# 53748: Subject: Montauk, New York

Submitted by Capt. Scott Anderson (ip 64.252.164.173)

• Fished on 5/29/2005

• Report received: 6/1/05

Water Temperature: 51
Water Clarity: clear
Seas: calm
Weather: good
Fishing_for: striped bass, fluke
Boat: Kingfisher
captain: Scott

Report:
Well we had a fantastic weekend of Fishing on the Kingfisher.

Saturday Capt. Scott had a 12noon Charter for stripers. Scott arrived early at the boat and decided to head out before the charter and do a little scouting seeing as most of our fishing had been for fluke thus far with only a couple stops in the Montauk Rips and Race area for Bass this early season.

Scott decided to try some of our usually productive live-bait late season spots on the South side of Fisher's Island just to see if anyone was home. Seeing as it is a little early for great numbers of Hickory Shad and the Porgies aren't here(or open) he decided to sling eels. On Scott's first drift over a big boulder he hooked up with what he thought was a smaller fish till the reel started to scream. The fish ran all over and took him all the way around the boat twice. He soon knew it was no small fish. After a spirited fight he brought the bohemouth alongside. Ed the Kingfisher's other mate netted the monster. The fish was measured 54" and weighed 53.2 pounds on a handheld scale. It was photographed a few times and it revived perfectly and swam away in perfect condition. Hopefully some other lucky angler will be able to land this monster Maybe as it pushes 60lbs.

They managed a couple more fish between 32 and 38" and headed back in to get the Charter. The sun was now high so eels weren't necessarily in the cards. The day was spent at the Race having a great time with Stripers from Shorts to 38" on three-wayed bucktails and diamond jigs. They landed 8 fish total and had some very happy customers.

Sunday was a full boat Monatuk trip the target was going to be split between Bass and Fluke. We had six people on board and they ended up arriving a little late which put us in a bit of a pickle tide wise as we arrived over at the Rips just as the tide was dieing. We started out on the inner part of middle Endeavor where we started trolling. We trolled 9ER's and started picking up bass almost immediately. We landed one really nice fish about 38" and 25lbs and a couple just under that. We also landed a short or two and a Bluefish. As soon as the tide slacked up so did the bite.

We decided to change over to Fluke seeing as there was a nice wind fueld drift. The place was mobbed , the must have been over 200 boats along the beaches. Most were slowly picking at a few fish here and there with a lot of shorts thrown in. We set up right off the point at first and got one nice keeper 23" and two shorts. It was pretty slow so we moved way West to try and escape the Fleet. When we first got to the spot the action was decent. We were steadily picking up a mix of shorts and keepers with the top fish being about 5lbs. It was a lot slower than it has been and I think the fishing pressure over there is playing a significant role in that. The Customers we had also took quite a bit to finnally get the hang of how exactly to hook up. After putting enough Fluke in the box for a bunch of nice meals we decided to switch back to bass.

Swinging around the point we noticed now that the Bass spots were mobbed with boats. people were drifting through the trolling lanes and it looked like a zoo. So instead of fighting the traffic we headed back towards the Race to finish out the day.

We arrived at the Race and had a strong incoming tide. We three-wayed Storm-lures and picked away at a couple nice Bass before calling it a day.

The Customers were happy with a nice mess of fish. It was pretty interesting as they had me Rip (Gut as opposed to fillet) everything. They also saved a ziplock bag full of the roe from both the Bass and the fluke.

The bass are here in full force.... looks to be a great season.

Mike Mate on the Kingfisher

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