Under the COver of Darkness Montauk Striper BlitZ

[Ironwoodtuna]

Storms rolling in Friday night in Montauk kept me inshore again this weekend. With the Thunderstorms having rolled trough Montauk by 10PM, my son Cody, and I fished the incoming tide from 10:30 till 2:00AM. It was a beautiful night came to be, the conditions and water were great, but the rips didn't hold much of anything including bait or bass. I went down swinging, with only two hits and no bass in the box.

Saturday morning after a three hour nap, it was 5AM, and Cody and I set off to troll for the Bluefin tunas South of B.I. we trolled till 11AM with no action and no BFT seen. So, we came back to Montauk for some bottom fishing, we had some beautiful Seabass and Porgys for my wife to cook.

Took a shower and a short nap till 10:30PM when my partner would arrive.

Undetered, and having experienced many, many early July blitzes in the Montauk rips, my fishing partner, Al talked with Cody about a past July when Cody had dropped a Monster Bass in the rips during the July moon. That July we managed thirty-two bass, over thirty-pounds, in three nights worth of outgoing tides. Six of the fish over 40lbs, with three over 45lbs. These experiences and strong beleifs are a great thing! So, off we went to the rips of Montauk knowing of these great past monster catches.

We got to our fisrt rip under the cover of total darkness except for the low glow of my amber cockpit lights. The wind had dropped out and the moon wasn't up, it was just dark and quite. Al dropped his eel in into the depths, then Cody dropped his eel down, then I dropped my eel down. Luck be on my side, I must have hit the fish on the head. Instantly I was into a 40+ pound fish. The fish came right to the boat like a schoolie! Then the big fish rolled, and made a monster run down and away from the boat, then as most monster bass do, she ran out and up towards the surface, making a huge commotion. I worked her back to the boat where she rolled and drove for a second run, Cody had put his rod down and grabbed his video cam. The fish was a good solid 40+ ponder. I felt her shake her head and then I felt my 10/0 Gamogatus hook pull.

We continued back up to the begriming of the drift, as each drift passed we caught, hooked dropped and had shots for a good hour and a half. Then the action got slow on this great Montauk incoming tide. So, we ran over to the Elbow, made a few drifts there with not hits, then drifted Great Eastern for a couple more drifts with no action. This was the recent MO of the poor night fishing that has been so far this year in Montauk.

Believing that the break we had now given our initial spot, we returned. Drift by drift, we began to take one or two fish per drift. The bass were not committing suicide, they were finicky, in fact you had to let them eat the eel for a while, a sign that there wasn't a lot of bait in the area. After Cody had put his rod down and went to sleep, Al and I continued to put together a great night's catch. After the pethetic Friday night of bass fishing, many anglers may not have beleived that the fishing could have gotten good the very next night, plus with the cost of fuel and bait, many would have chosen to stay home. But, we believed! A nice brace of 28-bass taken, all the fish were solid 24-32 lb range with two more screamer cows dropped.

By 2AM, we were the only boat still fishing, by 4AM it was time to head in, clean our three bass we kept for steaks. But, that wasn't the end, no rest for the weary. I had to immediately get Cody up and drive him home for a Hershey Park trip by 8am. Off to the canyons next weekend. It's tuna time so the next report will be from the offshore. Capt. Mty

[shoefish]

Sounds like a nice weekend full of fishing- it can be so rewarding when you have a good run after it's been tough.

Good luck on the edge next weekend!

[JD5652]

Ironwood-

Thanks for the great report! Way to hang in there and get your catch!

[fountain17]

Very nice report!!

Don

[Madchark]

Its all about putting your time in! Nice report.

[POON MAN]

Juat an awesome report Ironwood

Look forward to your canyon adventures