Herring Are Coming
Block Island Sound is engulfed in a giant hurricane of gannets bombing the water’s surface, their razor sharp scissor-like beaks agape and herring fleeing from striped bass below in their sights. The fishing, when it’s like this, is the best there is. Spinning gear and fly rods are all the tools you need to tussle with amped-up stripers. The story is much the same well to the west. From Quogue to western Fire Island, there are huge clouds of birds swirling above herring schools a mile or two off the beach, and hundreds of boats in hot pursuit. There hasn’t really been a major run of herring through East End waters in about four years. We’ve had herring—mostly in Montauk—the last few winters, but the runs have been wimpy at best, anemic at worst. The last time we had a really good run of them was 2006, and that year there was an amazing push of bass and bluefish along the beaches from Montauk to Moriches in early December. It will be interesting to see how the herring schools affect the pretty good fishing we’ve had from the beaches already, thanks to the large amount of sand eels in the surf zone. The last two years, the sand eels have dominated the fishing scene and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Nary a bunker, peanut or otherwise has been seen in the surf the last two years. It’s not for any lack of bunker in the area, there’s been tons. They were clogging pound traps in Peconic Bay until a few weeks ago, then disappeared all of a sudden. A few days later, there were a few in the surf off Bridgehampton, but not many fish on them. The bass holding on the points gorging on sand eels barely looked up long enough to see a bunker tail flitter by. In a certain way, I hope they react the same way to the herring. The herring, as usual, brought tons of new fish down with them. Fat fish, with dark stripes and bright silver sides—compared to the light brown and opaque colored fish that have mottled themselves to match our sandy bottoms. The herring should hang out for a couple weeks then split on the heels of a cold front. When they go, they will take all those fish that followed them here with them. But the sand eels won’t leave like the herring will. They’ll stay in the surf all winter, just like they did last year, and if our fish, or some fish, stay with them, we could catch fish well into late December, especially if we don’t get an early cold snap like last year. There’s some nice fishing being taken on the North Side in Montauk. The sand in East Hampton and Southampton have fish too, but mostly schoolies and rats. Blackfishing is hit and miss. Some cod are coming up at Coxes Ledge and there’s bluefin tuna roaming the 30 fathom region. Catch ‘em up. See you out there.
Fall angling winds down
November 24, 2010 | 02:50 PM
Katrina Peluso with a striped bass caught while fishing with husband, Capt. Paul Peluso. Photo by Angelo Peluso
Long Island anglers have been enjoying a solid fall run of striped bass and bluefish. It has been one of the best runs of the past several years. The most active fishing locations during the month of November have been along the South Shore. Bass and bluefish schools slowly spread out from their earlier concentrations at Montauk to all prime fishing spots along the south side of Long Island. Fish have been widely dispersed from the Hamptons to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. The southern sand beaches from the East End to the west have experienced a strong influx of sand eels, a preferred prey species for bass and blues.
As would be expected, the hungry, migrating game fish followed the sand eels in hot pursuit, providing many inshore and close-to-the-beach fishing opportunities. Some of the best locations for finding fish have been Shinnecock, Moriches, Smith Point and the Fire Island National Seashore, and the Robert Moses and Jones Beach areas.
Those fish will continue their migration west so any beach or offshore locations to the west of FINS should also become active before the fall run loses steam. For anglers who prefer using artificial baits, some of the hottest have been lures that replicate sand eels: soft plastic imitations, tins and tubes, and slender swimming plugs.
Back on the North Shore, the Long Island Sound this fall has been relinquishing a remarkable number of blackfish, which should continue for some time to come. While many of the offshore pieces of bottom structure have yielded the most and the largest tautog, some of the shallower inshore areas as well as the harbors have given up some nice quality fish as well.
Green crabs and Asian crabs have been best baits for this sporting and tasty game fish. Black sea bass can also be caught with a high degree of regularity throughout our area. The sea bass season runs through Dec. 31.
The final stages of the Long Island season can prove a boon to local anglers under one very special situation — the presence of herring. When herring make a showing, striped bass — usually large ones — home in on that late season dietary preference and feed aggressively. The larger and more widespread the schools of herring, the more the bass will school in their attempt to maximize the consumption of that annual prized bounty. Some of the largest bass feeding binges of the season will occur at this time.
Area fishermen eagerly await this potential bounty. When top water feeding blitzes are encountered they can often cover acres and bass will readily hit most large lures that imitate herring. The real opportunity of this fishing is that it often goes unnoticed since most anglers are not on the water at the time the herring appear. There is still time to give this fishing a try so keep an eye open for diving gannets that also enjoy tasty herring. While herring will move though the Sound, the best bet for encountering this type of fishing is offshore in the ocean.
Once striped bass and bluefish leave our area they move through the waters along New Jersey and the mid-Atlantic states. For anglers willing to travel, fabulous fall fishing can continue — just a day’s journey away.
