Dan's Papers - July 13, 2007

When July 4 arrives in the middle of week, many people extend the holiday over the entire week. It was almost as busy on East End waterways as it was on the roads. Fishing at well-known hot spots became difficult because there was so much boat traffic, but many anglers still reeled in good catches.

One boat offshore - setting up to fish for sharks in 170-foot depths with the water temperature of 69 degrees - saw a great white shark jump twice out of the water - a great thrill. Some of those big sharks are very acrobatic.

Ken Morse of Tight Lines Tackle, Sag Harbor, said one of his customers caught 23 weakfish at Buoy 16 in Noyac Bay at first light during the week. With the waters warming, Harvey Bennett of Amagansett's Tackle Shop reports a client caught a 150-pound thresher shark offshore. Another customer of Harvey's, Paul K. from England, caught a 12-pound striped bass on a flyrod in the ocean surf (and released it, of course, since it was way below the minimum size).

Paulie Apostolides of Paulie's Tackle in Montauk had a 260-pound mako shark weighed in at his station. He also says there are plenty of bluefish north of the Montauk Lighthouse, but the water south of the Lighthouse was "dirty" last weekend.

Steve of Wego Fishing Bait and Tackle, Southold, tells us many striped bass in the 23-to-29 pound range were brought into his station to be weighed last weekend. The bass were caught on live eels, biting on them both day and at night.

Curt D'Angio, fishing out of Clearwater Beach in East Hampton, caught several keeper-sized fluke and many bluefish in Sag Harbor waters last weekend.

There are reports of brown tide in Quantuck Bay in Moriches spreading into eastern Moriches Bay and western Shinnecock Bay. Brown tide is caused by an algae which turns the water dark brown and does not allow sunlight to pass through. This kills the underwater grasses and plant life on which many fish and shellfish feed. The first serious outbreaks were in 1985 and 1986, destroying the Peconic Bay scallop harvest. The bay waters are now continually checked for brown tide by the Suffolk County Department of Health Service, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Stony Brook's department of marine biology.