What makes Montauk special for me is the love people have for it. Year after year people come for parts of the summer season to enjoy our sanctuary.
On July 22nd Captain Steve and I took one of our favorite summer visitors, Cheikh, with his daughter Salma and his niece Keyna, for a morning fishing trip. We left the marina around 7:30am. The first area we tried was not far from the harbor entrance. It usually is a productive area but this year it was a slow pick of small black sea bass and sea robins. Sea robins are a triglidae and are also commonly known as gurnards. They are a great cut bait when filleted and made into strips. It was flat calm out front of the inlet. While we fished, a restored schooner passed across our stern.
The fishing wasn’t as good as the scenery so we moved on. We saw another boat with friends from our marina and checked in to see how they were doing in an area off the lighthouse that usually produces well for bottom fishing. The last half of the incoming tide was matched up with a fairly light west to southwest wind so conditions were favorable. You always want wind and tide together when doing bottom fishing drifts. We decided to head down the beach to the west of the lighthouse. We passed a party boat and another boat on the way. We set up our drift well to the west of both boats. As we drifted east the fish started chewing. The cut sea robin strips, cut clams and Atlantic silversides, locally known as spearing were all producing. We caught summer flounder, locally known as fluke, seabreams, locally known as porgies or scup and a few more sea robins. The porgies were the only keeper sized fish.
Eventually, Captain Steve checked with our friends to the east who continued fishing south of the lighthouse. They said the fishing was good so we went back to the east to finish the incoming tide. It was one day after the July full moon. When the tide switched to the outgoing ebb tide conditions worsened. With two five gallon pails full of porgies and one Atlantic mackerel, locally known as boston mackerel, the trip was a success.
At the dock I scaled and gutted the scup and mackerel for Cheikh. It was the end of a lovely day.
