Fall Weakfish Continues • Columbus Day Blackfish "Kickoff" • Reef And Wreck fishing

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Blackfish  Opens this week on the North Shore on Columbus Day Oct. 11th and the South Shore Friday Oct 15th.  The shop is stocked with green crabs- blackfish rigs-and blackfish jigs-for your blackfishing needs.

Weakfish have made a showing in the Great South bay. Squid Strip  fished on a 007 diamond jigs is a proven way to catch them. Any sort of soft plastic fished on a small jig head can be effective too. Look out for drop offs along the bottom, these are areas that weakfish congregate and they will lay in wait for their prey. 

Bluefish are a fall favorite for many anglers.  Easy to catch and fun for the whole family.  Blues have been around in the early AM and dusk.  A Charlie Graves Lure like a 007 or A17, is always a good choice.  

Either in a boat or off the shore, try a popping plug on your next fishing trip and you may be surprised what you catch.  Weakfish and Striped Bass find that lure to be very appealing.  An exciting way to fish for many of these "Game Fish." Super Strike or a Creek Chub lure are two favorites.

Surfcasters are seeing some more activity with Bass too. Inlets are producing better than the open beach.  bucktails and swim shads are the lures of choice. The beach anglers are using sp minnows, mag darters and super strike darters. Back bays behind the inlets have been productive too. Here Smaller sized plugs are a better choice. Using a teaser can help get more hits.  The back bays around the bridges are also holding stripers too. Give small bucktails or soft plastics a try around these structures.

Porgies and Sea Bass have been active on the Wrecks and Artificial Reefs. Pieces of clam fished on the reefs off Moriches or shinnecock can give you good results. On the North Shore,  rock piles off of Port Jeff all the way out to Orient can produce greater numbers and larger sized fish. Using a porgy rig is a fine method to catch these fall favorites. 

Seabass, porgies,ling and some cod are also on the reefs and are adding to the nice mixed bag of fall time bottom fishing. Clam rigs, and jigs tipped with gulp are all catching there share of bottom fish.

Snappers still continue to be very active at the docks. Patchogue's Mascot Dock  , Pine Neck Dock and Corey Beach are all great docks to try out. Snapper bait fished under a float can be deadly with the snappers. If you prefer casting and reeling then you should try a small kastmaster or snapper popper. Sidewinder or Johnson Sprites are great lures to use as well. Snappers are growing daily and some I would call cocktail blues.

AND Don’t forget Blue Claw Crabs.  They are fattening up for the winter hibernation and are full of sweet meat.  Traps (baited with bunker) work best but you can still walk the docks with a net.  

Albies are again around the south shore inlets.  A Fine Selection Of Albie Lures are the best way to catch these mini tuna torpedoes. Are they fine eating? NO!!!! It's a kitty cat delicacy. But, Fun to catch on light tackle.

Freshwater action increased when using live shiners.  Bass to 3lbs and a bunch of Bluegills and Perch were for the taking. Nightcrawlers are also productive on these panfish.

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