Montauk Fishing Report — July 9: Stripers, Fluke & Porgies

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.

Spots & Access This Week

The Montauk Harbor ramp at the end of West Lake Drive is the main public launch and fills before sunrise on a summer weekend. The Three Mile Harbor ramp in East Hampton is the practical alternative and gives good access to Gardiners Bay and the porgy and fluke structure without fighting the Point crowd. Shore anglers work the rocks below the Montauk Point lighthouse — a tradition and a genuine hazard, so wear a wading belt and studded soles and never turn your back on the swell. The Camp Hero and False Point stretches are less crowded and fish well on a dropping tide. Charter and open boats out of Montauk Harbor run daily and are the easiest way to reach the rips without your own hull.

Fishing the Rips Correctly

The rips off Montauk Point are a current fishery and almost everyone fishes them backwards the first few times. Bass sit in the trough behind a boulder or a rise in the bottom, facing into the flow, waiting for bait to tumble to them. That means the cast goes up-current and the jig drifts back into the wash — not down-current with a straight retrieve, which pulls the lure up and out of the strike zone entirely. Position the boat so you drift across the face of the rip rather than through it, and reset often. When the tide slacks, the rip stops working and so does the fishing; move to structure and wait for the next flow.

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.

More Montauk Resources

Montauk Fishing Guide · Montauk Seasonal Calendar · All Montauk reports →

Also read: Montauk Fishing Report — Week of July 30, 2026: Doormat Fluke, Bass in the Rips

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