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Two Hands in Montauk 9/16, 9/17

2K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  capt_gordon 
#1 ·
SomeTwo Handed Rod Montauk Stories from this past week and some things that make you say hmmm.....

Thursday 9/16: My Boy Nat and I Walked westside from the light thursday @ 5:30 Pm.....past the usual CAtillian/Throes of 8" plug chuckers until we could find some room to cast and not be near 50 other people. (suffice to say it only took about 7 1/2 minutes of walking and there we were. We each had a nice rock, plenty of back cast room and relatively no-one around.......no fish either....we both blind fished until 7:00 or so. Nat was using a 9 weight w/ a floater (no stripping basket so the two foot wash really bummed him out) and I was using a certain 11' 1" # 11 two hander with a clear # 12 intermediate head and a floating running line...100 ft + casts were not a problem, lack of fish were. NAt caught 3 snappers around 10". We started walking back towards the light @ dusk when a nice large Bass boil erupted in front of the surf casters. NAt has balls of steel and saw an opening and waded right out with the surf casters....I considered joining him but thoughT better. I had on flip flops and no waders and thought that the entertainment value of throwing a two hander with the surf casters would be too much combined with the dancing act of slipping all over the rocks in a mad striper panic. So.....

I ran back down the beach to my previous location and waited. I readied my line, lit a smoke and sure enough the bass came right by. A couple of deep breaths,
2-110Ft casts and I stick my first Montauk striper from the beach. 33"-34" (meauring stick on rod really helps) and so so so fat it may have gone 16 LB. Fish gave a great account of itself and I got some props from the nearby surf casters that witnesssed the event " NIce casts, nice fish, whacha using?" Etc.


a QUESTION: I saw only a few other bass caught during the amazing amount of boils that I saw the next day.. .....The bait is 1" bay anchovoies, The surf fisherman are fishing 8-10" plugs/bombers/rapalas etc. What is up with the mass hypnosis? No one catches bass, only bluefish and they are all doing the same thing.....If the trout are fixed on Tricos, only on a very rare occasion will they eat a Hex dry. If the bass are on small bait why not at least consider trying to sort of match it? I fished 2"-3" sparse decievers with great success. Why dont these guys fish a dropper of a small streamer off their plugs. Maybe they would catch more?

9/17--Fished with a most excellent guide from staten island/jupiter fla. We fished the boils for bass, the rips for albies. We caught a lot of albies just covering water and throwing monster shots is a great way to cover water. I wont even speculate on the distances with the wind at your back but it was far. What I liked the most was if the fish popped @ 100ft it was nothing to get a quick backcast and shoot and cover on both the backhand or forehand. In addition somtimes I fely "Shutout" fishing the back of the boat with two guys in the bow when we got on the boils. With the two-hander it was easy to get out a 90-100 ft cast into the bass from the back.

Now obviously when the bass are next to the boat doing their thing you could just reach down and lip them. USing the two hander was a delight on my shoulders and bacik and helped me to catch fish that I wouldn't have otherwise

No problems landing fish and it's a lot nicer playing an albie for 5 minutes or less on a 11 weight versus the 10-15 minutes on the 8 weight.

All in all a great coupla days AND i CANNOT WAIT TO GO BACK!!
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Congrats on the nice fish.

What Brand/mode length Lines/heads were you using? My casts in normal conditions (waist deep in suds with full stripping basket) are the same as your 100 -110 ft casts. I estimate my casting distances with that "rod" to be 20-30ft longer then with my single handed 10wt, that extra footage seems a lot longer when retrieving the fly and can make the difference between catching or not.
 
#3 ·
Montauk Madness

Hey David....

Great report and comments....sounds like a lifetime trip.

I've had the same experience as you at Turtle cove....scads of surfcaster hucking bluefish poppers, and no one hooking up, except me, my Dad, and my Bro in law....a novice fly fisherman able to cast about 30 ft...all of us tossing itty-bitty flies of one sort or another....You would think that sooner or later logic would prevail..

I might just have to try one of those Atlantis rods....seems like just the ticket for the surf.


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