It’s mid August, and we’re in late summer mode. Weather wise, we had a really hot stretch a few weeks back, and it’s sort of stabilized. The ‘spring run’ ran pretty late this year into mid to late July. Bunker schools getting whacked and fish being really aggressive. That has subsided for now though. It doesn’t meant there aren’t fish to be caught, you just have to modify your tactics. There’s a few things you can do. You can wake up early and fish sunrise when the water is coolest, and plug the shoreline and islands, throwing anything from flies to topwater to jig/soft plastic combos. At the very least you should find schoolies, small annoying blues, and maybe even big blues. We had a stretch of big blues (like 15 pounds and heavier even) in the middle of the sound since late July/early august, ‘tailing’ around on calm hot days, and if you throw a plug in front of their nose they would whack it. Sight casting to these bruisers was really, really fun. Some say they’re digesting food. I observed some groups of 2 fish swimming in circles together; hard not to assume they were mating but I don’t pretend to be a fish biologist. Blues of the same size can be found eating small bait in the middle of the sound this past week, really aggressively. They were pretty much eating anything you would throw at them. A lure With single hook is recommended for ease of the release and health of the fish (as well as your hands). Another tactic you can do is throw swimming plugs (think Bombers, SP Minnows, Yo Zuri mag darters) at night amongst the same shoreline / island shallow structure. Things can really turn on at night. Keeper bass can be caught all summer this way. It’s an old school technique and it works. You can always Chunk morning or night too. Shallow or deep. You can also drift sandworms over structure, with a long 6 ft leader. This is another old school really productive technique that’s fallen by the wayside amongst fishing circles. Or you can skip fishing for bass and bottomfish. Fluke are in deeper water (50+ feet), and there’s less of them, but bigger ones. Porgies are always abundant and are tasty. And keeper sea bass are generally on deeper wrecks. Or, you can give up on local fishing and go to montauk / the Race for generally better fishing. Tight lines
Norwalk Islands Fishing 