October, hands down is the best month on a fisherman’s calendar. Fluke are still in season for the first half of the month. Black Sea bass and porgies are in season. The inshore tuna bite is still worth chasing. False albacore, bonito, and Spanish mackerel are around. Blackfish season starts on October 11th in the Sound and on the 15th for the ocean. Striped bass…well, by boat or beach it doesn’t get much better.
This year’s fluke season was average and on the east end while there were plenty of keepers there were plenty more fish that made it back into the water that were just shy of 19 inches and 19 ½ inches as of the beginning of August. Still a head scratcher on why the half inch increase in size limit was in effect. Nonetheless, as cool October nights and mornings bring down water temps Fluke start their migration back offshore. With so many species to target this month fluke are often overlooked, yet there are always some nice doormats caught outside the inlets and out in the ocean. Big baits catch big fish and with peanut bunker still abundant in the bays and canals they can be a perfect bait to land a doormat and don’t necessarily have to come out of the live well to work. Larger gulp or fishbites up to 6 inches on a high low bucktail setup’s bottom bucktail and a smaller grub on top will work well too. The season ends on October 15th, with plenty of options for other species the rest of the month.
Black sea bass, porgies, ling, hake, cod are all over the wrecks and reefs. The sea bass bag limit since September 1 increased to 6 per person. A tough limit to put together at times with 16.5 being the minimum size for a keeper but they’re out there. The sea bass will often come up while getting in the last days of fluking along with some porgies. Clams, squid, small diamond jigs are the best bets.
An epic season so far for inshore tuna so far is going to make it tough to not make the short run of 15-20 miles to see how long they’ll stick around. Trolling has been successful so far but chunking and jigging has far outshined pulling spreads. It’s been amazing not just to see so many catches but to hear the stories of epic battles with giant bluefins often very close to shore. Back in early September friends of mine were jigging in the Coimbra area. 5 hours of fighting a 300-400 pound class fish that took a jig. It finally broke off near the boat after they saw it a few times and felt the preliminary heartbreak of the fish taking blistering runs. The weather can change in the blink of an eye anytime but especially in the fall. Be prepared if you do head out with a plan and the necessary pre trip protocols.
The last few years of having the mini teaser season for blackfish in the spring scratched the itch for the hardcore dedicate tog anglers. There’s no way to compare it to October when the real season kicks off. A 16-inch minimum length applies to both the Long Island Sound and the rest of local waters. October 11th through December 9th fishing east of the Throgs Neck Bridge to Orient Point has a 3 fish per day limit, with all other areas open for the season October 15th until December 22nd with a 4 fish per day limit. Each year more and more options for blackfish jigs hit the market and almost all of them are solid choices. I’m partial as most are to Tidal Tails which is the OG so to speak of tog jigs and landed a fish of a lifetime for me in 2012 going 17 pounds, caught on board Never Enuff in the western sound. The mad rush to get a keeper in the cooler the first days of the season often finds spots fished out quickly. There’s nothing wrong with doing some scouting if it’s a slow bite at the usual pieces. That work will absolutely pay off throughout the season.
As a self-admitted striper junkie, this is the time of year I dream of the rest of the year. Catching some schoolies during the summer doldrums somehow erased my memory of the best spring I can remember with fish to 40 pounds in my local waters on the east end and most likely the biggest striper I’ve ever caught or ever will coming in at 60.1 pounds off Sandy Hook at The Manhattan Cup this past June. Those peanut bunker that have been all over the place in August along with adult bunker in the ocean, sand eels, shad and mackerel are the perfect buffet as stripers migrate east to west along the Long Island shoreline. By boat or shore, there’s no other time of the year, day or night a legitimate shot at a trophy bass exists.
I target them both from shore and boat. From shore, 99.9% of the time I’m throwing plugs ranging from bucktails to soft plastics, sp minnows, surface plugs along with needles and darters at night. I’ve come to love fishing in the dark off the beach the past few years. The big bass are typically nocturnal ambush predators, but when they’re migrating and looking for fuel they’ll always bite. Even with having my 4×4 pass which gives more options on ground I can cover; nothing is going to compare to what a pair of 150 Yamahas on the back of the boat can do. Last fall was one of the best anyone on Long Island has seen for bass fishing, and some of the most ridiculous amount of boats concentrated in small areas. Nothing wrong with getting away from the crowd and working that bunker pod nobody other than some big bass are paying attention to. Limits are still the same of one fish between 28-31 inches and maybe a couple of seasons into these rules is why we’re seeing such great fishing.
I’ve caught plenty of keepers, a few which ended up on my grill and many others that are still swimming. Most of the fall run bass are going to fall outside the slot limit. We all share this resource. For all the thrills of trophy catches I’ve had and plan to have more of, I wish the same for anyone and everyone chasing the same passion. We’ve all seen too many big fish floating on those perfect fall days. It’s on us to take measures to do what we can to minimize that. Use circle hooks with bait. Swap out the rear treble of plugs for a single hook when it’s not going to make a big difference in the plug’s action. Hold fish horizontally for a pic and get them back in the water as soon as you can. Take a few extra minutes with reviving big fish. Our kids and grandkids will get to share in one of the best fisheries on the east coast because of it.
Catch ‘em up!!!