{"id":3020,"date":"2016-09-29T19:17:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T02:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2020-03-21T18:57:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T01:57:59","slug":"season-opener-2016-never-better-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=3020","title":{"rendered":"Season Opener 2016: Never Better September"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let there be no debate.\u00a0The fall run is\u00a0on!<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Sept. 29, 2016:<\/strong> Fish slamming our lures just beyond the breakers curling over the inner sandbar.\u00a0Casting\u00a0barefoot in shorts along a sandy beach on a sunny Indian Summer morning.\u00a0 Keeper striped bass and cocktail bluefish in the cooler. A scenic ocean drive turns into a poetic dance of fishermen versus fish and culminates in a tasty seafood dinner.\u00a0 September has never been better. Fall surfcasting season has arrived on Long Island’s\u00a0East End.<\/p>\n

\"THE<\/a>

THE FAITHFUL: Amazing Randy, Verizon Charlie, Bucktailin’ Billy Black at Ditch Plains<\/p><\/div>\n

The Faithful<\/em>\u2014and shortly we\u2019ll get to who they are\u2014have been fishing\u00a0the beach for some time;\u00a0Essentially, since the\u00a0official mid-April opening of striper season.\u00a0 First weekend in May, for example, Verizon Charlie, Bucktailin\u2019 Billy Black and Amazing Randy (there; now you know who are The Faithful<\/em>), caught one micro-bass after another on a pleasent spring Sunday at the Ditch Plains jetty in Montauk.<\/p>\n

As is my custom under the terms of my spousal contract (more on that\u00a0<\/em>another time), however, I sat out an entire summer of action<\/p>\n

\"LORETTA<\/a>

LORETTA LEXUS: Queen of Surfcasters<\/p><\/div>\n

until my own personal opening curtain:\u00a0Labor Day. I idled away the summer days, instead, with an invention born of my recently acquired smoker box.\u00a0 The Faithful<\/em> caught the bluefish, which none of them keep under ordinary circumstances. I retrieved them without dangling a line in the water\u2014perfectly legal according to my contract with the BW. In exchange,\u00a0The Faithful<\/em> got a generous portion of their catch returned in the form of smoked bluefish.\u00a0I called it transactional fishing. Everyone was happy.<\/p>\n

\"NAPEAGUE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"NAPEAGUE<\/a>

NAPEAGUE BASS: Reeling for Stripers.\u00a0Click here for video<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

A season\u00a0start\u00a0like this one–one of the best Septembers for Long Island surfcasting\u00a0that I\u00a0can remember–will spoil you. \u00a0Tends to make you forget the\u00a0barren, bone-chilling Autumns of the past, when the mere hint of a fish would have been welcome. There have been far too many Septembers when you couldn\u2019t be sure if the fall run hadn\u2019t begun, if you missed it, or if it just wasn\u2019t going to happen at all. I\u2019ve lived through all three.<\/p>\n

\"BILLY<\/a>

BILLY ON A BASS: Napeague Madness. Click here for video.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Not this month. Let there be no debate (oops, too late on that idea); The fall run is on!<\/em> There have been big blues on the North Bar and other Block Island Sound-facing beaches near the Montauk Lighthouse.\u00a0 A few early striper blitzes on the rocky shoreline south of the lighthouse, And a persistent run or schoolie bass and cocktail blues along the sandy ocean beaches from Montauk to East Hampton. And now, reports of cow bass being taken on the beaches of Napeague and from the jetty under Montauk light.<\/p>\n

\"CAN"T<\/a>

CAN”T MISS DAN: Putting it to blues and bass Tarzan on the beach style<\/p><\/div>\n

The sandy beaches of Amagansett and Napeague State Park mid-month is where we join this episode. First up, Can\u2019t Miss Dan got them bathing suit-cum-Tarzan style right in front of our house in Amagansett:\u00a0 A throwback 24-inch striper along with a couple of tasty cocktail blues that he turned into bluefish hash to accompany our morning eggs.\u00a0 The next day, we scored more cocktail blues and a keeper 32-inch striper near Hither Hills.<\/p>\n

