Seabass Fluke
While nobody likes to see summer draw to a close, the fall season is already just around the proverbial corner. For many Long Island anglers that means making plans to run on out to Montauk, hit the South Shore surf or squeeze in a last shot or two of mixed-bag wreck fishing on the artificial reefs just outside the inlets.
These are all good ideas, of course, but if you target the waters of Long Island Sound throughout the summer months there’s really no need to rush the fall season. In fact, the big payoff for North Shore anglers is really just getting underway this month. Just like on south side, the Sound’s water temperatures are now declining. Responding to the temperature dips, as well as fewer hours of sunlight plus plumes of baitfish flowing out of the estuaries, the North Shore action with everything from blues, striped bass and false albacore to bottom feeders like porgies and sea bass should be building on a daily basis. Bluefish, of course, are available to Long Island Sound anglers throughout the summer months with cocktails on the fluke grounds and bigger choppers out at the Middle Grounds. In September, however, both the size and intensity of the choppers begins to increase. As the month opens gorillas of the biggest kind, some topping 15 pounds, explode on bunker inside Manhasset Bay as well as Hempstead, Northport, Huntington, Port Jefferson and Mount Sinai Harbors. These fish can be taken on bunker chunks, tins and poppers but the biggest generally fall to adult bunker live-lined at the top of outgoing water.
This is big fish action, requiring heavy gear, strong leaders and a properly set drag to get the job done. Often it happens at mid-afternoon at the edges of mooring fields – but don’t overlook back-harbor flats where individual lunkers will lurk early and late in the day without showing any signs on the surface.
Mount Sinai and Huntington harbors, in particular, hold some very big fish at this time of year. Soon after the harbor action settles into a semi-regular routine, somewhat smaller choppers in the four to eight-pound class begin pushing right up to the shore along open Sound beaches from Asharoken all the way east to Riverhead and Mattituck. These greedy beasts are in search of small snappers, spearing, sand eels and just about any other baitfish they can mangle. Plenty of midsized choppers are also available for boaters at the Middle Grounds, inside the Eaton’s Neck Triangle, or off any point that holds a solid population of porgies – a favorite target of hungry blues.
Given the smaller sizes and more open conditions compared to inside the harbors – no moorings, anchored boats or dock edges to negotiate – these open Sound blues can be taken with lighter gear and are, in fact, perfect for targeting with the long wand. Work these fish with white, yellow or blue pencil poppers, Ava 27s, Hopkins No-Equal or Shorty tins and, on rough days or when the bite slackens substantially, bunker chunks fished right on the bottom. Fly-rodders can use large foam poppers or nearly any white, silver or chartreuse minnow pattern measuring four to seven inches in length.
Unnoticed by many as September passes its mid-point is that striped bass fishing also quietly improves on the Sound. You’re still not very likely to plug significant linesiders during mid-day hours from the beach but it is now reasonable to expect a fish or two to show along the shore in the early morning or right at dusk. In the deeper waters at the Middle Grounds, where experts have chunked away at the stripers throughout the summer, the bite picks up with renewed intensity and begins to reestablish itself on both incoming and outgoing water.
There are no secret weapons in the North Shore’s September game plan. Standard tins, plugs and poppers will all get the job done, but I tend to keep my lures on the smaller side when working the Sound than I do when working the open surf of the Atlantic. Ava 007 and Ava 27’s, either unadorned or with white or green tube tails, are my primary tins. I’ll also throw a KastMaster, Hopkins’ Shorty with white bucktail, or a 3-inch Johnson Sprite from time to time, too. The Sprite, by the way, does a great job of matching small snappers and if reeled slowly at the surf line will tempt a surprising number of fluke which remain in season through September 21 (add a strip of squid to the back if you suspect the flatfish are available). At daybreak and dusk white, yellow, chrome or blue poppers can sometimes raise the blues and an occasional bass or two. Yo-Zuri Hydro Poppers and Cotton Cordell Pencil Poppers are two of my September go-to lures for North Shore action.
While most anglers key on the blues and stripers, or work the bottom for September’s abundant porgies and sea bass, there is an ever-growing set that actively searches for false albacore. Like the blues, false albacore seem to enjoy making a scene on the surface as they pursue small baitfish with relentless enthusiasm. You can tell them from the choppers by the smaller pods pushing forward at an accelerated pace. Another tip-off is that few if any terns and seagulls dive on the albie schools. That’s because bluefish slash their prey but falsies swallow them whole, leaving nothing behind for the birds to get excited about.
There are several keys to connecting with the false albacore no matter where they swim. Most importantly, you’ll need to spend considerable time scouting. Check out areas immediately east or west of a harbor or inlet mouth, or watch along a long stretch of beach where eight to 20-foot depths are within easy casting distance. Next, keep a rod rigged specifically for these explosive but picky predators even if you are working up blues and an occasional bass. Small Ava 27s and Deadly Dicks, tried directly to the line sans swivels, snaps or heavy leaders offer your best chance at hooking up with these speedsters. Reel these as quickly as possible and be sure to cast toward where the schools are headed, not where there were a second ago.
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