Montauk Sportfishing Report 8/2/04

Well, June II is over. Hopefully, August will have more appropriate weather.

The dwarf bluefins are still around, with the majority of them along the 700
line running east from the Butterfish Hole. Most of them are in the 10-12
pound range, with some boats reporting occasional keepers, around thirty
pounds. I often wonder how come all the keepers are thirty pounds or so.
Doesn't anyone ever catch a twenty pounder? A couple of boats made the trek
out to the 500 line, where most of the yellowfin and longfin fishing has
taken place over the last couple of years, but they found nothing, although
I did hear a boat on the radio talk about boating a longfin around the 600
line.

The summer makos are here, with most boats that went after sharks hooking up
with at least one, and a couple reporting multiples. There are still some
bluesharks around, but not as many as there had been a couple of weeks back.
Threshers are probably just about finished for now.

Inshore, the big news deals with the fluke regs. Over the weekend there were
rumors that New York was going to go to one fluke at eighteen inches, the
same as the limits the federales put on their waters. It's not that bad, but
the minimum size was raised to eighteen inches, but with the same three fish
limit. This will bring New York into compliance with the feds, so they
should revise their one fish limit shortly, making it the same as New York'
s. The season will end on September 6.

The season ending on September 6 is going to hurt the partyboats. That's a
little early for them to start any productive diamond jigging, so they will
have to stick with the bottom fishing, but the seabass fishing has been
pretty poor, thanks to the doggies, which seem to be permanent residents
now. Porgies don't have the same draw, so I guess there will be another slow
period for them, much like the early part of the season.



If you would like to have these reports sent to you directly, just drop me a
note at . And for more information about
fishing in Montauk, you can give me a call at 800 280 5565 or check out
ht.//www.montauksportfishing.com.


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Capt Gene Kelly
Tropical Fishing Adventures
Montauk Sportfishing
800 280 5565
631 668 2019