7/114/2011

Old Ma Nature shined on us over the weekend, burning the fog away for a while. But the forecast looks like it might be coming by Tuesday.

The local offshore is getting pretty interesting, with some bluefin hanging around along with occasional white marlin plus some other exotics, like the cobia that the MONTAUK had in it’s slick. There are less bluesharks, but more makos and threshers. Most of the bluefins that we had been seeing have apparently kept moving east and are now east of Coxes Ledge. But there are still some stragglers around even if you don’t see any signs of them. I had three between 40-60 lbs on Saturday and never saw any signs that they were there. We’re only allowed one per boat, so no charterboat is going to expend a lot of effort on trying to catch them, with most only putting in an hour or so trolling before throwing the bag in the water.

The MBCA had it’s shark tournament over the weekend with fourteen entrants, the same as last year. The results are as follows;

1st place - 426 lbs. thresher - KAITLYN

2nd place - 328 lbs. thresher - HERL’S GIRL

3rd place - 155 lbs. thresher - SEA WIFE

Inshore the bass fishing is good enough, with a nicer class of fish around. Many of the fish are between 20-30 lbs. The ADA K (formerly the HOOKER) likes to fish with the big tubes targeting only the bigger fish and he now feels comfortable fishing with them exclusively. Before this he would use the umbrellas or parachutes because there weren’t enough of the larger fish around.

Fluke fishing is pretty decent as well and charters on all day inshore trips are now comfortable fishing for them, instead of the seabass or porgies, after catching their limit of stripers. At least now when you catch a short, you might have to measure it before throwing it back.

Capt Gene Kelly
Tropical Fishing Adventures - Montauk Sportfishing
631 668 2019
http://www.tropicalfishing.com