Fishing continues to be really, really good and we continue to be surprised by how good bass fishing is, despite 70 degree water and being two weeks into August.  After writing this report on a weekly basis, I keep having people come up to me to ask if bass fishing is really that good still. I say, if you don’t believe me, go to the south shore from 8-10 when the tide is moving and let me know how you do. Invariably, people are catching bass and there have been some good ones caught as well.  It all about putting time in these days and you’ll be rewarded.

While the south shore has been our most consistent fishery, we have seen these linesiders populate our entire fishery.  Capt Bill Toelstedt had a banner day out east this weekend, including a 44″ bass.  Another friend was sitting on the flats at Eel Point and say hundreds of bass swim under his boat. They had lockjaw, but at least they were these.  And my favorite is that anglers at the Bonito Bar in Madaket have been catching bass.

We always encourage friends of the shop to simply put time on the water, cause you never know what’s going to happen.  Chris Lydon, a good friend and active fisherman was on the Bonita Bar a few days ago before work, for less than an hour and hooked into our three B’s.  Chris Caught a Bonito, a Bass and a Bluefish all while having his coffee.  How much better is a day of work, or a day at the beach when you already have a slam under your belt.

Bonito have filled in our waters nicely in the past two weeks.  On Friday I took family out to the bar and hooked into a dozen fish in just a couple of hours and this is not an aberration.  While we’ve had some days where the fish have been sparse, more days than not, anglers are rewarded for time on the water.  The fish have also shown up nicely at Great Point.  We’ve heard of a few fish caught from the boats, but on Saturday, Mike O’Neill caught the first beach Bonito of the year.  This was followed by several more that morning and even more on Sunday!  These fish are generally caught at first light and on small metal lures. Make sure you have fresh line on your reel, because these fast fish will test your line strength.

Bluefishing right now is just fun. We spend a lot of time on the boat off of the south shore.  I cannot believe there is better bluefishing in the world right now than what we have. These fish range from 6-10 lbs and are floating on surface and incredibly aggressive.  Like any fishery, some days are better than others, but you could catch 30 fish in a tide if you are focused.

After muggy summer weather this week, we expect September like, low humid, clear weather this week.  Even the birds have been fooled; we are seeing way more geese this time of year than is usual. Now I know what your thinking, this is a fishing report, but I bring this up, because Jeremy lives by a theory that two weeks after we see our first geese, we should expect to see false albacore. If Jeremy is correct, and he is more often than not, we should be seeing these fish in the next week. That would be really, really early considering no one caught a fish until September last year, but considering the year we are having, why not?  And the only way to find out if his crazy prediction will ring true, is to spend time on the water!