9/21/09

Two weeks ago I stated that I wasn’t going to write about tuna anymore this year. Well, that was then and this is now.
This past week the giants bit in the Mudhole. On Wednesday 15-20 were taken. Then on Thursday maybe five were
caught. I don’t know about Thursday, but as far as I know none have been taken since then even though there were
around 125 boats fishing there on Saturday and Sunday. The fish were probably hanging around down deep slurping up
all the bait that was raining down on them. I’m sure there are some boats there now, and maybe things will be a little
different with fewer boats.

There is stuff going on with the New York legislature trying to adjust the saltwater license fiasco. It is aimed at either
allowing the licenses that are purchased this year to run through 2010, or to change the starting date to January 1, instead
of October 1, as it is now. I bet nothing changes.

Inshore the fishing is just great except for the lack of falsies. Even the fluke fishing is holding up, unlike the past couple
of years when it started to drop off by late August. And, the headboats with the special permits are loving it, carrying
way better than they would be without the fluke.

There was an offshore tournament geared to Topaz owners this past weekend, but nobody showed up. It was originally
set for back in August, but got hurricaned out and was changed to this weekend. The Marine Basin has had one of these
tournaments on the books for the last three years, the first two with Old Harbor Outfitters, and each time it was blown
out

Paulies Tackle Shop held a surf casters contest over the weekend and the results are as follows;
Striped Bass
John Bruno - 32.06 lbs
Steve Dilara - 31.36 lbs
Justin Cassar - 27.92 lbs
Bluefish
Rick Girzadas - 11.18 lbs
Frank Mercurio - 10.90 lbs
Dave Haase - 10.38 lbs

Next weekend is the Fisherman magazines annual Montauk Classic. You can sign up at Paulies.

If you would like to get these reports sent to you directly, drop me a line at captaingene@montauksportfishing.com and
I’ll put you on the list.

Capt Gene Kelly - Montauk Sportfishing