7/12/10

What happens if you have a shark tournament and no sharks show up? You hear a lot of
“Where are the sharks, Mommy?” and “What time do the boats come in?”. That’s what
happened to the weekends MBCA shark contest. First there was a very disappointing
number of boats involved. And then the shark fishing wasn’t very good, probably
partially due to the seventy-five degree water temps. Three fish were brought to the
scales on Saturday and on Sunday only one qualifier. The results are as follows;
1st place - Boat #4 - blueshark - 268 lbs.
2nd place - TUNA TANGLER TOO - blueshark - 236 lbs.
3rd place - MY MATE - blueshark - 221 lbs.
4th place - REAL DEAL - thresher - 211 lbs.

The bluefins seem to be all around. At least they are being seen in a lot of different
places, but the only place they seem to be being caught is around the Gully. Being there
early is the surest way to get a bite, but some occasional fish are being caught after the
sun gets up in the sky. Diamond jigs are working occasionally if you drop them on the
right fish. A lot of them are being seen pushing water throughout the day, but they rarely
do anything other than swim on by.

Yellowfins out on the Edge are getting closer with a couple of charterboats catching fish
as close as 14600/43400. Better action is still out around West Atlantis.

Inshore the striped bass fishing is exceptional. A week ago it was great and this week it
got even better. I’m running out of words to describe it. You can catch them anyway you
like, and there are better size fish showing up more regularly.

Bottom fishing is still good as long as you don’t eat fluke. Keepers are still scarce, but if
you put in your time in the deeper waters you will be able to scratch out a few.

The bluefish are biting pretty good. So good that they had to close down Hither Hills to
swimming after a couple of people got bit.

If you would like to receive these reports directly, drop me a line at
captaingene@montauksportfishing.com