CTFishTalk.com: montauk sportfishing report 6/08/08 - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

arctekjim · Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 17

6/9/08
Saturday 2 pm; New York Central Park 92 degrees; Montauk Airport 71 degrees; Marshall’s Gas Station, You pump regular $4.88/gallon; Montauk Marine Basin, gas $4.69/gallon, diesel $5.29/ gallon. Sunday we lost the little breeze and the temperature maxed out in Montauk at 84 degrees
Generally Friday is the second most popular day of the week for charters. Noon Friday I stopped by Star Island Yacht Club to see what was going on. Of the dozen or more boats lined up at the charterboat section, three were out. The rest were all closed up. When I ran my charterboat, everything revolved around the boat. If I wasn’t fishing, I’d still spend a good portion of the day on the boat doing maintenance of some sort. Then of course there was always the possibility of some tourist wandering by who wanted to go fishing. It’s not like that anymore. Now all the captains have so much free time, there is nothing to do on the boat, and tourists wanting to go fishing; Fuggedaboutit.
Next weekend is the Star Island Yacht Club shark tournament, and it looks like the "shark huggers" will be out again waving their signs. There was a full page article in Sunday’s News about the protest. Last year all they could get was a paid ad in the East Hampton Star, so with the added exposure there will probably be more than a half dozen protesters. Shark meat has always been donated to some organization, but now that organization will not be accepting it, supposedly because of the mercury levels.
Paulies Tackle Shop is having a surf type striped bass tournament next week as well, the firs that will probably become an annual event. Give him a call at 631 668 5520 for more info.
The Blessing of the Fleet was held yesterday, sort of. About ten minutes into the blessing a squall came up with forty knots and six foot seas, so the Coast Guard told everyone to go home. The gods were probably unhappy about the new edict regarding water balloons. Balloons in the water are now considered pollution, and if thrown could get you ticketed.
The Montauk Triathalon was held Saturday, and the organizers have to be complimented. At 7 am, West Lake Drive was a mad house, with everyone getting ready to blast off. At 1 pm I drove by again and the only indication that anything had gone on was the half dozen porta potties and the snow fence around the triangle at the entrance to Star Island. And not a paper cup or directional sign to be found anywhere along the route.
I know some of you do some fishing outside the country. Last week, a Tropical Storm Alma hit Quepos Costa Rica. The storm then went northward into the Caribbean and became Tropical Storm Arthur. Quepos has no marina, and a lot of the boats headed up river to escape the storm, but that was bad idea. A log came down in the flood and wiped out one boat, which then proceeded down river into other boats. The end result was a couple of dozen boats getting carried out the river mouth and ten of them sinking.

I guess you are also interested in what the fishing is like. I heard of two boats that went after sharks on the weekend, but they both made the same mistake; they didn’t go far enough. The first sharks are always caught in forty fathoms and these two guys only went out about fifteen and twenty miles. One had a bluefish bite and one loaded up on doggies. I’m sure the boats fishing for dollars next weekend won’t make that mistake. Inshore the fluke fishing is holding up, even though you have to fish through a lot of shorts in order to keep a half dozen or so to eat. The striped bass fishing got a little delicate this past week, with most of the half day charters only able to bring back six to eight fish. All day boats were taking their limits, but had to cut down on the fluke fishing time to do it. www.nbssportfishing.com