Penn’s Outdoors

By Timothy Risser

Salt water fishing is an obsession that haunts the soul, so I caution you to read these words with hesitation. You may find yourself waking up in a cold sweat longing to drive three hours across Long Island to toss a fly or plug into the ocean. Montauk is one of the select locations on earth that will haunt you like that for the rest of your life. The marine life is so abundant, and the fishing opportunities so great, an angler has to almost try not catching fish to have a bad time.

Captain Steve Thulin with a 20-pound False Albacore

I had the privilege to fish Montauk Point with Captain Steve Thulin, owner of Bass Kikker’s Charters, for eight incredible fall days in 2007. We targeted late September to make the 120-mile drive across Long Island, New York, where Montauk Harbor is located. We selected late September because that is when False Albacore begin to appear in that region.

If you are not familiar with catching False Albacore it is lot like cattle roping. There are several techniques for hooking up with a False Albacore, but that is only a small portion of the fun. The most popular technique to hook into a False Albacore is to cast a fly into a pod of breaking bait fish and strip the line with small twitches. This is very popular and effective in North Carolina where False Albacore fishing was made popular.

However, this technique proved ineffective in Montauk. We chose, instead, to blind cast flies while drifting, using a double handed line stripping technique. This was very effective during low light conditions and moderately effective during high visibility conditions. Double hookups were the rule, rather than the exception, during the morning and evening hours!

Author, Tim Risser, with a 14-pound Bluefish

Now, once a False Albacore smashes your fly, you need to hold on for dear life. This species can swim up to 40 mph, and is by far the fast swimming inner costal game fish. To put this into perspective the highly touted Bone Fish only swims about 25 mph.

The trick is to set the hook and get your fly line cleared before the line burns your hand, gets tangled around something, or ties a knot in itself. We have termed this stage of catching a False Albacore, The Albi Shuffle. The fish is swimming so fast that the line makes a zipping sound as it peels through your fingers. After the excess fly line clears the rod guides, the stripping hand needs to move down to the reel in order to add extra tension to the drag. The reel will sing as the fish runs anywhere from 150 to 300 yards with the first pull.

I use a 75-yard, moderately-sinking fly line with 75 yards of orange dacron backing attached to 200 yards of Gel-Spun backing. This gives me a good gauge on how far a fish runs and where I am in the battle. While retrieving, pull up on the rod and reel down on the fish. Be careful to watch for quick short bursts of energy from the fish that can cause the reel to let go quickly and catch your knuckles. This is very painful and can happen in an instant.

Try to land False Albacore quickly as they survive better when caught and released fast. Fast is a relative term because the average battle last 10 to 20 minutes. When releasing False Albacore, hold the fish above your head and drop them into the water headfirst to rush water across their gill plate. This helps flood their body with oxygen allowing it to survive to fight another day.

Author, Timothy Risser, with a 13-pound False Albacore

Montauk is not prized for its False Albacore fishing because it is rumored to have a smaller physical size fish than North Carolina. I have had the privileged to fish both locations and have found this rumor to be unfounded. The average size for both locations was 10-20 pounds. Don’t let the weight fool you into thinking it is an easy prey. The biggest difference between locations is the size of bait on which they feed. False Albacore at Montauk feed on small bay anchovies that are about 2 to 4 inches in length. They also tend to be pickier than their southern counterparts in high visibility conditions.

What makes Montauk great is that if one species gets picky you can chase a different quarry very easily. Steve and I enjoyed landing Blue fish in the 5 to 15 pound range and Striped Bass in the 10 to 20 pound range on the same tackle. In fact, Steve and I both easily collected a Montauk Slam during our week at Montauk; a Bluefish, a False Albacore and a Striped Bass. Larger fish are prevalent in the area so be ready for anything when you book a trip to Montauk, Long Island.