A Most Unusual Catch: One Slashing Shrimp

It looked like the Alien, its mouth consisting of numerous hooks and fan-like appendages, the eyes oblong and black. Its undulating body looked like an armored snake with dozens of legs and two praying mantis-like arms tucked close and ready to spring.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Capt. Harry Clemenz, who discovered the creature in Lake Montauk while hunting scallops with a dip net. He netted it, placed it in a bucket, and ran to his fish books for help.

Angling For Herring

Squilla empusa was its name, the common mantis shrimp, otherwise known as the slasher shrimp for its ability to slash a fish, other shrimp, or a fisherman's finger with its knife-like appendage. Good thing it was only seven inches long.

Mantis shrimp are native to this area but uncommon. Their range extends from Cape Cod to as far south as Brazil. They like to burrow in sand or mud and can be found both in shallow water just below the low tide line and in ocean depths of 500 feet.

Captain Clemenz's catch was perhaps the most spectacular of the week.

Striped bass are still around but the absence of any surf until Tuesday morning has kept them off the beach. As a result, the standings in the Montauk Locals surfcasting tournament had not changed as of Tuesday afternoon. The tournament ends on Sunday.

The silvery greenish-blue herring have been sought by bass and by fishermen seeking bass. For several weeks now boating fishermen have choked the entrance to Montauk Harbor angling for herring that have congregated there. After taking on a supply, fishermen head for the rips around Montauk Point. Boaters have continued to report strong catches of bass stuffed to the gills with herring.

Two Sets Of Rods

Capt. Mike Vegessi of the Montauk party boat Lazy Bones said he has been rigging two sets of rods for his two half-day trips each day. One set is rigged with tiny herring jigs, with which he lets his customers catch their own bait - easily done as the herring have been thick from the jetty west all along Gin Beach.

The other set of rods is rigged with bass hooks and weights for drifting bunker chunks out into the rips. "It's been absolutely terrific. All big fish, very few throwbacks. We have fish up to 35 pounds almost every trip," Captain Vegessi said on Tuesday. The Lazy Bones will call it quits early next month.

The daily bass bag-limits are filled so fast each day that charter boat captains have been splitting their time between the rips and the slack water out by the Southwest Ledge, where blackfish and sea bass live.