Tale Of A Monster

Ken Morse's disappointment is the kind only fishermen can understand - a profound letdown, as opposed to, say, losing one's job.

"I'm hurt on the inside," said the manager of Sag Harbor's Bayview Seafood Market and Tackle shop. "I'll have the experience my whole life, but I'm hurt. I have a wad of line, and I can't let it go."

Mr. Morse lost a fish.

"It was the biggest fish I ever caught surfcasting," he reported on Tuesday, robotically, in a monotone devoid of life. "I couldn't sleep last night."

Only A Story Is Left

"I will never throw it away," he said of the 200 feet of coiled 20-pound test line that a giant striped bass stripped from his reel Monday evening at the elbow near the east jetty at Shinnecock.

He told the story because it was all that was left of the fish - just the story and the cuts on his hands made by the line when he caught the fish a second time and tried to land it by hand. But that's getting ahead of the story.

When the fish first struck his bait, a "shad head with a funny-looking mogambo grub, and squid-scented jelly," it reacted, said Mr. Morse, "like no other fish - a real terror."

"It didn't budge for 15 seconds. It felt like the hook was stuck on the bottom. Then the fish yanked out about 15 or 20 feet of line, then didn't budge for another 30 seconds. It left me confused. I thought it was stuck in some weed in the tide."

High Gear

The confusion stopped, Mr. Morse said, when the fish "went into high gear, stripping 100 yards of line from the reel without slowing. The second run made the first one seem silly. Then the line broke. I questioned divinity when the line broke. I put my tail between my legs and casted for another half hour."

He caught a few smaller bass and then, as luck would have it, his lure snagged the lost fishing line with the monster bass still attached.

"I fought it by hand on 20-pound [test] no-stretch line, got about 30 feet of it and then he shook the hook. As I pulled in the lure a bluefish took it."

"I never saw it," he said of the big fish, "but I felt every ounce."

After regaining his composure, Mr. Morse suggested that bass could be taken early in the morning by Sag Harbor boaters using parachute jigs.

"From past history, there should be bass around in the 30 to 50-pound range as the second [migratory] pulse moves up, making it very potential for those who have some skill and are willing to put in the time."

Fluke, summer flounder, are being caught too. Mr. Morse said Greenlawns, on the west side of Shelter Is land, was producing fluke and weakfish.

Weakfish and "cocktail," or school-size, bluefish are found in Noyac Bay. Capt. Bob Hand, who runs a charter service out of the Bayview shop, came back with an 8.5-pound fluke over the weekend.

Blue Zillions

Harvey Bennett, whose relocated Tackle Shop is due to open at 3 Fort Pond Boulevard in Springs this weekend, credits the colder-than-usual water temperature for the abundance of fish on the bay side and their aggressive nature.

"There are 10 zillion bluefish at Cartwright Shoals," he said, meaning the bank of shallow water that sweeps off the southeast end of Gardiner's Island. Mr. Bennett said Richard Stone, his charter of a week ago, also took a 33-inch bass just outside Accabonac Harbor.

The sharking has started. For the last several days, Montauk charter boats have been making the trip offshore, as close as 13 miles and as far as 30, to find sharks, mostly blues.

Mixing It Up

It's a great time to charter a boat. The captains are mixing it up: cruising the food chain on the way offshore, first to the trusty striped bass spots - and catching their limit - then to the rips to angle for big bluefish to use for fresh shark bait, and then to the sharks themselves.

Fluke fishing has been reported productive on the south side of Montauk, as well as in the rips around the Point and by Shagwong Point.