last call or an opportunity to sharpen the hooks
for most the prior and yet for me and a few others the later holds true
last word from long islands eastern tip was pods of micro to maybe 28" fish mauling peanut bunker this past friday. on turky day the fish were slightly larger, more plentiful, and joined by 10-15lb uncle festers.
me rob and our budy dave gave it hell this weekend and in short it was brutal. the three of us along with the 13 year old son of paulie's bait and tackle managed 30 or 40 fish....however none were stripers
. at one point the peanuts were so thick that nothing, bucktail,
darter, swimmer or other could be fished without instantly becoming fouled up from snagging so many
. despite such presence of bait, and mind this occured under the lighthouse on two consecutive perfect tidal conditions, not a hit was to be had.
good news was that the one thing we had hoped for, the infamous seaherring, were nowhere to found. and trust we searched, and queryed the boats who despite their obvious advantage were mostly experienceing the same results.
this is good as they have clearly yet to show. even in the dreaded "offshore migration" scenario these beloved baits WILL make an appearence in the ribs between montauk and the block and there WILL be fish in the 10-30lb range with them.
as for the rest of long island you have a great range in local reports. word from joe of west end b&t is that many of the south shore inlets and beaches between him and me, most of which had fish right up untill this past friday, have gone barren. way to the west there are still a few around gorging on the still plentiful peanut bunker yet these are mostly rats and seemingly smaller every day. again, everyone is waiting on our shiny friends to reignight the action.
as a final note for those who have read this far i offer this potential...tuna
sightings are coming from everywhere as we speak, includeing as far north as newport, as far west as fishers island, and as far south as shinnecock inlet on the island. personaly i watched fish in the 80-120lb range breaching a mile of browns and there are rumors of fish two to four times that size.
there you have it, fishing may suck right now but if history has taught the late season surfcaster one thing is that no matter how long the fishless stretch may seem their arrival often makes it worth the persistance.