Bluefin Jig Bite Heats Up Off Montauk As Fluke Holds Steady

What's biting

What's next

With no fresh buoy or gauge readings in hand, the clearest read on where things are headed comes from the angler intel itself, and the trend lines are consistent: tuna action is building, not fading. On The Water's August 13 report already had bonito and Spanish mackerel trickling in out east, and with the jig bite for bluefin and yellowfin holding hot per that same report and Double D Charters' Montauk update, boats working the midshore and 10-to-40-mile grounds (Bob's Bait and Tackle, Taylor Renee Charters) should keep finding fish on squid and sand eels through the week.

Fluke should stay the bread-and-butter target through the weekend, though the tough keeper ratio anglers are fighting (Captain Dave III, Bob's Bait and Tackle, JIB VI) is likely to persist rather than improve suddenly. Most shops describe a lot of shorts mixed with occasional doormats, like Fishfinder II's 7.5 and 7.8-pound fish this past week, rather than a wide-open bite. Working bucktails tipped with Gulp or squid-and-spearing combos over structure, wrecks, and reef edges remains the way to cull up to a keeper.

Striped bass are the one species trending the wrong direction, with multiple North Shore and East End shops (White Water Outfitters, Fishing East Coast Bait and Tackle) describing a slowdown that reads as tied to summer heat rather than a one-day blip. Expect the pattern to hold into the coming days: smaller, scattered fish working live eels or soft plastics after dark, with the better opportunities concentrated around back bays and harbor mouths rather than open beaches. That typically starts to change as nights cool and the fall run approaches.

Porgy fishing is quietly one of the most consistent bites right now, with North Shore boats like Rip Tide III and Shamrock Charterboat reporting three-quarter-limit catches on clams and sandworms, a solid weekend option for anglers who want steady action over a big-fish gamble. Triggerfish continue to show around structure and inlet rocks at Shinnecock (White Water Outfitters), a warm-water visitor worth targeting on light tackle while water temps stay up. With the moon in a waxing crescent phase, tidal swings are moderate rather than extreme this week, which should keep bite windows spread through the day rather than concentrated tightly around peak tide.

Context

Mid-August on Long Island typically marks the handoff period between the summer bottom-fishing season and the first hints of the fall run, and this week's reports track that pattern closely rather than running ahead or behind it. The arrival of bonito and Spanish mackerel "trickling in out east" (On The Water, August 13) and Spanish mackerel holding steady for about a week on the Jones Beach jetties (LI Outdoorsman) are classic mid-to-late-August signals of warm-water visitor species pushing into the region, right on schedule for the calendar.

The bluefin and yellowfin tuna action reads a notch stronger than an average mid-August, with multiple East End sources (Double D Charters, Tight Lines Tackle, Fishooker Charters) independently describing improving conditions on the midshore grounds, and On The Water's coverage showing that bite holding fairly steady week over week since early August. That looks like a more sustained inshore tuna push than a typical single hot week.

Striped bass tell the more familiar summer story: a slowdown through the heat, concentrated around structure, back bays, and nighttime eel bites, which is the standard pattern for this stretch of the calendar on Long Island before cooler nights and the fall migration re-energize the bite. Anglers Journal's broader Northeast coverage of the approaching fall striper blitz reinforces that the region overall is still in the pre-run lull rather than an early start.

Fluke fishing, plentiful but heavy on short fish, is also typical for this point in the season, as summer-long pressure on inshore grounds thins out the easy keepers while doormats still turn up on the reefs and wrecks for anglers willing to grind through them.