Sports

Fishing Report

We talked at length on Monday with Capt. Bob Ceglowski, skipper of the Captain Bob Fleet out of Mattituck Inlet. Ceglowski has been running combination trips for scup, sea bass, stripers and blues with quite a bit of success, despite warm Long Island Sound temperatures (up to 81 degrees in recent days). An abundance of stripers, some in the 18-to-24-pound class, up to nine keepers a day, and a blast of porgies last week have given anglers a lot to be happy with. Nevertheless, fishing can be “picky” at times, and the fade of fluke action since early July has been disappointing. Often the targeted fish are not in the usual places, and it may take 10 or more drops to produce limits of porgies.

Charlie Caraftis at Charlie’s Mattituck Fishing Station and Marina on Mattituck Creek noted action off Hortons on stripers to 20 pounds and “gorilla” bluefish in teen sizes. The largest scup taken by small craft fishing 30- to 40-foot depths are 14 to 15 inches in size. Anglers fishing on the drift pick up sea bass to 16 inches, and there are quite a few triggerfish around. One boat had six. A steady pick of weakfish to 21 inches makes a nice bonus.

Steven at WeGo Fishing in Southold explained that the Peconic porgy fishing was very good and that there were lots of summer weakfish available in the Noyac and Greenport areas. Some pods of summer flounder appeared recently off Trumans Beach, and scup action remains very good on the eastern Long Island Sound. Plum Gut and Fishers Island Race continue to produce nicely with bass on the ebb, both day and night, and bluefish by day. Chris at Captain Marty’s Fishing Station in New Suffolk described good catches of porgies — the best fish in that area are around 12 inches — and weakfish to 20 inches, particularly off Nassau Point, Buoy 22. Snappers and blue claw crabs continue to please locals around the docks.

Finally, from the Rocky Point Fishing Stop to the west comes a description of “the doldrums” off the beaches with hints of success only “in the middle of the night.” While there are still scup off local beaches, there are no predators working the bunker schools tight to the shores.