Why are there no fish in Montauk right now?

[RJC]

fishinmission. I was just explaining the yoy projection of the 2007 year class to you. No magic. I've been fishing the beach for 5 weeks and know full well of the large bunker schools and the steady progression of mullet pods moving down the beach from me to you with minimal is any predator activity noted. I've only seene a single large swirl of birds feeding about 500 yards out from Monmouth Beach, just south of the Shrewsbury Rocks this season.

The predators are begining to show up here at the north end of the beach 33 striped bass to 30 pounds were caught in the Sandy Hook rip on Saturday night sing a combo of eels and clams. The Bridges are starting to give up striped bass to 31 inches the past few day of a dropping tide. I'm just a frustrated as you are, my friend. I came back to my roots here in Atlantic Highlands to fish the Fall Migration and so far all I've put back in the ocean are short striped bass and a single bluefish.

Discussing the yoy and dreaming for a better year in the future is what my post is about.

The cruddy water your talking about is the run off from the Hudson River after it soaked up two very wet hurricans in its 25,000 sq. mile water shed. The salt line was pushed 40 miles south and down past Sandy Hook. Muddy water, debris and assorted junk. We don't control the weather and Irene and Leigh did us no favors. Get over it. Its getting better. November will be a lot better than the past 5 weeks.

[storminsteve]

The cruddy water your talking about is the run off from the Hudson River after it soaked up two very wet hurricans in its 25,000 sq. mile water shed. The salt line was pushed 40 miles south and down past Sandy Hook. Muddy water, debris and assorted junk

rjc, thanks for the input and while I am respectfully not trying to start an argument, I wonder where this 40 mile salt line has been pushed to? i fished Sandy Hook this morning and the water was crystal clear. And salty, as some of it crashed on the beach and I tasted it as I was casting. So could you please explain what you meant here? thanks.

[RJC]

rjc, thanks for the input and while I am respectfully not trying to start an argument, I wonder where this 40 mile salt line has been pushed to? i fished Sandy Hook this morning and the water was crystal clear. And salty, as some of it crashed on the beach and I tasted it as I was casting. So could you please explain what you meant here? thanks.

Steve I was discussing the run off that ended about a week ago. The Hudson River is normally salty up to about the Bear Mountain Bridge. The salt line was pushed south and into the Atlantic from the two storms (Hurrican and Tropical) that dumped milions of gallons of fresh rain water on Upstate NY and Vermont. All that water drains thrue the watershed and intothe Hudson. The volume overcame the atlantic tides and kept the salt line in to the Atlantic for about a month.

The fresh water deluted the salt content and a lot of pure salt water fish like blue fish, bonito and false albacore shy away from it. Now that the ocean is getting back to normal we should see a rebound of fish along the NJ Beaches.

[BassBuddah]

I was looking for a thread to add my summer observations to. This one seemed appropriate. I have been fishing the big M consistently for about 20 years, Summer and Fall. Last Fall was the worst one since I started keeping logs. I was hoping this summer would turn out better for we who fish the Point at Montauk and the night tides at different places there.
I have gone out there for the last 2 weekends. My results are not encouraging. Each weekend my biggest fish were only in the mid teens. First weekend I managed 2 teeners to 15 lbs. Last weekend I managed 1 thirteen pounds. There were a few small schoolies and bluefish. All on the night tides, into sunrise. And a few bluefish as well.
According to my logs the 2nd week of June has consistently been a point where the action starts to heat up.
We have water temps around 67 degrees there right now, and it has been as low as 61. This is good temperature for bass and they should have been there in greater numbers. This concerns me. I am hoping things will turn around for the fall but am not optimistic. The boats are doing well out in deeper water. We have had a lot of small whitebait run through the Point and the fish should be there but they are not.

[williehookem]

Written by Capt Gene Kelly


8/13/12

When the boat next to you isn’t sailing that’s a recession and when you aren’t sailing that’s a depression and right now things are pretty depressing for the Montauk charter fleet. Friday and Saturday are always the busiest days (Sunday traffic scares a lot of people) and when I made my early morning check this past weekend there were a couple of boats still tied up that shouldn’t have been. And this is August, normally the busiest month when most of the established boats would normally be sailing every day unless they were blown out. And now, most are lucky to get in four to five trips a week.

I run a charter service and most of my calls come after potential clients have gotten tired of calling boats only to find out they are booked. Back in the early spring I was getting inqueries which is very unusual so I thought that this would be a better year than last year, which was a pretty poor one. But I guess as all the poor economic news developed, people started to change their minds about how they were going to spend their $$$.

Now most of my calls are from individuals looking to join in with others on a shared charter, which we used to call a “splits” until they became extinct. Years ago when I started out splits were very common and all the old timers remember Tuma’s Tackle Shop where Mrs. Tuma would coordinate things. You’d hang around in front of the shop until she would call you and give you six anglers to take out. Nowadays there is no central booking agency where that can be done. All the charterboats are getting calls from singles or doubles that want to join up with some others on a trip, and undoubtedly every day at least one trip could be put together.

As I always say when I hear guys moaning and groaning about the business; “It could be worse, I could own a boat”.
As for the fishing, you could check back with last weeks report. It’s pretty much the same. There are a good amount of makos around and if you go sharking you will probably catch - and release - one. Tuna fishing is nothing to get excited about

On an overnighter you will probably catch a couple of yellowfin and maybe a bigeye, but what is considered a good catch these days would have been considered a poor one a couple of years ago.

