ALONG the East End of Long Island the forsythia are in full bloom, which means the fishing should start to grow. From reports of the flounder action this past week, the season is pretty much on schedule.
However, the winter flounder are not drawing the crowds to Montauk; it continues to be the codfishing. The action seems to bounce back and forth from Coxes Ledge to Block Island; nonetheless, the fishing offers consistent action on cod to 25 pounds. The flounder in Lake Montauk are much more cooperative, with local anglers taking home a handful of fish to 2 pounds and better using clam bait and a lot of chum.
There were some nice sized flounder being taken in Moriches Bay out near Buoys 31 to 33, with some of the rental fleet from Silly Lilly’s taking fish to 3 pounds. There were also some fish taken in the Shinnecock Canal.
In Great South Bay, flounder got more active along the Heckscher Flats and in the West Channel, but only a handful of keepers were caught. Schoolie bass are starting to show in the Great Bay.
Most boats from Freeport headed west to catch their flounder, with the best flattie action on Long Island going on in Lower New York Harbor, from Romer Shoals into Raritan Bay. The Sheepshead Bay fleet has been in on this fishing for the past two weeks, with a number of anglers limiting out on fish to 2 pounds and better. In Jamaica Bay, there are also fish to be had, but not as many at the North Channel Bridge and along the Far Rockaway sea wall.
Blackfish are starting to show at the inshore wrecks and reefs in the New York Bight, but there are a lot more on the deep-water pieces.
Those fishing Long Island Sound saw a marked improvement in the flounder action. There was decent action in Eastchester Bay and in the Orchard Beach Lagoon, with fish up to 2 pounds. Across to Little Neck Bay there was action on bass to 18 pounds. There was also bass fishing going on in Hempstead Harbor.
Speaking of bass, there was action on stripers up and down the Hudson as these fish start to move down the river and into the coastal marine waters.
The best flounder fishing in the Sound right now happens to be in the Huntington area. Huntington, Lloyd and Cold Spring Harbors should be your top choices as they are giving up winter flatties to 3 pounds.
* We lost a friend last week in Sal Cestaro, who died at the age of 80 after a long illness. Sal, a retired postal worker, was also a fishing writer for the now defunct Anglers News.
When I first started writing about fishing I often got some help from Sal, with whom I used to fish aboard the Betty W out of Sheepshead Bay. He loved to fish and loved being out on the water.
He once told me that as a navigator on a B-17 during WWII, he was shot down over Yugoslavia and captured by the Germans. Having hurt his leg he couldn’t walk and the Germans were going to shoot him. Another POW from Brooklyn carried him until they could get to the trucks.
It was 50 years later that Sal was in Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn and, you guessed it, he runs into the guy who carried him in Yugoslavia.
You’ll be missed Sal.
