“When the wind is in the west, ’tis of all winds the best.”

Yeah, right. My bass it is.
It may be the exception that proves the rule, since west winds usually do bring bright clear skies,

but west winds are almost always dreaded by East End fishermen.

It blows straight up the beach and muddies up the surf.

In Montauk it is about the only wind that you just can’t seem to hide from on either the north side or the south side,

except maybe in Scotts and parts of the Bluffs,

and it seems to blow wind-against-tide whether it’s ebb or flood.
So it’s been a long week for bass hounds.

The southeast blow last Wednesday didn’t produce the bite such a storm would be expected to kick up,

either up front in Montauk or in the inlets.

And since then, the west wind has kept the ocean big and brown and the fish hidden from sight beyond the breakers.
Prior to the storm the big schools of peanut and adult bunker had just made

 the turn around Montauk and begun their death march down the sand beaches.

The bite had been pretty consistent before the stormy weather messed up the ocean.

There were a few shots on the beaches in Southampton Monday morning and afternoon,

 so maybe as the wind settles on Tuesday and Wednesday the beach bite will turn back on.

With temps still fairly warm and the ocean hovering at about 61 degrees,

the little bunkers should stay in the area if the brown water didn’t drive them out already.
Montauk has been a sanctuary on the beaches,

save for some scattered shots of rats.

There are huge schools of mostly bluefish tearing through the rips on schools of rain minnows

and they’re on the baby weakfish back in Gardiners Bay.

The boats drifting live baits in Shinnecock and Moriches inlets are

getting plenty of fish in the high teens and low 20s

and a few are being taken on bucktails and plugs in Moriches.
The one thing the west winds don’t seem to have put a damper on is the blackfish bite in Block Island Sound.

The closer to home spots do seem to have slowed a bit in the last week or so,

but the boats making the longer runs to Fishers Island,

Block and some of the Rhode Island spots have been finding consistent full-on bites of some fish into the trophy size range.

The Capt. Mark came back with a pair of monster togs,

a 14-pounder and a 15-pounder,

on one trip and 11- to 12-pound fish have been fairly common for the guys who know what they’re doing.
The heave has had Shinnecock Inlet closed out for most of the last several days,

but the Shinnecock Star and other bottom fishermen are expecting to get back on the reefs by the middle of this week.

The blackfish off Shinnecock aren’t generally as big as the Sound fish,

but they’ve been plentiful with a few fish in the 8-pound class taken lately.

The inlet jetties at Shinnecock and Moriches are giving up some nice togs,

too, for shorebound anglers. Green crabs work well but hermits are the best if you can get them.
The draggers working just off the beaches are getting lots of big weakfish these days but as is typical at this time of the year,

the big tiderunners don’t seem to be feeding, and very few are caught by anglers.
There’s still lots of bait around. Between the anchovies in Gardiners Bay,

the herring in the inlets and the bunker still holding in Moriches Bay

there are plenty of reasons to think there are some great days of fishing in the near future.

Catch ’em up. See you out there.