Greetings Anglers:

Been a few weeks but here I am with lots to talk about. Where to begin is the question? Well, on the surf front, my friend Matt from Pittsburgh visited Montauk and we found some toothy critters to bend the rods. Mostly cocktail blues on the Northside which are always fun in the sun. While he was out and figured he would stay in paradise longer than planned, he helped me pick up my newly used boat in East Hampton which is a 23 foot Wellcraft Walkaround fishing boat with a 200 E Tec Engine. While I am passionate about surf and kayak fishing, I have been on boats most of my life so it was time to upgrade to something that could properly handle what Montauk throws at it. After we picked it up and drove it to Montauk, we found some schools and blitzes along the way and picked up a mixed bag of fish. Pics to follow and so far been catching a lot of nice size fluke and seabass. 

On the tourney front, me, Mike E and Danny B fished the Montauk Marine Fluke Tourney. While we did well and caught several nice fluke, we didn’t finish in the top 3. 

 On the gear front, I picked up my new VS 200 from Ken at Tightlines and put it on the Lou Caruso rod I won. Havent used her yet and waiting for that special moment when things start really cracking off for the fall. Soon. 

 Who else? What else? Wayne S came out and we put some of his new gear to the test. Checked out a few spots and worked on casting and gear selection and all and before we knew it, Wayne had a few fish under his belt. Mostly blues but good enough for a hot summer day. 

On the kayak front, I did the never ending kayak paddle/peddle from Little Peconic Bay to Noyak Bay in search of some weakies. Well, finally found my spot and caught a weakie before the wind really shifted and sent me on my retun trip which took 3 hours since wind and tide were in my face. I chalked it up as determination to accomplish what I sought to accomplish. A weakie off the yak in the peconics. Looking forward to another weakie run this week when Andy, who won a charter at Surf Rats Ball, comes out on Friday to catch a bunch off his yak. Have yak, will travel. 

Two weeks ago, Dan from East Hampton joined me and since we waited a weak for the bad weather to clear, hit it hard at our rescheduled date. 630 in the am Dan got right into the birds diving on bait with blues mixed in. This happened for a solid hour before we went west and hit some backbay spots for more bird activity, but limited fish under them at that moment. We also checked out some various beach spots in East Hampton and did some general recon in preparation for the fall run. Dan was stoked to have landed a bunch of fish right out of the gate and used a variety of lures to get it done. (Bucktail, Tins, Poppers). Last but not least, this past weekend was the Salem Bay Striper Shootout. Had a great time and a few guys from my Kayak club fished hard and won some awards as did one of juniors who took second place In the youth division for her 25” striped bass caught and released from the kayak. Congrats to the winners, etc. 

As for me on the yak, I caught a nice striper off the yak during the full moon on a large tube and also caught a few during the Salem bay event on East Coast Da Tube tubes. 

 Well, that sums up the last two weeks but like I said, I will post some photos. Tight lines and screaming reels out there. Be safe.