Awesome Bass Blitz

As predicted last week, the gannet attack has begun providing what one fisherman called a "surfcaster's dream." On Saturday, a hard south wind and swell joined with a squadron of diving gannets to pin bunker and herring against the bluff just to the south of the Montauk Lighthouse.

The bluff, the scene of another major blitz two weeks ago, has seen some of the more dramatic surfcasting action this season. As before, big bass and bluefish waded into the schools of bait fish from one side, and a weekend crowd of happy surfcasters waded in from the other. A near-shore gannet display was an added attraction this time around.

The result was a two-hour-long dream as described by Joe Gaviola:

Awesome Bite

"There were bunker and herring. The herring were eight inches long. There were a lot of 20-pound bass. I had 30 fish. Dennis [Mr. Gaviola's brother] had 30, seven in the 20s. You couldn't wait to cast again. There were maybe two dozen gannets, and you were casting into them. It was a quartering wind, so you could cast. The bluefish were huge and spitting up big herring. There was such a surge from the south the bait was locked on the beach. It went on for two hours, nonstop. It was awesome."

At the end of the day, Atilla Ozturk found himself with the second and third-largest fish caught to date in the Montauk Locals surfcasting tournament. The 34-pound bass he caught on Saturday pushed the 33-and-a-half pounder he had brought in earlier back into third place. Richie Michaelson's 37-and-a-half-pound striper still leads.

A 50-pound bass caught two weeks ago by Ken Moschitta, a visitor, is still the largest bass caught thus far from the beach this season.

Passing The Word

There were signs before Saturday's blitz. The bait was there; it just took a storm to whip things up.

Last Thursday, the Oh Brother charter boat was close to shore off the Montauk Moorlands near Caswell's Cove. The scene that unfolded of plunging gannets and boiling fish at dead-low tide without a soul on the beach prompted Capt. Rob Aaronson to pick up his cellular phone and alert just one of his fellow Montaukers of the casting persuasion. The result was a small expedition that got into the rocky cove in time to catch bass in the 20-and-30-pound range.

Gannets and other birds were also seen off Accabonac Harbor and elsewhere in Gardiner's Bay and Block Island Sound this week following migrating fish that seemed to have been spurred along by the cold weather.

Bass Heaven

As good as this fall season has been, has anyone ever had a day of surfcasting like the one enjoyed by the late Clarence Thomas, an East Hampton clock repairman, who found a school of big bass near Georgica Pond one day in 1950?

Edgar Hoagland of East Hampton, a surfcaster for over 40 years, said the diminutive Mr. Thomas caught five fish all weighing between 30 and 35 pounds in a single day. Mr. Thomas had a picture of himself and his catch mounted on a card with the inscription: "Going fishing? I've been."