Fishing Report

With the recreational fishing season for scup extended (on Sept. 28) for 90 days by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, anglers continue to enjoy excellent action for big porgies locally as waters cool. Sea bass fishing is closed for the month, but tautog season has opened with decent action on smaller blackfish, usually on shallow drops. Capt. Rich Jensen aboard the Nancy Ann out of Orient by the Sea says the scup he sees average two pounds with an occasional three-pounder. Parties took a “mess of tautog” early this week, too, with the largest fish around five pounds. Bass fishing is very good day and night, and there are thick schools of blues around some days, so thick it’s hard to get through them to the stripers below. Water temperatures are still in the high 60s!

Steven at We Go Fishing on Main Road, Southold (opposite Goldsmith’s) told us anglers are doing well on scup and tautog off Rocky Point, East Marion. Horton’s Point continues to pull anglers fishing bass, particularly boaters using live eels. Bluefish are also abundant there. Tautog fishing is also fairly good north of Plum Island. False albacore are far off Long Island Sound beaches now.

Phil Loria at Captain Marty’s Fishing Station in New Suffolk has his docks ready for boats in transit at season’s end, and is stocking bait and tackle all fall. The porgy fishing is very good in the bay with some really nice scup as close as Buoy One in Cutchogue Harbor. A bucket of chum brings porgies and blowfish as well off Nassau Point Buoy Three, and a couple of weaks to 20 inches were taken by anglers fishing Roses Grove.

At the Rocky Point Fishing Stop, Stan Hentschel said there were plenty of keeper tautog off Old Field, Cranes Neck and Mount Sinai with a few larger fish. The big porgies on local beaches are “really good for the tackle shops”, too. Blues and bass are plentiful, although the stripers along the shores are still small because waters are still so warm. South Shore anglers fish best with bait, but Montauk has some good bassing for boaters. There are massive bunker schools a half mile off the beach off Moriches, and that’s where the stripers are. At Camp Site Sports in Huntington Station, Vinnie told us the false albacore are chasing bait in mid-Long Island Sound all the way to Montauk. South Shore inlets produce by night on bucktails, particularly off Moriches and Shinnecock, while the Montauk sand beaches are spotty with occasional good nights.