This Trip's A Keeper
It's been a while, but it was good to be back visiting Gary Gunseich at Silly Lily Fishing Station in Center Moriches as we looked for the summer mainstay of fishing season...fluke. It had been a few years since I visited and he's been raving about the size and number of keepers they've been catching in the Moriches area. There were too many shorts back west, so it was time to go east.
The great thing about this area is just how shallow the bay really is and how much fun you can have bucktailing fluke in shallow water and actually see the fish chase the bucktail or bait before striking, then see the action of the fight first hand. While many may opt for bait fishing summer flatties, bucktailing is the preferred method of local sharpies. So with a tackle box full of bucktails, fluke bullets and Gummy Shads, we hit Moriches Bay in comfort and style in one of the Silly Lily rental skiffs.
First stop on the last of the flood tide were a few of the sandbars off Hart's Cove to the east of the Moriches Coast Guard Station. Like I said, it had been a while and I was impressed once again at the clarity of the water and how I could literally see a fluke take the bucktail in 6 to 9-foot of water as we worked our way off the flats in 2-foot of water over the edge into the drop off's.
We also worked the areas between buoy 14 & 15 on the north side of the bay opposite the inlet. All we did was motor up onto the shallows, drift off the edge with the wind and bucktail our way to 40 fluke, four keepers to 20 inches and played with a school of small blues in the gin clear waters of Moriches Bay.
We were armed with the usual assortment of small 3/4 to 1-1/2-ounce bucktails, fluke bullets and Gummy Shads and with the standard fluke rigs with Daiichi 4/0 Octopus wide hooks and Fishermen's Choice squid strips. Our tackle was medium light baitcasting tackle such as Ambassaduer 4600 & 5600 Ultracast reels spooled with 14-pound Berkley Fireline, but if you use mono you would want to keep it at 10 to 12-pound test.
We finished our trip in Moriches with a nice catch, fillets for the table and fond memories. I'll be going back to Moriches a lot sooner than later and I will not be waiting a couple of years to see Gary at Silly Lily. Anglers can visit Moriches and Silly Lily for fluke the rest of the summer or the great flounder action that picks up again in the second half of the split season starting Sept. 15 and running through November 30.
You can call Silly Lily at 631-878-0247 or check out his web site at www.sillylily.com. You can see all the fun we had on "The Fishing Line" television show, WLNY TV-55 this Saturday June 30th at 9 a.m. Don't forget to the catch the weekend's fishing forecast on my Thursday night radio show at 7:30 p.m. on WGBB 1240AM radio and you can listen live on my internet site at www.thefishingline.com.