Montauk Sportfishing Report 9/20/04

[CaptGeneKelly]

9/20/04

The fall run is here! The surfcasters are smiling, as are the flyguys. Bait is moving and bass, blues
and falsies are eating heavy.

The live porgies are still producing big time for the boater, and practically no one is trolling for
bass anymore. Most only troll when the weather makes drifting too uncomfortable, like it was for
most of the week on the ebb tides.

The leftover from hurricane IVAN arrived in a flash around mid day Saturday. One minute there
was a ten knot breeze, and the next there was a forty knot gale, accompanied by a couple of
waterspouts. The guys who were fishing morning trips were at the dock when it hit. Those on all
day trips had a rough ride home, and the ones on offshore trips had extremely crappy rides home,
much of the time at idle speed.

The Long Island Classic was held over the weekend, and much of the fishing was in classic
surfcasting weather, with high winds and heavy surf. I stopped into Freddies on Sunday afternoon
and a couple of guys who had just dropped by were talking about the best surfcasting they had
ever had. They spent the morning at Turtle Cove all morning hauling in bluefish and bass. The
Classic ended at noon, but a couple of guys got to the shop a couple of minutes too late, with
stripers they had taken off the sand beach still wiggling. The results are as follows;

1st Place Bass - Matt McDermott - 34.44 lbs
2nd Place Bass - Mike Lang - 32.00 lbs
3rd Place Bass - John Peros - 23.72 lbs
4th Place Bass - Matt Vega - 21.24 lbs
5th Place Bass - Frank Solano - 19.96 lbs

1st Place Blue - Dan Austen - 15.34 lbs
2nd Place Blue - Richie Michelsen - 11.78 lbs
3rd Place Blue - Barry Barone - 11.44 lbs
4th Place Blue - Jay Flynn - 10.58 lbs
5th Place Blue - Andy Richman - 9.88 lbs

Offshore the main tuna action right now is way to the east at the Mudhole, with lots of small
bluefins, along with some keepers trailing the draggers. A long way to the south there are still
longfins and some yellowfins, along with lots of mahi around the pots.

For information about the Montauk Boatman’s and Captain’s Association two month long bass
tournament in October and November, go to
http://www.montauksportfishing.com/BassTournament.htm

If you would like to have these reports sent to you directly, just drop me a note at
CaptGene@MontaukSportfishing.com. And for more information about fishing in Montauk, you
can give me a call at 800 280 5565 or check out ht.//www.montauksportfishing.com.