Inshore striper fishing is still tough and Southwest Ledge isn’t looking as good as it was. Bottom fishing is good for porgies and sea bass and OK for fluke.

[plugginpete]

Written by Capt Gene Kelly
, but what is considered a good catch these days would have been considered a poor one a couple of years ago.

Inshore striper fishing is still tough and Southwest Ledge isn’t looking as good as it was. Bottom fishing is good for porgies and sea bass and OK for fluke.

Capt Gene knows his sh*t, one of the best out there.
some boat reports from this weekend -

Montauk bass - "Fished from 9am-1 pm yesterday and had 2 stripers around 15 lbs. Didn't see much else happening; seemed pretty quiet."


Montauk boat - "We fished 4 Hrs Friday and 7 Hrs Saturday and only boated 1 Blue fish. Probably 200 hundred boats in the fleet and we saw very few fish boated.
I am sure the fish will show up Sunday since I am not fishing. "

[BassBuddah]

I think what happens is a lot of the folks who go up there have been fishing less than 10 years. True the older guys are there but in recent years I have seen a lot of newer guys in the 20's come up. For some of them it is their first time. some don't even have korkers which can get dangerous if you try to follow the fish as they move. In my opinion the fishing at Montauk 10-15 years ago was much better. We would have sustained blitzes all day. There would be many 30 and 40 lb fish. Today an 18lb fish is considered a trophy. That is because a lot of these younger folks just don't have that perspective, of the Montauk of years past.
They don't have any bass in their area, they take the long ride, they catch over 10 fish in a day and it's epic. I can understand the enthusiasm but my past 2 years at Montauk I have not done as well as previously.

This year there was no sustained spring surf run at Montauk. That was the first year in a long time that happened. That makes me very concerned for the future of striped bass. I know the young folks won't understand it, many of them are calling this year epic. I was there on Sunday and got one short bass at 5am, fished till the afternoon, and left. I heard it got better on Monday, but as far as epic I would call that an extreme exaggeration, unless you just started fishing. Ask Vito Orlando if it's epic fishing for this fall, and see what he tells you.

[williehookem]

Another lame spring in Montauk?
The first week of June is when I usually start going up to test the waters.
Some guy posted this report...the waters don't look too full of bass yet. Last year was the same it seemed like the June surf bite never really got started except for the few bigger fish that were caught on eels at night. Hard to figure out why. The report -


I fished the North side and South side this past week with limited results. 1 fish released at 30 lbs. Had a few rats too.

[finchaser]

on the verge of being wiped out again each year they get smaller and smaller as year classes are decimated just like last time

[BassBuddah]

on the verge of being wiped out again each year they get smaller and smaller as year classes are decimated just like last time

I completely agree with this statement.
Went to Montauk last week and fishing was poor. Managed a few small bass and one 10#. I have been making this trip the same time every year for 20 years and never fail to catch bass in the 20# class from the surf. This is the first year I did not achieve that. There was a distinct lack of whitebait.

[strikezone31]

I hope I am not stepping on any toes here. We did catch some bass in montauk this weekend. It was mostly centered around the 5-7 and 7-9pm times. The rest of the time we went fluking. All boat fish to 23lbs on diamond jigs. From what the capts at the dock were saying it has just heated up.
I would agree that there are not a lot of bass to be caught in the daytime. Thats why we fished for fluke during sunlight. It was also very crowded. Would probably not make that trip during a holiday weekend again.

[jigfreak]

As far as mecca is concerned fishing su*ks there right now from the surf. Anyone who says any different is lying throuh their teeth or hard up to pay the monthly nut on their charter boat. Honesty is the best policy Capts we know you need to pay your bills but when guys are making the trip all the way up there and catching small blues and dink bass on the night tides it is not a good bite.

[plugginpete]

Right on jigfreak. took the ride yesterday. Set up W of the Point for the incoming, Was perfect conditions with some bait showing small white bait. Fished from 4-9 and it was terrible just a few cocktail blues. Didn't see anyone else do much beyond that. Talked to 10 guys on the way out with the same results.

[plugginpete]

Here is a report I found on the net. This is the same as my results there this year. At Paulies they talked about some fish to 40# but the real deal is most of them are coming from the charters.

"Fished the beach around the Mtk lighthouse with plugs and bucktails Thursday morning from first light till 4:00pm with only a one hour break for breakfast. Nada. Not one fish, but My friend Lee caught a schoolie on a bucktail. Anyway, Not a very good bite on the beach out in Mtk right now, but we'll see what happens after this front that just came thorugh last night."

[plugginpete]

Most recent montauk report from another guy who went-
went out for weekend all excited only to return home empty No fish have moved in close to shore

[BassBuddah]

I haven't posted montauk reports but have been there 3 times since sept 1 and had similar results. My biggest bass was 30". The night I got that it was the only fish I caught. On a beachmaster. Otherwise it's not real great just ask Bill Wetzel.

[surfstix1963]

Boat/Rips/Bass right now, surf fishing is slowwwww in Montauk.I think Paulies tournament is this weekend so it will be a mad house out there

[finchaser]

Friends just came back from the mecca and surf fishing Succccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccked except for a few small fish.

My other gang of friends are at block island and have 10 fish over 30# since Sunday all beach plugged fish

[finchaser]

Friends just came back from the mecca and surf fishing Succccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccked except for a few small fish.

My other 3 friends are at block island and have had 10 fish over 30# and 5 over 40# all released since Sunday all beach plugged fish

[surfstix1963]

At last someone has had some decent fish.