This week at Montauk, the summer machine is humming. The rips are loaded with bass, the bottom fleet is filling buckets with porgies and fluke, and the offshore boats are mixing shark trips with the first real tuna scouting of the month.
What’s Hitting
Striped bass are stacked on the rips off the Point, with slot fish and bigger showing on the dropping tide. Fluke fishing has been steady on the south side and around the radar tower grounds, porgies are thick on the rocky bottom, and black sea bass round out the bottom mix. Blues are on the rips, and the mako and thresher fishing on the 20- and 30-fathom lines has been worth the run.
Where to Find Them
The Elbow, Pollock Rip, and the Porgy Hump are the bass spots on the moving tide. Fluke drifters are working 40 to 70 feet south of the Lighthouse, and the porgies are on any rocky bottom from the Point west to Culloden. Surfcasters are picking fish at night under the Light.
Tides & Conditions
Water temperatures around the Point are in the mid 60s and the rips are running hard on the new-moon tides this week — big water, big fish. The fog has been in and out; keep the radar on and the horn handy.
Tackle & Tactics
On the rips, diamond jigs and parachute jigs on wire get down to the bass under the blues. Fluke want bucktail-and-Gulp rigs with a strip bait, and the porgies take clams on high-low rigs. Night surf regulars are throwing darters and needlefish from the rocks.
Local Intel This Week
The East Lake Drive ramp on Lake Montauk is the primary public launch, with the ramps at Gone Fishing Marina available for a fee and Gin Beach providing beach access to the north side. Fish are concentrating on the rips and the south-side fluke grounds. Striped bass slot and circle-hook rules are strict — check current New York DEC regulations before keeping fish.
This Week’s Tip
On the Montauk rips, the bass sit under the bluefish, not with them. When the jig gets bit on the drop, reel three cranks and hold on — but when you want the bass, let it fall through the blues and work the bottom third of the column.