In like a lion, out like a lamb. While usually reserved for a description of spring’s arrival and departure, that phrase may have applicability to this year’s fishing season. The Long Island spring run was stellar but the formation of a complete fall run around the Island has been slow to start and even slower to form. It’s more of a jog than a run. Some believe we may have already seen the best of it but just like Mr. October’s home runs, the best may be saved for last. That said there have been some very consistent bright spots for fly and light tackle anglers. Despite tough conditions, a number of anglers are putting together a decent string of fall catches. The easy blitzes that have become a trademark of east-end fall action are few and far between so far this fall. One key to success is putting in the time and being persistent. Right now the skills at finding ones own fish are much more important than following the crowd.

The Sound has continued to deliver bass, blues and albies on both the New York and Connecticut sides. The CT shoreline has even maintained a continued run of Atlantic bonito around the Norwalk Islands, as have some areas to our east in Rhode Island, the Vineyard an the Cape. Some “bones” continue to be taken on the Long Island side of the Sound as well, but the vast majority of the pelagics in that body of water are albies. Leaving the fly rod in the truck and taking up a medium spinning outfit I bumped some small bass and blues along the beach and spied some albies a few casts out of range. Shinnecock continues as one of the strongest albie magnets this season, when the water is clean and the bait in strong concentrations. The fish are not only feeding on small rainbait but the masses of sand eels that are working their way down the south shore. Small butterfish are also on the menu.

Despite often challenging conditions, a number of anglers are putting together decent strings of fall catches. The easy blitzes that have become a trademark of east-end fall action are few and far between so far this fall. One key to success is putting in the time and being persistent. Right now the skills at finding ones own fish are much more important than following the crowd. I took my usual long fall walk and wade trips along the a few north shore beaches and was totally amazed at the lack of in-close surface activity but bass, blues and albies are still being caught. Much of the north shore action is sub-surface, with fish hanging near the bottom so it is better right now to fish proven structure-holding areas rather than just looking for typical topside fall activity. Some recent crab hatches have given a few top-water anglers a real treat. Moriches gave up some very nice bass this past week with a number of solid fish taken on Friday and Saturday along the beaches west of the inlet. Perennial fall favorite, Shinnecock, has also continued to produces as increasing numbers of fish begin to move west and south. Beach bass are also being caught at Moses and well into J-Bay. The western Sound is fishing much better than central areas. Orient has been on at times with large blues and mid-sized bass on top-water and bucktails. The Montauk rips have been seeing some bass into the 30s on bucktails and a few diligent fly casters have taken schoolie to teen-sized fish from the sand beaches west of the Point.