With the weekend gone, came the rains.\u00a0 Once the Monday morning soaker passed through, Napeague State Park lit up with fish for Loretta Lexus, Queen of Surfcasters, who had them all to her lonesome.\u00a0Big Brother Frank and I made sure Loretta had company the next morning.\u00a0 We loaded up on cocktail blues–Feed the Smoker!<\/em>–and our share of schoolie bass with a few keepers for the table.\u00a0 We went back to the scene of the crime in the afternoon. Different tide, same great action.<\/p>\n

\"PAN<\/a>

PAN ROASTED STRIPER: on a bed of mixed mushrooms and greens<\/p><\/div>\n

At dark, BBF and his wife, St. Toni of the Blitz, sat down with me to a dinner of pan-roasted striper with mixed mushrooms over a bed of greens.<\/p>\n

Another balmy weekend brought Big Bob Wilsusen off his boat and back into the surf where he scored a keeper like he\u2019d never been away.\u00a0 Dan and I chipped away at short bass and blues while The Faithful<\/em> all showed up and everyone got well.<\/p>\n

By Sunday afternoon we were putting on a show for beach walking tourists.\u00a0 If it was a prize fight, they would have stopped it.<\/p>\n

On and on it continued. Through a SW blow one night and a nor\u2019easter<\/p>\n

\"MOBY<\/a>

MOBY STRIPER: Fish taken at Lighthouse jetty. Photo and video Courtesy Capt. Harvey Bennett of the Amagansett Tackle Shop.<\/a> Click here for video.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

the next day.\u00a0 Billy and I fished morning, afternoon and well past dusk.\u00a0 As long as the fish kept hitting, we kept casting. And catching.\u00a0Word eventually got out and by midweek, the sandy beaches of Napeague were crawling with rod-racked 4-wheelers\u00a0in search of stripers.\u00a0 And in the wake of these early storms, came reports of\u00a0bigger fish from 30 to 50 pounds.<\/p>\n

So, what could be better?\u00a0 More, that\u2019s what.\u00a0 October looms and if last year is the\u00a0gauge, that’s when we\u2019ll see the bulk of the fall-run bass\u00a0move through our waters. \u00a0October starts out with a bonus this year: the Jewish High Holy Days, known to produce the proverbial Rosh Hoshanah Blitz. A very sacred time for surf fishermen.\u00a0I\u2019m off to pray now.<\/p>\n

\"KEEPER<\/a>

KEEPER BASS: 32-inches of excellent sport and dining<\/p><\/div>\n

\"COCKTAIL<\/a>

PAPA BASS AND THE COCKTAIL BLUES: Tasty fodder for the smoker box<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Big<\/a>

Big Brother Frank<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Can't<\/a>

Can’t Miss Dan<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Me\"<\/a>

Me<\/p><\/div>\n

\"BAROQUE<\/a>

Big Bob\u00a0W.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"randyvertical\"<\/a>

Amazing Randy<\/p><\/div>\n

\"VERIZON<\/a>

Verizon Charlie<\/p><\/div>\n

\"wetbilly\"<\/a>

Bucktailin’ Billy Black<\/p><\/div>\n

\"lexusbass\"<\/a>

Loretta’s Lexus Bass<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let there be no debate.\u00a0The fall run is\u00a0on! Sept. 29, 2016: Fish slamming our lures just beyond the breakers curling over the inner sandbar.\u00a0Casting\u00a0barefoot in shorts along a sandy beach on a sunny Indian Summer morning.\u00a0 Keeper striped bass and cocktail bluefish in the cooler. A scenic ocean drive turns into a poetic dance of […]<\/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-3020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020","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=3020"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3738,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions\/3738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}