{"id":2141,"date":"2011-10-06T13:14:36","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T20:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=2141"},"modified":"2011-10-11T20:02:34","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T03:02:34","slug":"montauk-to-the-met-the-bel-canto-bass-blitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=2141","title":{"rendered":"Montauk to the Met: The Bel Canto Bass Blitz"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dramatic top water hits in the surf; Trilling high C’s on stage at Lincoln Center<\/strong><\/h5>\n
<\/strong>Oct. 6, 2011:\u00a0<\/strong>My definition of a good day:\u00a0730am; keeper stripers in a North Bar<\/a> bass blitz in Montauk.\u00a0 730pm; curtain up on Anna Netrebko singing lead soprano in a Donizetti classic at <\/span><\/span>Lincoln Center’s M<\/span>etropolitan Opera.<\/span><\/h5>\n
\"\"<\/a>Rosh Hoshanah Blitz: Charlie R scores a keeper<\/span><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Reacting to a fish call from Big Brother Frank, reporting that Montauk finally lit up with bass and blues, I hustled out east for\u00a0a mid-week lightening round of fishing with\u00a0Tenacious Billy S.,<\/a> who is rapidly showing signs as the equal of any degenerate, eh, I mean dedicated, surfcasting rat. The “Rosh Hoshanah Blitz”<\/a>, highly anticipated the weekend before, was virtually a non-event, except for a few diligent anglers like Charlie R., the Mickey Mantle<\/a> of south shore surfcasting, who scored some bluefish and a healthy schoolie for his table from Montauk’s north side. \u00a0Frank put a brunch-time keeper in his cooler at Jones Reef <\/a>on Wednesday so Billy and I were quick to join him for the tail end of the afternoon feed. We didn’t fare quite as successfully, but did manage two good sized bluefish from Turtle Cove<\/a> at sundown. Even though our boots were in the water at 445pm, we were a tad late for a tea-time north side blitz that produced child-size bass on the beach from a picket-fence line of surfcasters stretching from Scott’s Cove<\/a> near the lighthouse to Clark’s Cove<\/a> to the west.\u00a0 Reports\u00a0also confirmed that\u00a0\u201call big fish\u201d were caught at the Stepping Stones, Oyster Pond Cove, and Shagwong<\/a>, further west.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>

Brunch Time Keeper: Frank put out the fish call<\/p><\/div>\n

Highly encouraged by the amount of fish caught, their size and the stiff NNW wind that promised to\u00a0keep pushing the\u00a0tiny rain bait and feeding bass\u00a0into our faces, we returned to the scene of the crime at first light. \u00a0Billy and I had afternoon obligations so we knew ours was a hit and run proposition: get them early, or go home skunked.<\/p>\n

Our truck reached the North Bar as the sun broke the horizon over our right shoulders, revealing squawking, diving birds that told the tale: major striper blitz.\u00a0 Billy threw a shorty Hopkins, I threw a white and red Polaris popper, Frank threw a blue swimmer. Everything–and everyone–caught fish.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Major Montauk Bass Blitz: Big Brother Frank on the North Bar<\/p><\/div>\n

All the hits were dramatic, top water explosions. My lure got slammed within a single crank of the reel, accompanied by a vicious tail slap. The feel of the previous night’s fighting-dog bluefish was still fresh, so I knew immediately from the difference that I was on a muscular keeper bass. It was combat fishing conditions, with hard running water, wind-blown fish lines and anglers stacked on top of each other. There was no chance to savor the fight, so I horsed my 31-inch fatty onto the beach and extracted the lure that the fish inhaled half way down its throat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pair of Keepers: Hit and run stripers at sunrise<\/p><\/div>\n

Billy had already deposited his 29-inch bass in the cooler and was now fast on a short.\u00a0 Frank had one throwback schoolie and then the action died as quickly as it started.\u00a0 The fish moved offshore to the west.\u00a0 A quick look at the south side revealed another blitz in the making at Brown\u2019s Rock<\/a> beyond Turtle Cove.\u00a0 But it was time for Billy and me to hit the road.<\/p>\n

Later that evening at the Met, Anna Netrebko trilled her final high C<\/a>‘s before the axe man cut off her pretty head. Then A-Rod whiffed at a 3rd<\/sup> strike in the Bronx<\/a>, sending the Yankees to defeat in game 5 of the American League’s first round championship playoffs. Meanwhile, I was still grinning with memories of the morning’s mayhem in Montauk–and looking forward to the weekend prospects for the lesser known, but up-and-coming, Yom Kippur Blitz of 2011.<\/p>\n

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From Montauk to the Met: My idea of a great day<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dramatic top water hits in the surf; Trilling high C’s on stage at Lincoln Center Oct. 6, 2011:\u00a0My definition of a good day:\u00a0730am; keeper stripers in a North Bar bass blitz in Montauk.\u00a0 730pm; curtain up on Anna Netrebko singing lead soprano in a Donizetti classic at Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera. Highly encouraged by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions\/2192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}