I was invited last Saturday on a charter on the Shinnecock Star out of Hampton Bays. We were going to be fluke fishing all morning on the charter. My plan was to fish the morning trip and head back home to New York to try a beat the traffic on the Long Island Expressway.
The charter was scheduled for a 6 AM departure, returning at
11 AM. That meant getting up at 3 AM to make the 120 mile drive to Hampton Bays and be at the boat by 5:45 AM. I made two stops along the way at the 7/11 for coffee. Fog along the Sunrise Highway the last 15 miles slowed me down, but I arrived at the dock on time. I was greeted by Captain John and my friend, Captain Neil, who was working as the mate on this trip.
The fog had burned off and there was no wind, and the gnats and no-see-ems were out in force. I quickly put on the sun screen and insect repellant and started to rig up my two rods. Shinnecock Bay is relatively shallow. Since I was rigging up will Silver Bullets and teasers, I rigged one rod with a half ounce bucktail for fishing the shallower spots and the other with a two ounce bucktail for deeper spots or if we decided to fish outside the inlet. I used green and silver teasers on both rigs tied about 18 inches above the bucktail.
Our first stop was at the channel in front of the Coast Guard Station. I started fishing with the lighter rig and baited both the bucktail and teaser with spearing. Having our standard bet of one dollar on the first keeper among the group, we all started to catch short fluke immediately. I had three quick shorts when Harvey brought up the first keeper and won the first keeper pool. We made the drift again and we all continued to pick away at fish that were mostly shorts, with an occasional keeper.
Captain John made a move further down the bay to one of his "honey holes" that had recently been producing some decent size fluke. We made a few drifts and managed to pick a few keepers and shorts. But Captain John moved on to another spot and would return to this area later on the flood tide.
The next spot we hit was near the old Ponquogue Bridge. The fishing was "red hot" with a fish biting as soon as you hit the bottom. However, they were 99% shorts. We made several drifts in the hope of culling out some keepers, but no luck. We then ran to the inlet and drifted the inlet channel and picked a few keepers. However, the boat traffic was very heavy so we move outside of the inlet to the west and made some drifts out there. I needed to change rigs to the two ounce bullet and we had a solid pick of keeper fluke to three pounds and the biggest sea robins I could remember in many years of fishing. On light tackle they really can give you quite an accounting of themselves.
As the flood tide became stronger the Captain decided to go back to his "honey hole" in the bay. As he had thought, the bite really picked up as the flood tide brought in cooler water and put the fish on their feed. It was "red hot" fishing that we stayed with until it was time to head in. We had a good mix of keepers and shorts and the pool fish of about four pounds came out of this spot. I found that the key was to use the smallest spearing in the bait bucket, since larger spearing would get cut in half by the aggressively feeding fluke.
When the whistle sounded that it was time to head back, my count was 25 fluke and 5 keepers to 3.5 pounds. Not bad for a half day trip. In fact, I was so excited that I opted to stay on for the afternoon open boat trip. We returned to the dock and had an hour to grab some lunch and relax before we were to leave at 1 PM.
The afternoon trip had lots of kids on the boat with their parents, so the first drop was back at the bridge where we had that hot bite in the morning. This time the bite was just as good, but there were some decent size keepers mixed in. The kids had a ball catching fish one after another, and understood the lesson in conservation when the mate Kevin put back the short fluke. We then went searching for bigger fish at some of Captain John's favorite spots and continued to pick away at a good mix of fish.
During the afternoon bite the fish seemed to be a lot more aggressive. Accordingly, I added a short strip of white fluke belly to the bucktail with a small spearing and continued to bang away at the fish for another hour. About 3:30 PM the captain decided to change over to clam chumming for stripers and that's when the real fun began. If you have never clam chummed for stripers with light tackle, you are missing out on great action when the fish are in a biting mood. And today, they really bit well.
We used the same light fluke outfits and rigged up a single 2/0 baitholder hook to about three feet of thirty pounds leader material and attached a small black barrel swivel to the leader which then was attached to your main line.
We baited up with clam bellies and drifted them back from an anchored boat in the middle of the deepest part of the channel. The captain chummed with clam bellies for about ten minutes before I hooked my first bass. While we did not get any keepers, the schoolie bass really put up a fight on that light tackle against a strong tide. At least two or three fish were on all the time. I made seven drop backs and hooked five bass and two bluefish. The best part was showing the young kids how to fish for the bass and watch them hook and land fish themselves. I had Zach, a seven year old, hook and land two bass and a bluefish on my light rod and reel. Zach was in heaven.
We finished the day with the bass, which for me was the icing on the cake. My tally for the afternoon trip was seventeen fluke and five keepers, five bass and two bluefish. Not a bad way to end the day.
My advice is to get out to the Shinnecock Star ASAP and experience some great light tackle fishing for fluke and bass. The boat is clean and comfortable and the Captain and mates are top notch.
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