Fishing

Despite the name of this column that has run for so many decades in The Star, I have to admit that I’ve not been on the water much this year. Those who have report that blackfish, porgies, and seabass abound.

The Columbus Day weekend northeaster obviously put squidding, and all fishing for that matter, on a temporary hold. But the squid should still be around in solid quantities as the seas settle down this week.

Increasingly stronger and more persistent winds, especially from the northeast or northwest, portend that there really are only a few weeks of fishable days remaining. Time is getting short, inshore and especially offshore.

While the season to harvest bay scallops opens in state waters at sunrise on Nov. 3, unfortunately the once-plentiful bivalve again experienced a die-off toward the end of summer. 

The current hurricane season brings a humbling reminder that, despite our advanced technologies, much in nature remains unpredictable.

Though I've done little with rod and reel this season, I’m beginning to focus on the opening for blackfish on Oct. 11 in Long Island Sound and on Oct. 15 elsewhere in New York waters.

“The false albacore showed up big time,” Capt. Savio Mizzi of Fishooker Charters out of Montauk reported this week. “It’s a great start to the season.”

Meet a die-hard practitioner of an extreme form of fishing — wetsuiting.

As fall approaches, fishing, too, is beginning to change. False albacore should be showing up shortly in and around Montauk, and fluke are pushing out of the bays and have begun their migration to their winter home.

We are nearing the peak of hurricane season, which usually arrives in the middle of September, and any that come close to our area in the next few weeks will no doubt affect those who wet a line.

These days there are far fewer folks fishing from their boats or from shore in Sag Harbor than there were 30 years ago. This year I’ve probably seen around five boats fishing all season from my vantage point on Shelter Island Sound.

Before you know it, it’ll be the middle of October, when the season for blackfish begins. So I canceled my regular morning of tennis to take an early drive to Montauk to fish for fluke and sea bass aboard the Simple Life.

I'm ashamed to admit that I've done very little fishing this season. But I have a good reason.

Last week, Capt. Rich Jensen, who keeps a charter boat at Orient, did something different. He had an open date and took some friends and family out on the water to catch and release sharks.

On Sunday, I took four of my friends on the water with Capt. Rob Aaronson of the charter boat Oh Brother. It was my first time fishing out of Montauk this season, and it was good to be back home.

It’s a great tradition. The popular Montauk Grand Slam charity fishing tournament — now in its 25th year — will once again be held this weekend at Uihlein’s Marina on West Lake Drive.

I’ve received an unusual number of emails questioning my Russian heritage.

On the local fishing scene, things are heading into summer mode, but the fishing has been productive on many fronts.

The iconic movie that premiered in the summer of 1975 and scared swimmers away from the water will once again come to life when Capt. Pat Mundus, daughter of the famed shark hunter Capt. Frank Mundus, will speak at the Cutchogue Library on the 50th anniversary of the film.

It hadn’t been docked since late November after she conked out just southwest of Big Gull Island. Now my Rock Water is back in the water at her berth in Sag Harbor Cove.

It’s best to buy fish and shellfish that are locally captured and in season here. Consumers need to be smart if they truly desire freshness.

I relocated the cages of my juvenile oysters to my next-door neighbor’s dock here on the east side of North Haven, where the current runs swift. Oysters grow fast and plump in strong tidal flow.

It felt like getting whacked in the forehead by a two-by-four. The dramatic increase in the population over Memorial Day weekend was staggering.

Built nearly 25 years ago in Arichat, a small village on Isle Madame off Cape Breton Island in eastern Nova Scotia, the Rock Water is a stout craft and has served me well over the years. But my luck finally ran out last year, and it seemed everything was breaking down on a weekly basis. First was the demise of my fish finder, followed by my GPS/radar. Then the oil cooler went kaput. Next to die was the alternator.

The news I read from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a few weeks ago made me recall great times pertaining to the most iconic fish in the world.

While my boat is still shoreside, I want to remind motorboat owners that as per 2025 law they need to attend and pass a New York State safe-boating course.

Like the passing of Vincent (Butch) Maher, whom I wrote about last week, I was equally saddened to learn of the recent loss of Helen S. Rattray. She was a local legend in so many ways.

Despite keeping fishing notes in my logbook since 1975, I can’t precisely determine the exact date I first met Vincent (Butch) Maher, but I do know it happened at some point in May of 1986, according to my haphazard writings, when I climbed aboard the Lazybones.

Despite a few precious bay scallops being dredged from Lake Montauk, the season has been a total bust just about everywhere on the East End since it opened in early November.

There is one tradition of Thanksgiving that I miss even a decade later. My good friend Wayne Clinch of Montauk used to organize consecutive fishing charters on the Friday and Saturday after Turkey Day.