Bass, blues bonanza heats up Island waters

Here it is in late July with scorching air temperatures, bay waters in the mid-80s, bright sunny days with little breeze but, in spite of it all, the bass are biting lures in mid-day.

You may find this hard to believe, but I managed to catch 275 inches of striped bass one afternoon last week. The weather was as I described above but the fish were all over Plum Island and whacking popping plugs like crazy.

I waited for the tide to rise and it was worth the wait with non-stop action. The strategy was simple — I got about 100 yards uptide of the spots that I thought might have some fish in them and quietly drifted down, throwing the plugs where I guessed they might be. I got hit after hit popping the Smak-It lure toward the boat. But you notice I said “hits” and not hookups. Many of the hits were of the “tail slap” variety designed to send a message to the intruder (the lure) and often several bass participated in those attacks. A few were so aggressive that the fish came completely out of the water as they accelerated from the bottom and missed their mark.

What do you do when you have active fish playing with your lures, not to mention your mind? Experience has taught me that bass are territorial and often will bat a live fish or artificial lure with their tails to warn the trespassers away. Or they will actually stun a bait fish so that they can slowly turn around and gobble it up without chasing it. I have often seen them come up to a plug that they have knocked flying with their tails and get within inches of it, just watching to see what happens next before they decide to kill it or swim away.

On this day, I noticed the fish seemed to be coming up from the bottom to hit at the plugs and appeared to be more interested in punishing the lure for disturbing their hidey hole than eating the plug. Having bass hit, follow or swirl around your plug is all fun and exciting, but the key here is how to get the fish to come back and eat your lure so the fight can begin.

Over the years I’ve developed two techniques to get fish to try to kill the lure after its first attack and both worked like a charm this day and on subsequent trips. Here’s what I suggest that you try if your plug is attacked by a bass that missed being hooked up.

First, if you actually felt the fish hold or jerk the lure or get slightly hooked for an instant, let the lure stop for about five seconds right where it floats up, which is what a stunned baitfish would do. It takes steely nerves to wait that five seconds it’s important.

Then you should start the retrieve from that spot in short, six-inch jerks of the popper, imitating an injured baitfish trying to get going again. Do that for several feet before stopping the plug a second time, imitating a “rest stop” for the crippled bait. If you don’t get a hit after the second rest stop, just work it in the way you would usually do and don’t be surprised if the plug is ambushed as it gets close to the boat.

The second technique comes into play if the fish’s first attack completely missed the lure. In that case, speed up the retrieve for about five feet, popping the plug several times and then stopping to let the lure bob in the water for a few seconds. This maneuver imitates a frightened bait bolting from the immediate scene of the attack and then stopping to look over its shoulder to see if the bad guy is gone. Often, the first fish or his buddies will go for this approach, especially if there’s some competition for food. Try these two ideas and see if they work for you and remember that you are smarter than the fish — but maybe not as clever!

So, where did I get the 275 inches of bass idea from? I measure every bass I catch and take scale samples for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to help determine the health of the bass population. That day I landed and released 12 bass in two hours with a combined length of slightly over 275 inches. That means they averaged 23 inches or so (the largest was 26 inches) and about four pounds. It all added up to great sport on light tackle and I was beat when I got back to my dock.

Here’s a recap of what’s going on in the world of bluefishing around the Island. I’m happy you don’t have to go far to catch blues near home on lures. The sand eels, their primary food this time of year, are all around the Island and the fish are doing their best to wipe them out. Reports indicate good catches of blues on plugs off Menhaden and Shell Beach and if you have a boat to fish from and have kids that want to catch fish, Jessup’s Neck remains hot. Gardiners Bay out near Bostwick Point has been even hotter with many of the fish near double digits in weight as evidenced by the photo of 12-year-old William Royer, grandson of Audrey and Jim Royer of Silver Beach.

Young Will, who lives in Aspen,Colorado, and his father, Chris, were fishing with Greg Clements. On the way back from Bostwicks, where they had caught some bass and blues, they saw fins breaking the surface in the calm water. Out came the casting rods, which they used to snag a few bunkers that they allowed to swim and they, in turn, were eaten by the huge bluefish near the bunkers, with fish from 10-to-15 pounds coming aboard.

According to Greg’s report, Will proclaimed the day “the best one of my life.” With that kind of enthusiasm, I know he will have many more!