the great fall migration…

this photo unfortunately lacks sound. © 2012 Al Quattrocchi

Last week I was fortunate enough to spend a few days in Montauk Point, Long Island with my longtime fishing buddy, John Whitaker. This is the magical time of the year when the great fall migration of bait and predators intercept each other and  begin their journey along the Atlantic coast towards the Hudson and Chesapeake river systems. It is really neat if you time it right and we luckily did. Living in California, my inner saltwater time clock usually starts to twitch around September only because I have experienced many of these blitzes fishing as a young teenager off the beaches around Breezy Point and Coney Island and I know they are beginning. John had never witnessed this spectacle before and he walked into it with eyes wide open. We had fantastic fishing with numerous slams, (striper, false albacore and bluefish on the fly in the same day) on the boat. The most memorable moment for me, being such an avid surf fisherman, was seeing my buddy John hook up in Turtle Cove under the famous lighthouse on our last day. This was to be John’s first striped bass off the beach on fly and he did a great job amongst the picket fence of montauk spin fisherman. Timing his cast perfectly he threw into the passing blitz. His small rain bait fly was immediately pounded by a nice ten pound bass. It was awesome and will remain a great memory for me! High fives were in order. I personally would take one bass off the beach to ten off a boat any day. It doesn’t get better than that.

©2012 photo by Al Quattrocchi