Fishing Report
Capt. George Grosselfinger, who runs the Second Chance charter out of Orient by the Sea, called to say that boats are doing very, very well on nice stripers to 40 pounds, especially at night. Grosselfinger expressed disappointment with the early-season beaches for bass, but there was simply no bait on the beach in April, although the boats did well.
Capt. Rich Jensen, getting ready for a night bass trip on the Nancy Ann in Orient, had an excellent day on a scup trip. He told us that bassing is a little better than last year; it’s a good sign that there are lots of smaller fish around, too. The second run of fluke seems to have arrived off Gardiners Island with many keepers in the 21-22-inch range and pools over six pounds. Jensen wonders if the first run actually went through before the season opened.
Steven at WeGo Fishing on the Main Road in Southold felt that the Long Island Sound bite on fluke was also good now. For scup, the best Sound action was off Rocky Point, East Marion. Beach fishing is best along South Shore beaches while the Race and Plum Gut are tops for boaters pursuing bass. Steven has weighed three linesiders around 38 pounds at the shop in recent days. Jessups Neck is loaded with small “cocktail” blues to three pounds.
Phil Loria at Captain Marty’s Fishing Station in New Suffolk is seeing abundant porgies, but the sizes have dropped considerably in the last weeks. The best scup posted this season was an 18 1/2-inch silver platter. One bright spot was a showing of weakfish in the 22-23-inch class west of Robins Island. Fluke are plentiful, but all are sub-legal, 18-19-inch fish.
Stan Hentschel at the Rocky Point Fishing Stop was happy now that Shoreham has opened its beaches to fishing although the $25 fee for entry is steeper than expected. There was excellent fishing in the area, with some bass to 30 pounds and good fluke fishing. The Captain Bob, sailing from Mattituck Inlet, reported summer flounder to eight pounds, and scup to three and a half pounds have graced the shop scales in recent weeks as well.
