A Building Fall Run

We are pretty well into it right now. Fish of all sizes seem to be spread out evenly all around the Island to the delight of many fly and light tackle anglers. Even the north shore got a nice jolt of bass this past week cruising the wash along the beaches. It almost had the feel of a legitimate fall run. While the western reaches of the Sound have been pretty hot as of late, the central Sound area only just heated up a notch. The area from about Cedar Beach in Mt Sinai out to Shoreham was especially productive with schoolies to mid-teens bass. I took a stroll on the beach slightly west of there Saturday morning and found some friendly fish. A group of local anglers was into them pretty solid. While most were small schoolies there were a few just-keeper bass in the mix. Fish in the wash, just a roll cast away, made for some nice in-tight fishing. The bass I saw taken were mostly caught on an assortment of plastics. Farther west the fishing remained consistent with the Triangle giving up a number of decent fish - both bass and blues – and Smithtown Bay is still showing signs of life. There were some solid reports as well coming in from the extreme western reaches of the Sound highlighting good bass, blue and ‘togs. The offshore shoals and deep water of the Sound also gave up some goods numbers of fish to diamond jigging. That is somewhat standard operating procedure for this time of year but the more that action builds the more the fish are staging for their retreat from the Sound, so the time to cash in is now. Albies are now more the exception than the rule with remaining pods taking up the rear of the run. Next stop, New Jersey and North Carolina. Moriches was hot this week as were many of the beaches to the east and west. The west-end had solid catches of fish and J-Bay is crankin’. Just a quick word on stripers. There is a report out on the state of the Chesapeake “young-of-the-year” striped bass. The report has been generated for that stock of fish for fifty years now, so there is a broad base of data that has validity. What it shows in summary for the period 2001 to 2008 is a dramatic reduction in the young-of-year stripers for the Chesapeake fishery, a resource that represents about 75% of the bass we see here on Long Island. As one renowned oceanographer put it, “the reduction is significant.” While we will report in more detail on those findings, as you fish the last innings of the 2009 season, try to keep only what you need and release the rest. I think some self-imposed limiting of the current take will go a long way toward ensuring the future health of the striped bass stock not only for us but also for our children. We don’t always need new laws to guide us to do the right thing. Thanks.