Sometimes you just have to thank the fish gods for bluefish, especially when it gets tough chasing after the local inshore pelagics. The only guy who is happy to see the bonito disperse is my local gas station attendant! The ratio of gas dollars to fish spotted was astronomical. I did find some very scattered fish early last week in a most non-typical area well away from the crowds but they were there for only one day and gone the next. That is why it pays to explore every once in a while. You just never know where the concentrations of “bones” will show up. I am of the opinion that is how it will be until we get another strong push of fish through our area, which could be in a matter of hours, days or weeks. Or it just might be the next tide. While they do show marked preferences for certain areas around Long Island, these aquatic sprinters can cover long distances in short amounts of time as they search for optimal conditions and bait. If you like pursuing bonito with the fly rod my advice would be to keep at it, be persistent and embark upon a journey of discovery! I guess I’ve just been spoiled with a few of the remarkable past seasons but I will still keep looking and casting. Each and every bonito on the fly is a worthy accomplishment!
Despite the relative scarcity of bonito there are the bluefish - lots of them, with many big fish in the mix. As is typical for this time of year the blue bruisers hit everything thrown at them. They put a substantial dent in my large-fly wallet as their huge maws sliced through 40, 50 and even 60-pound fluorocarbon leaders as if they were 6/0 tying thread. But the ones that were brought to submission were well worth the price I had to pay. One double-digit fish jumped so close to the boat that it brushed against the top of the gunwale, and I could swear by the look in its eyes, it had designs on some “vital” areas of my anatomy. That put me on instant alert! These big fish seem to be everywhere right now: western north shore harbors, south shore inlets and bays, offshore, the central Sound and at both forks of the east end. Striped bass are still falling to flies fished in and around structure, mostly in the very early morning hours or well into the night. Moderately –sized to larger flies seems to work best on often reluctant bass. During the daytime, varied size, color and retrieves and at night give those darker-colored flies a try.
The offshore fly-fishing crowd is enjoying some fine big-game fly-fishing with SBFT, mahi and bonito. That action remains solid from New Jersey up through New England.
Now that there is a tinge of fall in the early morning temperatures I eagerly await those cooler days and evenings that will motivate the bass to more regularly visit the beaches within casting distance of the fly rod. Still no meaningful reports of Little tunny (albies) but if that is going to happen in a substantive way, we should see some fish soon enough.
