Fishing Is Red Hot On South Shore Of Long Island

Due to the illnesses of my Mother in Law and wife I had only fished a handful of times in the past year. My wife is cancer free and recovering nicely and my Mother in Law is in rehab, time to get back into fishing. I was able to get out on the boat for the first time on Memorial Day weekend. Fluke fishing has been fantastic. I have been averaging three keeper fluke per trip and thirty to forty shorts that were gently released.

Two seven pound fluke caught by Vinnie Fellom and myself

Vinnie is a jig fisherman who uses bucktails and squid jigs with bait. I use leadhead jigs and silicone skirted jigs with Berkley Gulp. Vinnie and I have caught about the same amount of fish but my keeper ratio with the Berkley Gulp has been almost three to one over bait.

We have caught some unusual fish this spring and early summer. Vinnie had caught a four foot sand shark in nine feet of water many miles from the inlet and I hooked into a thirty to forty pound cobia. I had fought the cobia for twenty minutes bringing it boat side four times. The fish was just to darn big for the net we had on the boat. It finally broke off on our last attempt to land it. I was using ten pound Power Pro braid with two feet of Ande twelve pound fluorocarbon leader. I was using a Penn 3000 Battle reel and I can't believe the way that reel put the breaks on that cobia. Cobia are from the southern waters and are seldom seen on Long Island. I have to save my money and get a GoPro video camera to record the fish I catch.

So far this late spring and early summer saltwater fishing has gotten off to one of the best starts in recent memory. I even did some freshwater fishing upstate NY with my friend Mike Stine. We didn't catch any large fish but we had a ball catching about forty panfish. It's good to back in the game again.

Tight Lines