My fishing buddies had their fill of striped bass and bluefish and were looking for a change of pace. My first fall blackfish trip is usually mid October. However, these last two years had seen very warm weather in October that slowed down the start of the blackfish season.

The latest reports were of jumbo porgies in deep water in Long Island Sound, west of Orient Point. I am not really a porgy fisherman, but the last two years has seen a great fall run of jumbo porgies on the North Fork.





I spoke to Captain Rich Jensen of the Nancy Ann and we agreed on fishing for porgies. I had a fairly large group coming out because several of the guys were bringing their young sons on the trip. I was hoping for some decent fishing since young fishermen usually have a short attention span if the bite is slow.

My buddy Rusty and his son Richie picked me up at my house at 4 AM and we made the long drive to Orient Point. It was cold at that hour of the morning, with sunrise just before 7 AM. We made two stops along the way for hot coffee and arrived at the dock at 6:45 AM. Not everyone had arrived so we proceeded to put our gear on the boat and say good morning to everyone. Orient Point Marina is a relatively small marina with a lot of regulars, so we walked around the dock saying hello to other captains and mates that we knew.

The balance of our group arrived and we left the dock at 7:15 AM. We had a long ride to the fishing grounds since we were bucking an outgoing tide heading west into Long Island Sound. I did not make up any porgy rigs at home like I usually do, so on the way out I tied up some rigs for myself and other members of the group. Like I said earlier, I am not a porgy fisherman, but I have fished with some real porgy sharpies and I have adapted their rigging techniques which has proven very successful.

I use a three-hook rigged like a Christmas tree. I take a 48-inch stick of 20 LB leader material and tie a 4-inch dropper loop six inches from each end. Then I tie another 4-inch dropper loop half way between the first two loops. Tie on a black barrel swivel on one end and a sinker loop on the other. Take an 8 mm florescent green bead and slip it over the dropper loop and then attach a size 2 Gamakatsu or Mustad baitholder hook. Slip the dropper loop through the eye of the hook, pass it over the shank and draw it tight.

Repeat the steps for the other two loops. Because of the stiffness of the leader material and the short leaders, tangling is virtually eliminated and the rig really catches fish. Many double and triple-headers came up during the course of the day. You can use the same rig for sea bass, just use 30 LB leader material and move up to a size 2/0 hook. My rod is a light graphite rod with a relatively soft tip capable of holding up to 6 ounces of lead matched to a Newell 220 spooled with 20 lb. Spiderwire. The soft tip doesn’t break off the larger porgies that really can put up a good fight and the Spiderwire gives you great bite detection.

We arrived at the spot about 9 AM. The captain scouted the area with his fish finder and I could see the fish markings on the bottom. Captain Rich ran the boat up tide and told us to drop our lines. We were first going to make a drift to see if the fish were biting. As we drifted over the fish many rods doubled over with multiple hook ups of jumbo porgies. We were fishing on the quarter moon with a light southwest breeze. This would allow the boat to sit at anchor right over the fish. We pulled up our lines as the crew set the anchor.



The fish started to bite immediately after settling on the anchor. We were fishing in about seventy feet of water on rocky bottom. We initially had a good pick going until the fish began to respond to the many clam baited hooks in the water and then the bite increased to a furious pace. You could hear the squeals of joy from the kids as they began to catch double headers of 1.5-3 LB jumbo porgies. This went on for about an hour and then bite shut down to a slow pick. I thought possibly the boat had shifted on the anchor so I pitched my line away from the boat about seventy five feet and let it settle to the bottom. I immediately had a solid hit and grinned. By the way it was pulling I thought I could have one very large porgy or a double header. I proceeded to gently reel it in when a received a tremendous hit and then nothing. I reeled up my line and had a jumbo porgy of about 2 LB that was cut cleanly in half. No mistake, it was a big bluefish that hit the porgy. If slammer bluefish were around that accounted for the stop in the porgy bite.



We had a lull in the action for about fifteen minutes and then the bite started up again, slowly at first and then resumed at a furious pace. By 11 AM the tide was slowing down and the boat started to swing on the anchor. We continued to pick away at the fish and some large sea bass began to come up. We were then invaded by a swarm of bluefish and several 10-12 LB blues were landed while others had their lines snapped.

The real bite was over but we continued to fish and by Noon we all agreed to call it an early day and head back. We would again buck the tide on the return trip and probably get to the dock by 2:30 PM. We had a great morning bite. I crawled out of my skins and boots and sat up on the bow and enjoyed the sunny and pleasant ride home. As we circled around Orient Point Lighthouse we could see the Peconic Star and the Prime Time returning to port. When we returned to the dock I walked over to the Prime Time to check out how they faired with the blackfish. Chris the mate was still filleting fish and had several more buckets of blackfish to do. They had a couple of bulldogs in the 7-8 LB range, but most of the fish were 2-4 LB.

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