Thought I would bring this thread to the top and add to it when I get a chance.

I'll have to check my logs...but the shift in the action and contraction of the seasons at Montauk, has been significant.

Let's wind the clock back for a few years, 10-15.
Back then, I remember the following pattern......(generally speaking)

Montauk/LI Sound
I. Spring Run....
1. By the middle of May, the spawners from Chesapeake and Delaware (usually) were done, and moving northward.
After a brief stint along NNJ beaches, there was usually some action along the SS of LI...in addition to the mouth of the Hudson and NY Bight area (Hudson Fish)....before the Chesapeake and Delaware fish stopped off at Montauk for a month or two....
Sometimes it seemed longer because of the sheer volume of the total biomass....

2. The Hudson fish eventually moved up the E River and would make stops n the LI sound, along the way to Massachusetts, depending on bait availibility.
The chief complaint by many was that the LI Sound Spring fish would move quickly as there were not enough bunker to hold them.





Recent Changes-
3. Bunker availibility - As mentioned, in previous years the lack of bunker was often blamed for a poor Western Sound Spring run....In the past few years, bunker have been "saved" and seem to be everywhere.....
The chief lament by many anglers now..... is "bunker everywhere but no fish on em".

4. In the past 2 years, the presence of bunker has exploded exponentially. It is hard to go out at night and not run into bunker somewhere.....the big blues can often be found in the highest concentrations of bunker....yet bass are strangely absent, or availible in one out of every 100 bunker pods....
A reasonable thinking angler, who fishes a lot, would surely have to notice the disparity here....plenty of food, and still the bass have not been found in numbers in (some of) their usual secondary historic migrational hangouts?
Yet...there are plenty of bluefish and other predators (sharks, rays, etc).

5. For Montauk...the Spring run has never been about bunker....it was a stop on the migrational highway because of its strategic location...and other forage....whitebait...spearing, rainfish....sandeels, squid, porgies, baby fluke, etc. were usually the draws that would hold the Spring bass there for awhile.......

6. Shrinking Seasons -
Last year, 2014, if I am recalling correctly......
The Montauk 2014 Spring run was relatively short...about 6 weeks....

The 2014 Montauk Fall run didn't get into gear until the 3rd week of Oct 2014....a few friends religiously going there started reporting greater catches of bass from the surf then...as did Bill Wetzel and Zeno, I believe....

That run was short-lived, as many of those fish moved S to the Moriches area....and held there for a few weeks.....

7. 2015 Montauk Spring Run-
Many of the old timers will tell you the first great action of larger fish would traditionally start to show up in Montauk by the 3rd week of May...this year we blamed the cold Winter for the delays in fish showing up in several areas Coastwide.
According to my notes....the main body of larger fish didn't show up at Montauk until the week of July 1st...

As I type these words...the main body has left already.....The night boats are now shifting to Block Island to sustain the action....and in many cases are admitting it has slowed down
So..in essence...the bulk of the 2015 Spring run at Montauk lasted a little less than 4 weeks in total...

Less than 4 weeks...compared to the robustness 10-15 years ago of a bite that would begin in May...and last until at least July...
I hope folks reading this can see for themselves the contraction of the Season there.....

This is also confirmed by many Capts and seasoned anglers.....
and is cause for concern......











Just to be clear, there are still big fish available at Montauk, for those who understand tides, and willing to put their time in at low light periods...
but in the past week the numbers dwindled significantly.....

Boaters fishing the right tides in low light can troll some decent bass in the Rips.
There are still big bass being caught in the Block Island area....
Surfcasters still catch fish to 40# during the Summer..
The same for kayakers who are able to get out and fish the Rips.....

** What I'm referring to here, are the majority of bass, during the migrations, and why the period they are at Montauk, is now so contracted, compared to the past......

Just ask the Capts fishing out of nearby Orient Point how they have done this Spring...and in many cases you will see there were less folks fishing out of Orient at night...because the fish just weren't there in usual numbers....despite a great variety of forage available..

Eventually, at the end of the season, I'll add some of these notes to the
StripersAndAnglers yearly coastwide fish stock asssessment shown here:

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?7784-StripersandAnglers-yearly-coastwide-fish-stock-assessment-state-of-the-fishery



**(Again, this is what I remember.....if anyone else has anything else or different that they can add...please feel free...) thanks for reading......