Sports

Fishing Report

Summer angling has gotten off to a great start, according to all sources. Capt. Rich Jensen, aboard the Nancy Ann out of Orient by the Sea, told us Monday afternoon bass action has been consistent both day and night. Daytime keepers run to 36 inches, and some of the biggest night bass are fish to 40 pounds.

Monday’s charter had limits of two keeper bass per person in three hours, so the group switched to fluke and pulled nine keepers along with 40 “shorts.” The keeper fluke are quality four- and five-pounders while there are lots of short fluke in the 18-to-19-inch class.

Scup in mixed sizes are available as well. One of Jensen’s charters made a full limit porgy trip over the weekend. The early-season scup were impressive again this year. Fishing with a special permit, Jensen described porgies to three and three-quarter pounds!

Bill Czech at Jamesport Bait and Tackle in Mattituck said there were lots of fish at dawn and dusk off McCabe’s Beach, although few of the summer flounder and bass were keeper-sized. The Peconic Bays were loaded with cocktail bluefish, but rising water temperatures have pretty much shut off the bass that were in the bays earlier. For quality scup in the Peconics, go to the Greenlawns or go east to Sterling Harbor or the Gull Islands. You will have to pull 20 fluke to find a keeper in the bay now. A few weakfish to five pounds were noted in reports last week, too.

At We Go Fishing in Southold, Steven liked the night bite along the Long Island Sound beaches. He weighed a couple of stripers in the 14-to-18-pound class over the weekend, suggested East Marion for scup and advised anglers to pick through the abundant beach fluke to find the keepers. Bluefish in close are now cocktail-sized.

A description of Long Island Sound beach fishing further west was provided by Stan Hentschel at the Rocky Point Fishing Stop. Locally there are some fluke to six pounds, but 95 percent of the flatfish are sub-legal. Some night stripers of 25 pounds have been reported, and porgy fishing has been “great.” Bluefish are larger to the east. The biggest South Shore bass seem to come from Montauk and Moriches Inlet.

Vinnie at Camp Site Sports in Huntington Station liked the South Shore sand beaches out to Montauk for bucktailing. The bigger blues to eight pounds are only beginning to arrive, while bass in the high 40s are reported from Montauk.