A 22 pound Long Island Striped Bass caught by Peter Makowski last week

With the great weather and fair fishing, anglers enjoyed some nice moments on the Long Island waters last week. Especially Peter Makowski who reeled in this 22 pound striper off Gilgo Beach. The striper action is picking up while some blacks and blues were found. Choose the report you’d like to read:

Striper Reports
Blackfish Reports
Fire Island Inlet Observations
Bluefish in Jones Inlet

Striped Bass Reports

Overall, the striped bass fishing was “decent” at the beginning of the week. Clam chumming on the West Bar was good for many anglers and the skimmer boats. Catches ran from 6 to 40 bass per boat per tide although, the last of the ebb was the most productive stage of the tide. The better catches were on boats that set up earlier in the tide. These boats generally chummed a bit heavier and got hte bass started before the tide slowed.

As the week progressed, not only did the fish get harder to catch but they also got smaller. Many good keeper fish were caught earlier in the week as well as last weekend. We had a friend who took home two legal bass this week, both of the fish were teen sized and were chummed around Jones Inlet. Get this, the stomach contents of these fish included a squirrel hake, sand eels, squid, 4-5 inch flounders, sandfleas, eels and a sundial. It sounds like it’s time to fish a hogy flounder, some berkley gulp crabs, a vertically jigged or squidded plain 007 diamond jig or a dark colored bucktail.

The clam fishing outside behind the clam boats also had its moments. Some of the larger bass were caught on the whole skimmers, either on a 3-by rig or a fish finder. Setting up in the general area on the days the boats were not working could also catch the bass. Heavy chumming is a must but watch out for the horndogs.

For those looking to hit the Seaford & Massapequa areas, a handful of legal bass were bagged on live eels during the day last week. Unfortunately, we could not pinpoint the tide stage. With all of the sandeels around one would think that when it lets go, we could be in for a real picnic.

The striped bass limit is one fish 28″ to 40″ and one striper greater than 48″ long. The minimum size is 28″.
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Blackfish Reports

As the bass fishing seemed to peter out as the weekend approached, the black fish started to bite and got better with time and dropping water temps. We saw some blacks to almost 10 pounds caught on green crabs this weekend. This seemed to be the best bait for blackfish. All obvious drops held fish but the hot spot this week was definitely Atlantic Beach Reef. This area had the most and largest blackfish we heard of and weighed in. Anglers beware, the dogfish are definitely in the zone!

Remember, the limit for blackfish is 4 and must be 14″ in total length.
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Fire Island Inlet Observations

I had an opportunity to stop by Fire Island Inlet and spy on the boats fishing the area last week. The first thing I noticed was that there were many more private boats fishing in Fire Island Inlet than in Jones Inlet. Second, the boats had anglers that were using many different techniques in the same areas during the same stage of the tide. Some were drifting live baits very near to boats that were slow trolling while others were casting rubber shads close to guys or girls that were obviously chumming or bottom fishing. I did not see many fish caught but all involved seemed to be content on their chosen technique and not worried about how close the other boats were. Everyone seemed to accept the “other boat” as a matter of course.
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Bluefish in Jones Inlet

Very few reports came in regarding the blues but the ones that did came from Jones Inlet. Some 12 to 15 pound bluefish were tolled on umbrellas (green – sand eels) just west of the inlet in approximately 30 feet of water.

The bluefish limit is 15 fish. No more than 10 fish shall be less than 12″ long from tail to head.
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Hopefully a better week of fishing is in store for Long Island Anglers. Check out the north weather approaching as it might make for some interesting innings.
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