Today was too beautiful a day not to fish, and I managed to talk my wife into joining me in a drive out to the Jillybird IV at the Montauk Lake Club. We left Westchester around 10 am so I was planning on fishing the afternoon bite for stripers in the rips and some surface action. Crossing the Throgs Neck Bridge the Sound was flat calm. Well, Montauk was another story altogether. What a difference a 2 1/2 hour drive makes. When I got to my boat, a 20 knot west wind was blowing across Lake Montauk, kicking up some 1-2 footers in the lake. Fortunately, there's still a big yacht on the outside seawall which acts as a nice windbreak for my boat during westerlies. The other day, before the big blow, Rich, the dockmaster, called me up and asked if I had any more lines because he wanted to add another set. I did. Good thing. One of my bow lines had chafed through during the blow, and I would have been in trouble without his doubling up.
Well, we headed out the inlet and with a following sea, things didn't look too bad, though the rips at Shagwong were kind of roiled. The North Side of the Point gave us some protection at first, but when we hit the Elbow, the ripping outgoing full moon tide was smashing into a full 20 knot southwesterly wind, and the rips quickly became pretty mountainous. I kept looking for birds on the other side of the rips, but it was tough to see with the spray exploding over the bow. I did see a couple of boats hanging very close to the Point and a couple of birds, but being there just with my wife, I knew she'd freak if I left the helm to fish, and really, I needed someone at the helm at all times anyway in those conditions. The only sensible course was to whip the boat around and head north of the rips. The ride across the rips was a surfing safari, so it was indeed a good move to get the hell out of there.
I then searched high and low for birds off of False Bar, Blackfish Rock, Oyster Pond without any luck, and then ran over to Shagwong where I drifted for sea bass, while hoping for some surface action. The drift was a wild 3.5 to 4 mph, and I didn't get a single bite. Nothing showed up on top either. For the grand finale, I ran over into Fort Pond Bay, where blues and albies have shown in the afternoons the past couple of weeks, but that was a dead zone too. Then it was back through the inlet and to the dock. Still, it was a beautiful afternoon with my wife on the water off of Montauk in the age of COVID so who's complaining?
Well, we headed out the inlet and with a following sea, things didn't look too bad, though the rips at Shagwong were kind of roiled. The North Side of the Point gave us some protection at first, but when we hit the Elbow, the ripping outgoing full moon tide was smashing into a full 20 knot southwesterly wind, and the rips quickly became pretty mountainous. I kept looking for birds on the other side of the rips, but it was tough to see with the spray exploding over the bow. I did see a couple of boats hanging very close to the Point and a couple of birds, but being there just with my wife, I knew she'd freak if I left the helm to fish, and really, I needed someone at the helm at all times anyway in those conditions. The only sensible course was to whip the boat around and head north of the rips. The ride across the rips was a surfing safari, so it was indeed a good move to get the hell out of there.
I then searched high and low for birds off of False Bar, Blackfish Rock, Oyster Pond without any luck, and then ran over to Shagwong where I drifted for sea bass, while hoping for some surface action. The drift was a wild 3.5 to 4 mph, and I didn't get a single bite. Nothing showed up on top either. For the grand finale, I ran over into Fort Pond Bay, where blues and albies have shown in the afternoons the past couple of weeks, but that was a dead zone too. Then it was back through the inlet and to the dock. Still, it was a beautiful afternoon with my wife on the water off of Montauk in the age of COVID so who's complaining?
