Dear Fishermen and Friends,

 

June is here and it feels like June. The weather is all over the place, the stripers are active, the island is buzzing with activity and …. a bonito was caught…. Huh? Crazy right? Well, as we have been saying for the last month, get out and fish, you do not know what is going to happen. Now we firmly believe this was a rogue bonito, but there is plenty of bait and last year late in June we had a little surge of fast fish, so you never know. This fish was caught on the west end of the island.

 

As for Stripers, this is the time of year to fish for them and they are here. Boat fishermen are doing well, but beach guys seem to be crushing them as well. This is because the water is still cold enough that the fish are staying in the shallows for warmth and are pushing the bait up to the shoreline. While the majority of fish are still schoolies there are keepers mixed in.

 

There are some bluefish and shad around as well, there are not enough to “target” them but don’t be surprised if you catch one.

 

Fish are now being caught in the harbors, on the north shore and along the entirety of the south shore. Bottom line, they are everywhere, you just have to get out and work for them. We have been saying this for the last month, what is important is not where you start fishing, but that you work a shoreline while you fish. Do not plant your feet, but walk a couple of hundred yards until you get somewhere “fishy” and when this happens, give it some time. Fish are being caught on a variety of flies and lures. That Bonito was caught on an atoms popper, and many people are using surface baits for the pure joy of the hit. Soft plastics have become the staple this time of year, but the other day I was having no luck on a soft bait and put a small hard bait on and wham, started catching fish. The point is don’t be a one trick pony, but have a few options at the ready. As for flies, the standard are clousers and they are working. in fact, this time of year you can almost catch more fish on a fly than a spin rod as it matches the bait perfectly.

The other fun development is that the squid have begun to show and are filling in the western rips. This is so much fun as the visuals are better than the hook-ups. The advice here though is that these edges are tough to fish unless you know what you are doing. The fish are not big, but they are aggressive. As for what is working in the rips, we are heavily encouraging anglers to fish single hooks as much as possible. We have been using lots of soft baits as the fish come back and continue to attack if they miss the first time. Albie Snax has a squid replica soft bait, which seems to be out-fishing other soft baits.

 

If you have any questions, come see us in the shop, but we beg you to put down the tools, take the impromptu trip to the island and fish. Don’t put off for another day what you can do today!

 

Go wet a line and have some fun.