many Fluke to be caught but finding those keepers is more difficult inside. Sounds like the short to keeper ratio is around 30 or 40 to one. Some of the better reports have come from the south end of Swift Creek, and the channel the runs along the West side of Wantagh Parkway around the second bridge… pictured below inside the red circle.

Fluke Fishing Spot

If you’re going to look around in the ocean, we would still recommend using the large baits like live snappers, whole squid and large strip baits (Sea Robbin, Dog Fish bellies, Bunker or Mackerel Strips etc.). If you’re going to try jigging, try the Braid Thumper Jigs, Bucktails and Fluke Bullets… ALL with Teasers above them.

Don’t forget to bring the Gulp baits too…. they DEFINITELY WORK!!!!

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Wow… wish we had some better news but unfortunately things have been extremely slow along the Ocean beaches. Every couple of days we’ll here of a fish or two but that’s about it. This is one of the slowest times of the year for surf fishing though, so this isn’t very unusual but if you hunt around the back sides of some of the beaches there are a few fish to be caught.

Joe, from the shop, has been fishing around the Jones Beach piers in the evenings and has been catching some school sized Bass and some slammer Blues on Bomber plugs… Chicken Scratch especially. He fished a few nights ago with one of our customers “Ricky Laun” and Ricky managed a keeper Bass right from one of the piers, on a Storm 5″ Pearl Swim Shad. They reported seeing a load of bait around the piers in the evenings… which would explain why the Bass and Blues have been around there. This seems to be a pattern for all those that are stalking the back bays from shore… find the bait and you’ll find some fish.

We had a few reports from West End 2 as well… on the back side. A few people have fished there early in the morning from dark till first light, using Charlie Graves tins, Point Jude Tins and polaris style poppers like the Gibbs and Super Strike poppers and caught some small Bass and Blues there too.

Bottom line… fish in the back, not out front. There seems to be some baitfish roaming around the bays and if you can come across some of it you’re going to increase your chances of seeing some Bass and Blues.

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Dog Days of summer… that about sums it up… However, there are some fish to be caught. In general Bass fishing has been slow which is not unusual for this time of year. We’re getting a few reports from people who are clam chumming around the bridges, and they are catching a few fish, although most are schoolie sized fish from 5 to 10 pounds.

Not too much going on in the ocean right now but as the fall approaches and we see some bait along the beaches and then we should see more activity outside the inlet.

The most consistent action we’ve heard about is in the back bays on lures. First light, sunset and fishing in the dark with swimming plugs, plastics and poppers has definitely improved over the last week.

Our customer Roy McComb, fishing out of Point Lookout has been doing well on the Storm Chug Bug poppers in Reynolds Channel around high water. Roy also loves to fish the old faithful Chicken Scratch Bomber in the 17 size ( I know this because I introduced this plug to him…lol) and he also had some decent fishing in Sea Dog Creek and Scow Creek. The last of the in-coming and the beginning of the out-going seems to be the ticket for Roy!

Another customer, Ray Doyle, has been poking around the same areas and seems to be consistently catching fish on 3/4 and 1 ounce white bucktails and on his absolute favorite lure… 7″ and 9″ Slug-Go’s… Again, high water has been the deal for Ray too.

Pete, from the shop, recently fished with his friend Vinny (”my cousin vinny” as we affectionately call him here at Causeway) and put together a nice catch of school sized fish around the Loop parkway bridge in Swift Creek and the second Meadowbrook bridge. High tide, at night did the trick for them! Sounds like they had most of their fish on the 7″ Rainbow Trout color Fin-S Fish on 1/2 and 3/4 ounce Kalins Ultimate lead heads.

This is my personal favorite time of year for plugging the back bays, especially in the dark. My favorite lures are 1/2 and 3/4 ounce bcuktails in white or white and chart tipped with 240S or 50S pork trailer, LOVE the Slug-Go’s, LOVE the Yo-Zuri Mag Poppers and my all time most productive swimmer… the Chicken Scratch Bomber!!

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