Fluke / Oyster Bay

[Bachala]

left Saturday about 9 am from TOB ramp and only planned to fish a few hours so I stayed local. Targetted fluke. Hit Lloyds Neck for 1 17" fish. Shamrock soon fished near me. Saw a few fish pulled up but they headed west. Tried a little deeper near the gren buoy but nothing there either. Headed over to Bayville beach and found the Shamrock and Snow Goose there. Caught a micro fluke. After 1 long drift I finally decided to put on a new strip bait and as soon as it hit bottom on my first jig of the rod I snagged bottom..... or so I thought. Felt it come off the bottom but thought maybe a lobster pot or some old rope etc... as I was now off of Centre Island reef area. I was in shallow water. It was heavy but not thinking it was a fish, I never actually set the hook. Then came the telltale head shake. It was a very sizeable fluke for sure... heavy...... I turned around to grab my net and in doing so I think I may have given it slack. By the time I turned back around the fish was gone. Did see some life finally in the sound with some birds working the deeper water, terns diving here and there. Had schools of squid chase my jig to the surface at times. Hopefully things improve soon. Seems I should have gone more East from what I am hearing. My short few hours turned into a full day fishing.

 

[Matts]

left Saturday about 9 am from TOB ramp and only planned to fish a few hours so I stayed local. Targetted fluke. Hit Lloyds Neck for 1 17" fish. Shamrock soon fished near me. Saw a few fish pulled up but they headed west. Tried a little deeper near the gren buoy but nothing there either. Headed over to Bayville beach and found the Shamrock and Snow Goose there. Caught a micro fluke. After 1 long drift I finally decided to put on a new strip bait and as soon as it hit bottom on my first jig of the rod I snagged bottom..... or so I thought. Felt it come off the bottom but thought maybe a lobster pot or some old rope etc... as I was now off of Centre Island reef area. I was in shallow water. It was heavy but not thinking it was a fish, I never actually set the hook. Then came the telltale head shake. It was a very sizeable fluke for sure... heavy...... I turned around to grab my net and in doing so I think I may have given it slack. By the time I turned back around the fish was gone. Did see some life finally in the sound with some birds working the deeper water, terns diving here and there. Had schools of squid chase my jig to the surface at times. Hopefully things improve soon. Seems I should have gone more East from what I am hearing. My short few hours turned into a full day fishing.

it's tough to go from 0 to 100 in a flash.
I spent most of Sunday morning without even marking a fish. All that inactivity lulled me into a stupor. Then on my last drop, missed a few bass with rookie moves on live lined binker until I finally got my chit together.

 

[Bachala]

it's tough to go from 0 to 100 in a flash.
I spent most of Sunday morning without even marking a fish. All that inactivity lulled me into a stupor. Then on my last drop, missed a few bass with rookie moves on live lined binker until I finally got my chit together.

i've got a Boston Whaler 13 and had my bimini up. Sometimes that interferes with my ability to raise the rod high. The net was buried a bit as I move a lot of stuff around in my boat to put up the bimini top. Hard to really judge how big it was as the fight was so short. But the fish felt exceptionally heavy when I lifted it off the bottom. I've caught a lot of big fluke in my life so it doesn't make much of a difference to me that I lost it but would have loved to have seen how big it truly was.