Long Island Fishing Report
Stripers are chewing well along the western north shore. Holdovers are coming alive.
Keitechs are king on the freshwater. They pulled many bigmouth bass, and some of the biggest I heard of this week. Bigger baits are beginning to get hit more often. Multiple 6+ pound largemouths were landed this week.
Yellow perch are schooled up and chewing heavily on small presentations.
Carp are perusing the shallows, on the feed. Catfish are typically nearby.
The Capt Lou Fleet in Freeport is still running seal watching trips, and the trips are very productive for photographers looking to get pictures of these guys. This weekend on April 9 & 10, they are running a deep water canyon trip to target Golden Tilefish. This is a two day trip, leaving Friday night at 9pm. It returns Sunday night at 9pm and costs $595 per person. Book with them at their website: www.captloufleet.com.
Lindenhurst Bait & Tackle reports: We’re fully stocked with wax worms, meal worms, and night crawlers. All of our lakes, streams and ponds will have over 20,000 brown and brook trout introduced through the end of May. The DEC and NYS Parks Commission stocked well over 1,000 trout in Belmont Lake last weekend for the “Spring family fishing Festival.” They usually stock some fish over 10 pounds during this event.
Point Lookout’s Superhawk is now sailing every day, as long as the weather allows. Tomorrow (Friday) they are running a 6am tog/cod trip for $100. Saturday and Sunday will host offshore wreck trips for jumbo porgies, cod, pollock, ling and more. The fishing on the 1am wreck trips has been very good. Everything we’ll be targeting, we’ve been catching. Porgies are coming up at a rate of 20-30 fish per person. Our last cod/tog trip produced a good mix of both fish as well. Call today to make a reservation: 516-607-3004.
Captree’s Laura Lee got out Sunday with 14 anglers, who caught 28 cod, 49 ling, 1 pollack, 15 porgies, 61 big dogfish, 60 sea bass, 23 cunner and 14 ocean pout.
Bill at Chasing Tails Bait and Tackle in Oakdale reports:
Spring tog and flounder seasons started off great… when the weather was cooperative, that is. Many anglers found themselves in a solid tautog bite this week. The wrecks, reefs, and rock piles are loaded with these aggressive fish. Jigs on light tackle put in serious work, and the time tested snafu rig will have you on mondos. Flounder are a pretty elusive fish these days but they can be found! Bring plenty of good bait like bloodworms and mussels for chum. They love flats and muddy bottoms.
Striper season opens soon and many anglers are already finding fish running the back bays and flats. I’ve even seen a few caught off the open beach! They’re all over small popping plugs, swim shads, and shallow swimmers. Jigging small plastics is also very effective. Fly guys are crushing them on clouser minnows, half and half’s, and deceivers in pure white or olive/white.
The fresh water bite is hot, and getting better. Smallmouth are out on the rocks looking for food, largemouth are starting to stage up in the shallows for their Spring spawning, yellow perch are schooled up and hungry, and all of the lakes have been stocked with trout. The easiest way to get at all of these species is with the classic worm and bobber, however you can get specific lures for each species that will pick them off. For the smallmouth, a jig or a Ned rig will put up numbers. Use bright colors like pink, chartreuse, or white.
For the largemouth, toss a jig at them or a Senko, and bring it back slow. Red and perch colored crankbaits are killer this time of year too.
For the yellow perch, trout magnet jigs in the bright colors always work. Trout are hitting silver and gold spoons, in-line spinners, and Trout Magnet jigs on the bottom or hung off a bobber. My fly guys that fish trout know the mayfly hatches start soon, with Hendricksons being the first up. I’ve already seen a few around! Lots of black stoneflies around as well.
Bryce at Whitewater Outfitters in Hampton Bays says there’s not a lot going on yet. There is a good amount of bait in the bays. Baymen are saying the spearing population is bigger and better than ever. The first waves of bunker have moved in, and some Atlantic herring have also arrived. Alewives are cruising around certain spots, and there are some schoolies in the typical early season spots feeding on all this bait. There are small to medium sized bass in the bays, likely holdovers. No word on flounder, and no surprise there. All has been silent on the east end tog front as well. It’s a bit early. As guys put boats in the water, they’ll begin hitting the ocean wrecks. They’ll catch some cod out there in 60-100 feet, along with some winter flounder potentially.
