If you fish in Montauk or land in Montauk with a fish, you need to be enrolled, unless
you only fish on a charter or head boat. To do it, you can go to
https://nyfgisales.appsolgrp.com/fgnyia/html/index.jsp and just follow the instructions. Don't worry about the
indication that you have to pay with a credit card. If you only apply for the marine license, the fee is $0.00 and
you don't have to enter any credit card info.
Inshore the fluke fishing is as good as it gets right now, the best it's been all season with lots of fish and
plenty of the edible kind, with pool winners on the head boats regularly 8 pounds or better. There are some nice
sized seabass mixed in as well. I haven't heard much about the porgie or seabass fishing since most of the
bottom fishermen are concentrating on the fluke.
Striped bass fishing continues to be a little on the difficult side. There are some nice fish around, but not a
lot of fish. The most consistent catching has been on the wire with the parachutes. More anglers have been
using live bait of some sort (porgies, eels, spot, croakers, whatever), but that involves a lot of patience with not
much action, but usually larger fish. Some of the charters on all day trips have been heading over to Southwest
Ledge, and having better luck, but it's a long ride a half day trip.
Offshore the sharking is coming into what we call the doldrums. Not a lot of sharks. One to three bites per
trip is probably about average, but no bites is also possible. I'm the poster captain for that, not getting a bite n
two out of three trips over the past week and a half. But the good news is that you have a great chance of the
bite you do get of being a mako.
There may still be some bluefin tuna around, but not many. I know one charter boat that put in a full day
trolling around the Butterfish Hole and a bit south of it. He got one bluefin of around fifty pounds, which means
he caught his limit. But, one fish among six guys isn't a very exciting trip. To keep the crew entertained they
stopped at some lobster pots and caught a bunch of chicken dolphin on spinning rods.
Out on the Edge the yellowfin action continues to improve, but you have to go all the way, and beyond.
There isn't much inside the drop-off except some dwarf yellowfins.
The September issue of Marlin magazine is out and they have a nice article about the history of fishing in
Montauk. If you can't get a copy of it, you can check it out at
http://www.montauksportfishing.com/marlinmtk.html
For more info about fishing in Montauk, check out www.montauksportfishing.com and if you would like to
receive these reports directly, drop me a line at captaingene@montauksportfishing.com