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Made Tilefish and Gulf Shrimp Puttanesca for wifey’s birthday. Really, really good!
Tilefish courtesy of my good friend Mark K.

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Headed out this morning onboard Hammer Time with Chef Nader. Of course he took the pool fish as usual. All my keepers came on small teasers, tipped with either sea Robin strips or fluke belly. But they had to be thin and maybe 3-4" long. Fluke still feeding on sand eels out there.View attachment 82414
Excellent work, Matt. Looks like one of the better days as Montauk has also been little erratic lately on Fluke.
Congrats!!
 
Gotta keep it real

Second consecutive stinker of a JI deep fluke trip. Worked our asses off yesterday for ONE keeper, a dozen throw-backs and a dozen ling. Weather and drift were fine, though it was right on the full moon. Two trips in a row with a single keeper. Water still cold - end of July no less. I hope August is better, because this sux.

I know Capt. Mike ran a real good charter trip at Montauk, though the overall reports even out there are not so good. Kudos to Mike, I'll leave it to him to relate.
 
Nothing worse than grinding and not much to show for it.

Keep at it. Looking more like a late season.

If not, black fishing right around the corner!
 
Gotta keep it real

Second consecutive stinker of a JI deep fluke trip. Worked our asses off yesterday for ONE keeper, a dozen throw-backs and a dozen ling. Weather and drift were fine, though it was right on the full moon. Two trips in a row with a single keeper. Water still cold - end of July no less. I hope August is better, because this sux.

I know Capt. Mike ran a real good charter trip at Montauk, though the overall reports even out there are not so good. Kudos to Mike, I'll leave it to him to relate.
Hopefully it turns soon! I'm going out Aug 2nd on a charter from East Rockaway. Keep griding Pete, you got this!!
 
Gotta keep it real

Second consecutive stinker of a JI deep fluke trip. Worked our asses off yesterday for ONE keeper, a dozen throw-backs and a dozen ling. Weather and drift were fine, though it was right on the full moon. Two trips in a row with a single keeper. Water still cold - end of July no less. I hope August is better, because this sux.

I know Capt. Mike ran a real good charter trip at Montauk, though the overall reports even out there are not so good. Kudos to Mike, I'll leave it to him to relate.
As Pete and others have noticed it is a grind on the Fluke grounds almost everywhere except some of the south shore bays.
We were very fortunate to enjoy a good trip yesterday, although I know others even at Montauk still struggled..

My most loyal, long-term customers, Sal and Frank, along with Steve C. joined me today for a Montauk Fluke trip following the Wednesday blow out. Although Fluke fishing has been inconsistent in some areas of the island this year, including Montauk, this trip tuned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

Started at one of my favorite South Side drops on the last 2 hours of the ebb tide. We were immediately greeted by steady Sea Bass action with mainly shorts but a keeper or two on the first few drifts. Then Frank gets us on the board with a nice 21” keeper Fluke to break the ice. Turns out he had the hot hand today as on the very next drift his rod doubles over with a nice fish and soon I slide the net under a fat Fluke that tipped the scales at just under 8#, our best of the season so far!

From here we began to enjoy a steady Fluke bite with plenty of Sea Bass mixed in on this same drift line which wound up carrying us through the entire day. Frank’s wining form continued and before anyone knew it, he had his third keeper in the box another beauty in the 6# range. As we sorted through the smaller Sea Bass and put a few nicer biscuits in the box, Steve found his first keeper next with a sweet 22” fish. Sal exhibited great patience with a ton of sorting today and eventually was rewarded with a pair of keepers in the 21-22” range. Steve struck back again with yet another Fluke in the 5 # class and Frank finally capped the day with yet another fat fish close to 5#.

So, the final tally found us just one fish short of a limit with 8 really fat Fluke in the box along with 7 nice Sea Bass to top it off. Easily the best Fluke outing of the summer for us so far.

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I was able to get away from work on Friday and had the honor and privilege to have a very special guest and friend join me for a day of skinny water fluking in Shinnecock Bay. We had steady action through the entire ebb tide even with a less than ideal wind and tide combo in the bay. We had many nice fat just short fish in the 18” range. Was very surprised at the amount of dogfish we had to contend with deep in the bay in shallow water. My friend got a nice hit that peeled line and ran different than he is used to in deeper water that had us wondering what it was. As it came to the boat I grabbed the net and slipped it under what turned out to be a nice fat keeper in the 23”-24 inch range. Soon as it hit the deck it spit the hook 😳
After more shortsI landed a keeper in the 21-22” range

Although I didn’t get us on as many keepers as I would have liked we had a great day with steady action and a couple for the table

Sorry, no pictures 😎
 
Nice job Mike! I need a good 25 incher! I busted my butt yesterday in the sound for 4 shorts. There was more bait around than I'd ever seen. I'm hoping some fish will be left when we come off this moon tide.

@Chinacat Strange how well the bays have produced this year. I'm guessing those shallow bays are scoring some high water temps so there must be a lot of bait keeping them there?
 
Nice job Mike! I need a good 25 incher! I busted my butt yesterday in the sound for 4 shorts. There was more bait around than I'd ever seen. I'm hoping some fish will be left when we come off this moon tide.

@Chinacat Strange how well the bays have produced this year. I'm guessing those shallow bays are scoring some high water temps so there must be a lot of bait keeping them there?
I’m guessing you are correct in that George and the early season baby peanuts have now arrived. It’s funny how you went right to the water temp. Somewhere along the way, my friend asked what the water temp is. I had to sheepishly and embarrassingly tell him my GPS was reading 185 degrees which led to all sorts of other funny discussions 😎😎😎
 
My faith in the North Shore fishery has returned!! After picking a keeper fish here and there for the last month I limited out in the last hour of the ebb off Lloyd Point this evening. Three fat 21" clones liked my bucktail with gulp and gulp teaser. Two other keepers and about 6 shorts went back. A strong south wind helped by pushing me at 6 MPH as the tide died. Life is good!
regards Holty
 
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