Fishing Report: Big Bluefish Tourney Announced

Dates for the Annual WICC Greatest Bluefish Tournament on Earth have been announced. The event will take place on August 26 and 27. Last year the winning fish caught by Eric Huner weighed in at 15.94 lbs. at . You can register at Caraftis or online here. The fee is $42.

The prizes are big. First place takes home $25,000. Second is a $10,000 prize, third place is $3,000, and fourth and fifth are $1,000. The next 15 places (6th through 20th) get $200 each. The heaviest fish weighed in at each official weigh station also gets a port prize of $200.

Scupslayer headed out of  Mt. Sinai Harbor to Cedar Beach in a kayak with three of his fellow fishermen, not expecting much but finding that by the end of the day he had a few surprise catches.

“We headed to our spot that will not be spoken of,” he reported. “As soon as we reached the spot we anchored and the three of us tied together. First drop, Vinny aka Vinnyfishboy hooked into a short blackfish. Since we expected scup this was to our surprise.”

He said that later in the day they hooked into “some short scup with about two or three keepers, a snapper and short fluke.” But then Scupslayer tells of the one that got away.

“Vinny hooked into what seemed to be a snag on his light tackle pole and then maybe a bluefish,” he wrote. “Soon after discovered it to be a weakfish to our astonishment. Being about 17 to 18 inches we brought it to my kayak to put into the live well. I took the fish into my kayak soon finding out it had a mouth of teeth. So I swung the fish around the back to my live well but the fish gave a headshake and ripped the hook clear out of its mouth and into the water.”

At Caraftis they were able to weigh in a 9 ¼ pound fluke on Sunday caught by Joe Gilner.

“He caught it in 60 feet of water on a bunker chunk,” reported Candy Caraftis to Patch.

She said that the porgies are doing well on worms in the harbor as well as at Old Field Point and Crane Neck.

“Chumming helps tremendously,” she said.

She also said that snapper season is upon us.

“By the end of the week, the kids should be starting to fish for those fun fish: snapper,” said Candy. “Poppers work well or small spearing.”

She also said that the anglers are hauling in big blues by buoy 11 and the middle grounds on bunker chunks. Diamond jigs and trolling will also work also.

Johnnymack reported on noreast.com that “the bite has been a lil off” because of the summer doldrums but he said that the Osprey V had a good day on Tuesday and that “everyone was catching.”

Captain Stew’s wife “of just about 33 years was even there and she caught a fat 22 inch fluke on a porgy rig.”

“The neat thing was that fluke was followed up to the boat by a large striped bass,” he said.