Almost there!! The off-season just feels longer and longer each year, and having actual winter temps this year didn’t help.
Just about a month away from the first casts of the season from shore in the bays come late March. I’m on the east end of the Island and with the best scenario being a schoolie or two, the NY Bight could already be into over slot size bass. That said, the colder than usual winter may push the first few catches to April. The hard-core boaters that already splashed their boat should find some luck with trolling and possible live bunker. Most likely if there are bunker around, they won’t be in cast net friendly spots close to the dock and just in deeper ocean water out front.
My first bass of the year has always been in the bays by shore. I always focus on outgoing tide and try to fish near small creeks and estuaries emptying into the bay. When we get a nice stretch of sunny days, that sunlight is going to warm the muddy bottom and draw out several small baits like crabs, shrimp and worms. As water temps rise the holdovers are willing to expend more energy to chase those baits. The first of the migrators around Shinnecock and Moriches Bays typically don’t show until late April. Matching the hatch isn’t too hard with small bucktails and soft plastics. I always start out using white bass assassins on a half or three-quarter ounce jig head.
I’d love to use something bigger, like a few plugs I splurged on at the shows during January and February. They’ll have to wait their turn for when the bigger bass show up to gorge on adult bunker. It’s really amazing some of the craftsmanship of small local builders. I picked up a few needlefish from 24/7 lures based in Connecticut. These will be go-to plugs in the fall fishing off the beach at night to present an eel or sand eel profile. A few oversized metal lip plugs I picked up will be great offerings for the bigger bass on bunker later in the spring.
While the beach structure can change on short notice, it really changed this winter. The storms that started just before Christmas were relentless in terms of erosion. The dunes did their job, but some serious replenishing needs to happen. Typically, I get excited when out of boredom I’ll scout the beach to see where new rips and holes are. There was more structure this year than I’ve ever seen, and the beach doesn’t slowly rise to the dunes. The dunes are 5-7ft. cliffs in most spots. I hope that anyone that dealt with flooding that was worse than Sandy in some areas was able to get back to normal by now.
Soon! Soon! At least that’s what I keep telling myself to get down the homestretch of the off-season.