Bill Wetzel’s Surf Rats Ball received some more reports from the western north shore back bays. Rob got out earlier this week for the midnight incoming. High tide was at 2:30am, and the water was mostly murky. The sandy areas had much more clarity, so he fished a bit there. It was a slow pick, but he managed a couple hits. One was a 25 inch bass that took his slow sinking sebile magic swimmer. Tim got out the following night in a similar region. He fished the top of the flood, and picked a bunch of bass to 20 inches on rubber shads and 1oz. white/green bucktails. Later in the tide, he found some slightly larger fish to 25 inches. Subscribe today at www.longislandsurffishing.com.
Chris Albronda gave me the goods on Montauk:
We are all eagerly awaiting the appearance of the striped bass in Montauk. It should be any day now. We have all kinds of bait: spearing, sand worms, and cinder worms are all out and about. Gannets and gulls are working the larger bait schools at the surface, and cormorants are hunting them from below.
There are some smaller sized codfish to be caught in the deep water. A few recon tautog trips haven’t produced much in the deep. Things should start to heat up around the next full moon.
Chris is looking for deck hands to work this summer. If you’re looking to make the big bucks, give him a call at 631-830-3881. Must be personable and able to tie good knots.
Long Island Fishing Forecast
I launched my boat this week, for the first time this year. The banks have begun to lose their luster, as I’ve been skunking regularly at so many fresh waterbodies. All it takes is a warm day or two to bring those fish into the shallows, setting the bank bites aflame. However, that weather comes quite scarcely this time of year. The warmest days are typically stifled by cloud cover and rain, keeping the nearshore water with their muddy bottoms a bit too chilly for the fishes’ liking.
The boat opens up a whole new world of possibility. All the juiciest structures you can hit are rarely accessible from the bank. Some of the waters I hit have no access besides a boat launch, so you really can’t fish that water effectively unless you launch a vessel. Mine’s a ghetto rowboat, salvaged from the Jones Beach Lifeguard Corps back in the 1970’s. It gets the job done.
Yellow perch were chewing heavily all week, on all the waters I hit. They seem to be targeting anything buggy or wormy, specifically.
I bet a ned rig would crush it. I’ve been using small ⅛ ounce jigs with squirmy wormy strands tied onto the end, and wooly buggers when I’m throwing the fly rod. Olive wooly buggers have been getting hammered in particular. I managed a bunch of bass on olive too. Fish were taking it every single cast when I found them stacked up in certain holes.
Switch it up to a larger, wormy soft plastic offering if you want to leave behind the panfish and focus on the larger species. Chris Albronda gave me the heads up on that. He guided Cristina Dacosta earlier this week to her personal best largemouth bass.
The fish took a dark colored senko off the bottom. I started throwing black senkos when I caught my fill of large yellow perch the other day. I got fewer hits, but everytime that thing splashed in a new area of water, it would get inhaled before it even got to the bottom. The fish were absolutely ravenous for it.
I’ve been taking the GoPro along, and will continue to do so. I’ll release videos for two recent sessions I filmed on the boat. Check ‘em out on my Youtube, South Fork Salt.
Amendment 7 comments are due by next Friday, April 15. Check out the American Saltwater Guides’ Association for any info/details/guidance you might need in order to submit a useful comment. Here is a link to their public comment guide: Striped Bass Amendment 7: Public Comment Guide
Make sure to check that out this week if you haven’t already done so. It is absolutely imperative that you send in a comment to protect the Striped Bass. The future of the fishery depends on these comments we submit, so get it done please. Don’t sleep on it.
Don’t sleep on the fish either. Every passing day brings greater promise for a freshwater hog, be it a bass, a perch, a carp, catfish or pickerel.
Work the flood for tidal creek stripers, especially when big swells push a lot of water into the back. This creates stronger moving tides/currents. Stripers love that. Right now we have a heavy east swell that is flooding the ocean beaches. This is a perfect opportunity for baybound fish to feed, and for antsy anglers to get out and bend the rod.
Whatever you’re up to, do it safely and respectfully. Expect some reports of BIG fish for next week. I’m gonna go ahead and try to manifest something here… I’m going to catch a big bass this week. If you get any trophies, hit me up and I’ll feature them here! Thanks, and tight lines.