Fishing Report
Local writer Tom Schlichter figures that the best bets on the North Fork are open boat fluke aboard the Captain Bob out of Mattituck Inlet or the bass off Orient for myriad party and charter boats. Shoreline fishing on Long Island Sound is pretty quiet, although scup action is everywhere.
Capt. Dave Brennan, who skippers the Peconic Star and the Peconic Star Express out of Greenport expected to be shifting to porgies at the time of this writing. In the last days of his fluke excursions, he was regularly seeing fish over nine pounds. Post-spawn weakfish also showed up recently, fish in the four-to-eight-pound class, a very good sign for the future.
Charlie Caraftis at Charlie’s Mattituck Marina on Mattituck Creek is coming off a terrific scup run with many fish in the 17-inch class over the weekend. There were not a lot of keeper summer flounder in the near inshore, but one porgy angler had a 25-inch fluke over the weekend. Around mid-May, Caraftis was surprised by the number of four-to-five-pound weaks in his catches. Small bluefish are also quite abundant. Beach stripers are quiet now, but boats fishing Hortons are producing some bass day and night. Back west, the Caraftis Fishing Station in Port Jefferson had lots of sub-legal fluke and schoolie stripers on tap off Buoy 11, working on sand eels.
Bill Czech at Jamesport Bait and Tackle in Mattituck detailed catches of the largest jumbo scup we had heard about in recent times. Fish of 20, 21-1/2, and 24 inches were measured at the shop. Finally, Stan Hentschel at the Rocky Point Fishing Stop liked the local porgy action and was impressed by the blowfish (puffers) along the beaches. Fluke tend to be short, smaller than those taken farther east. Bass were not plentiful with occasional keepers and better fish outside the shoal areas. South shore beaches were also quiet, with bass schools working on bunker in 50 feet of water, although Montauk appears to have a reasonable run,