O Canada. . . .
For anyone here last week, the dank orange sky brought forth by numerous forest fires in Canada, our friendly neighbors to the north, certainly made for days best enjoyed indoors.
My time on the water would need to wait, but it was not a total loss, as I was able to take in much of the French Tennis Open on TV during the day on the sofa. Given my recent heart surgeries, I did not mind taking a breather and the tennis played on the red clay of Roland Garros was good.
I kept hearing in my head the thumping guitar chords and lyrics of the Deep Purple song “Smoke on the Water.” Local music radio stations were overplaying the 1972 tune for obvious reasons.
Being that I could barely make out the shoreline of Shelter Island just a mile away from my window to the east, the smoke was indeed heavy on the water. But the fish were certainly not bothered by it by all accounts. The fishing has been on fire (no pun intended) for many.
The striped bass and bluefish bite continues to be hot at Montauk, with some very large stripers now being landed and released.
“A lot of big bass to over 50 pounds are around,” observed Capt. Savio Mizzi of Fishhooker Charters. “Fishing is literally off the hook.”
Surfcasters too have taken advantage of the intense bass bite. The Montauk Surf Masters Spring Shootout leaderboard had several changes over the past week. John Bruno is currently in first place with his 48-pound bass, followed closely by the surf sharpie Brandon Sausele with a hefty 44-pound linesider. Gary (Toad) Stephens of Montauk currently holds down third with his 42-pound fish. Those are some big bass, all of which were safely released to fight another day.
Given the plethora of large bass swimming about, it is still not too late to enter the popular contest, which concludes on July 9. Sign-ups are still being accepted at Paulie’s Tackle Shop in downtown Montauk.
Fans of fluke out in Montauk can finally rejoice, as catches of the popular flatfish improved over the weekend.
“Saturday was definitely the best day so far this year,” said Capt. Jamie Quaresimo of the Miss Montauk II. “It’s starting to heat up, and it will only get better.” Several fares had their four-fish limits with the largest flattie tipping the scale at eight pounds. Quaresimo sets sail daily at 7 a.m. from the Montauk Marine Basin.
Capt. Mark Ryckman of the Montauk Star agreed with Quaresimo. “There’s been a very nice improvement on the grounds with some limits landed,” he said. “One angler himself had six keepers on Saturday.” Ryckman unties his dock lines at 6 a.m. at the Star Island Marina for a full-day excursion on the ocean.
The action offshore has also suddenly perked up, too. Kudos to Chris Remkus of North Haven for his perseverance. A week earlier, he and his crew were skunked on their search for tuna at the Dip and Fishtails far offshore. But on Saturday with Steve Shoemate and Capt. Tom Federico, they made the long 122-mile run southeast from Montauk for tuna at the West Atlantis Canyon. They were rewarded for their efforts at the end of a very long day on the water.
“Thankfully we were blessed with a couple bigeye tuna up to 141 pounds,” said the smiling Remkus. Some nice fresh sashimi and grilled tuna will be enjoyed over the next few days. Reports of excellent action for bluefin and yellowfin tuna were also received over the weekend in the general area. Looks like the tuna bite is on.
Not to be undone, blue-claw crabs have also awoken from their many months of hibernation in the sand and mud. On Sunday morning, before watching the French Open men’s final, I checked the two traps at my dock and was rewarded with about two dozen specimens of the largest kind.
After steaming the crabs, I ended up with nearly two pounds of sweet crab meat. It was an excellent start to the season. Fresh crab cakes and more would be made and enjoyed for that dinner that evening and beyond.
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Fishing tips, observations, and photographs can be sent to [email protected].