This week at Montauk, the rips are doing what Montauk rips do in July — holding bass, feeding blues, and giving the light-tackle fleet a reason to burn fuel. Add a solid fluke bite on the sand and the first reports of funny fish, and the summer season is fully underway.
What’s Hitting
Stripers are stacked in the rips off the Point and along the north side, with the better fish coming on the dawn and dusk tides. Fluke are the daytime staple, with keepers and the occasional doormat on the sand south of the Point and out toward Frisbees. Sea bass are on every piece of rocky bottom, bluefish are working the rips midday, and the first bonito of the season have shown for the boats watching for birds — the early edge of the funny-fish run.
Where to Find Them
The bass want the rips — Pollock Rip, the Elbow, and the north rips on the appropriate tide stages. Fluke are on the clean sand in 50 to 70 feet south and east of the Point. The bonito have been popping up on the north side when the tide slacks.
Tides & Conditions
This week’s stronger tides make the rips stand up hard — better for the bite, sportier for small boats. Water clarity has been excellent, which has pushed the best bass action into the low-light windows.
Tackle & Tactics
Bucktails and soft plastics drifted through the rips take the bass — three-way rigs with a heavy bucktail when the current runs full. Fluke want the standard bucktail-and-teaser combo with squid and spearing, heavier than you think you need in the current. Keep a light spinning rod rigged with a small metal for the bonito.
Local Intel This Week
The town ramp on East Lake Drive near the Coast Guard station serves the harbor fleet, and shore casters are working Montauk Point State Park and the north-side beaches under the bluffs this week. Fish are concentrating in the rips on the strong tides and on the sand south of the Point. The striped bass slot limit is strictly enforced — check current NY DEC regulations before keeping fish.
This Week’s Tip
In the Montauk rips, the drift is the presentation. Set up so your bucktail swims down-current through the face of the rip at the depth the bass are holding — if you’re not occasionally ticking bottom on the drop-off, add weight. The fish sit in the first ten feet behind the edge, and a bait above them is a bait wasted.