Fluke and porgy hold strong as bluefin bite shifts offshore

What's biting

What's next

Fluke and porgy should stay the most reliable bets over the next few days — Bob's Bait and Tackle and Babylon Fishing Station both describe fluke as thick right now (mostly shorts with keepers mixed in), and porgy reports from North Sea to Cedar Beach have been consistently strong all week. With tonight's Full Moon pushing bigger tidal swings, expect both bites to stay active around the stronger moving water, particularly on reef and wreck structure that bunches bait during a hard tide.

The bigger story to watch is the fall transition. River Bay Outfitters is already flagging cooler overnight temperatures, and shops from Shinnecock (Tight Lines Tackle) out to the South Fork are hearing rumors of false albacore showing, with Spanish mackerel and bonito already trickling into the inlets per River Bay Outfitters and LI Outdoorsman. If that pattern holds, the next week or two should see those species build from scattered fish into a more consistent bite as baitfish get pushed through the inlets on the bigger moon tides — worth blind-casting around structure and visible bait rather than waiting on a full-on blitz, per On The Water's technique notes on albie fishing.

Night fishing should also get a boost around this moon phase. Fishing East Coast Bait and Tackle and Cow Harbor Bait and Tackle are both reporting striped bass on live eels, poppers, and soft plastics after dark in the back bays, and the stronger nighttime tidal flow around a Full Moon tends to concentrate the peanut bunker and spearing that stripers and bluefish are keying on. An evening or pre-dawn session around the tide change is a good bet this weekend.

Offshore, the bluefin picture is mixed heading into the next few days. On The Water's most recent Long Island report notes the nearshore jig bite has cooled off, but Double D Charters out of Montauk and Babylon Fishing Station are still finding fish — including a 57-inch bluefin by the Towers — and Tyalure Professional Tackle is reporting excellent bigeye and yellowfin action at the Atlantis Canyon. That offshore window should hold for at least another week or two before the fleet's attention shifts fully toward the inshore fall run. The Fisherman's Long Island video forecast also flags this as one of the season's bigger weekends on the water, with the Greatest Bluefish Tournament taking over Long Island Sound — expect more boat traffic and pressure on popular structure through the weekend.

Context

Late August is typically a transitional stretch for Long Island and Montauk saltwater fishing, and this week's reports line up with a fairly normal seasonal calendar rather than anything unusually early or late. On The Water's August 27 Long Island and NYC report frames bonito, Spanish mackerel, and ocean fluking explicitly as the bridge action 'until albies arrive and the midshore chunk bite begins,' which is the standard late-summer sequence for the region — bonito and Spanish mackerel typically lead the false albacore run by a couple of weeks.

The bluefin tuna bite also fits a familiar pattern: a strong nearshore jig bite through early-to-mid August (as described in On The Water's August 13 and August 20 reports) cooling off by late August as fish move to deeper structure and canyons, which lines up with Tyalure Professional Tackle's current reports of good bigeye and yellowfin action at the Atlantis Canyon.

Double D Charters in Montauk describes light-tackle bluefish blitzes as having 'become the norm' this stretch, which reads as a typical, healthy late-summer pattern rather than a standout or subpar year. Similarly, the widespread fluke and porgy reports across the South Shore, North Shore, and East End — including notable keepers like Super Hawk's 13-pound, 7-ounce fluke and Babylon Fishing Station's 57-inch bluefin — suggest a solid, on-schedule season rather than one running unusually hot or cold. None of the sources in this week's intel flag the season as notably ahead of or behind a typical year.