Fluke Push Builds on Long Island as Montauk Bass Ease Up

What's biting

What's next

Look for the fluke bite to keep building on the South Shore over the next few days as water continues to warm through July — On The Water's July 9 report already has keeper flounder moving from the ocean reefs into the bays and Long Island Sound, and that inshore push typically continues as the month goes on. Anglers working bucktails or Gulp-tipped rigs in the Sound, including the 3-way bucktail approach detailed for the deep rips of eastern Long Island Sound, should keep finding fish as the pattern fills in.

The Montauk striper bite that On The Water flagged as "beginning to slow" is following a familiar summer track — bass are typically pushing out to deeper, cooler oceanfront water as inshore temperatures climb, a shift Saltwater Edge Blog (RI) described happening region-wide through June. That doesn't mean the bite shuts off; it means the better fish move to structure and rips holding cooler water, and dawn and dusk windows (plus the pre-dawn approach OTW has written up for summer stripers) should stay the most productive times to be on the water. Surf anglers sticking with live eels on circle hooks or rigged Slug-Gos, per OTW Surfcasting's recent gear breakdowns, are the ones most likely to connect through this transition.

Offshore, the bluefin bite that's been "on fire" from Maryland into New England per OTW Saltwater's July 8 Northeast Offshore Report shows no signs of slowing heading into the weekend — boats running the canyons and mid-shore grounds should keep finding fish as long as that pattern holds, though the July 3 closure of the Southern New England trophy bluefin fishery (73-inch-plus fish) is worth knowing before targeting the biggest class of tuna in that zone.

With scup and summer flounder seasons freshly open per the NY DEC newsletter, expect bottom fishing in the bays and Sound to keep producing bonus species alongside fluke over the next couple weeks. No local buoy or gauge data came through for this cycle, so treat tide swings and early/late light as the more reliable guide than any single water-temperature number — check a local tide chart and marine forecast before planning around this weekend's tide windows.

Context

This is a fairly on-schedule July for Long Island and Montauk. Striped bass easing off the immediate Montauk grounds as fluke and offshore species take over the spotlight is the standard mid-summer handoff for the region — bass haven't disappeared, they're just following the seasonal shift toward deeper, cooler water that On The Water and Saltwater Edge Blog (RI) both describe as typical once ocean temperatures climb through early summer.

What stands out this year is how early and consistently strong the bluefin bite has been. On The Water's July 2 report already had "midshore bluefin fishing on fire," and OTW Saltwater's July 8 Northeast Offshore Report confirms that heat carried into the second week of July across the Maryland-to-New-England stretch — a notably hot and sustained offshore run for early July. The July 3 closure of the Southern New England trophy bluefin fishery (fish 73 inches CFL or larger) is itself a signal of how much pressure that fishery has seen this season.

On the regulatory side, NY DEC's saltwater newsletter cycle has walked through striped bass, summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass season openings this spring and summer, which lines up with a normal-paced season rollout rather than anything delayed or accelerated.

We don't have local buoy or USGS gauge readings for this report, and none of today's angler-intel sources offer a direct year-over-year comparison for Long Island water temperatures specifically, so take the "on-schedule" read as pattern-based rather than data-confirmed.