Hello Fishermen and Friends!

 

We love Spring Fishing, We love Spring Fishing, We love Spring Fishing! It’s the time of year where you still feel lucky just to bend a rod after a long winter. Most importantly, these early fish are hungry and aggressive. Just last evening we got texts/emails from 4 different friends telling us of them catching fish at Dusk. This got us fired up to fish today.

 

 

So far, our fishery has produced mostly 24-27” fish in the skinnier waters. These waters include the harbors and the north shores. What we have not seen yet are Bluefish?!?! It was a theme last year, but the quantity of our Bluefish are getting more nerve wracking by the year. I don’t remember ever not catching a Bluefish in May? Saying this, while our fishery is very good right now, it does feel as though we are full week behind most years and this is most likely due to a very rainy and cold month of May keeping our water temps down. 

 

The action in our fishery is a blast for all ages. Yesterday, Corey has a slow start that led to a strong finish.  He had an awesome day catching stripers in the sun on the surface. Than the greatest gift of all, he was greeted at the dock by his wife and two – year old son. He was determined to catch James a fish! Well an hour later, James had three fish to the boat and 7 fish missed. He was hooked! Nothing better than passing on a passion to your kids

 

We share all of the above, because what makes Spring so much fun is the unpredictability. Some days are awesome, some are ok, but you are always moving and hunting and no matter the results with the fish so close to shore, the fishing scene is always gorgeous and worthwhile.

 

As for Locations: we are starting to hear of stripers being caught on the South Shore and Low Beach even produced a #releaser on Wednesday evening. We have yet to hear the South Shore get hot and heavy, but this sounds like the start of it. Both harbors are still producing very well, especially in the evening hours. It is hard to point to specific location as most of the shorelines have fish, anglers must be willing to walk them and work them. If possible this weekend, we heavily suggest trying to get out to coatue and work both the bends and the exterior shoreline.

 

As for size, fish are all over the place. The smallest fish I caught today was 16 and the largest 27. It is awesome not knowing what you are going to get, hence the unpredictability of Spring.

 

As for what is working: Most anglers are still fishing soft plastics heavily and these are working, but anglers moving on to poppers, walk the dog lures and stickbaits/twitchbaits are getting rewarded. Stickbaits/twitchbaits stay below the surface and dance up and down with a twitch of the rod, much like a soft plastic. Walk the Dogs and poppers are just fun, especially in the evening when fish are active and hunting the surface. It is easy to be a one trick pony, but we highly suggest varying up a lure and its color if fishing slows up.

 

As for the flies, this is the time of year to throw a fly rod if you have one. The fish are in the shallows and they are active feeding on smaller bait. If you target a sunny day and you find the sand on the points of coatue and eel point you can certainly sight fish, but fishermen are mostly blind casting in 2-3 feet of water and are doing very well. This time of year, you don’t need to go fancy, clousers are king. White and olive and if you want some fanciness chartreuse.

 

Also remember in the Spring, in the shallow water, you rarely want to have a consistent retrieve. Twitch the rod tip, reel more slowly than you are accustomed to and let a lure “die” for a second or two and when you do this, you will often get a hit. This is true for both fly and spin.

 

Now that the advice is over, go fish, please. Keepers(releasers) and shorts are being caught, fish are active and moving and whether you catch a fish, miss a hit or enjoy the sunset, we can just about guarantee your time on the water will be worth it.