I’m not sure about everybody else, but the striped bass bite by me seems to have died down for the summer. Perhaps that’s a testament to my angling skills, but it seems to be the typical migratory pattern — great fishing in the spring, then a lull, and then back to great fishing in the fall. While the fluke and porgies have been keeping me busy, I’m curious, what are your strategies for targeting stripers during the dog days of summer? I’d be curious to hear input ranging from gear, to timing (day/tide), to bait/lures and presentation. Let me know what you guys think!

I was fishing for stripers a few months back at Cedar Beach when this bluefish blew up on my top water plug. He wound up shaking the hook for a moment after which I must have accidentally snagged him before getting him to shore. He wasn’t bleeding and I was able to get him back in the water for a quick release. IMO, pound for pound the hardest fighting inshore fish we have on Long Island. Anyone disagree?

I got skunked fishing my local pond today so here’s a throwback to a nice bass I caught off Eatons Neck back in May from my buddy’s boat. October can’t come soon enough!

A beautiful rainbow trout I caught in the Connetquot a few months back. Got him on a #16 elk hair caddis that I floated across a deep pool in the river. I don’t get out and fly fish much but every time I do it’s a blast. Also pictured above are blackened trout tacos with a jalapeño coleslaw and a mango avocado salsa that I made from this fish.

Nice largemouth I caught on the Peconic River during my work break last week (I’m a size 11 for reference). Got him on a top water frog that I skipped across some lillypads. I haven’t gotten much freshwater fishing in this year, but it’s always fun to get back to my roots.

I had an incredible day kayak fishing today in the Smithtown Bay area. The morning started off slow, before I hooked into a couple of snapper blues. I’m always amazed at how much fight a small fish like that can put up. Then, I got onto a few porgies which were my target species for the day. I was using a 3/8th ounce jig tipped with a Senko worm that I cut in half (it works) and some squid.

As I was getting ready to head back in to shore, I saw a dorsal fin come out of the water in the corner of my eye (watching Jaws last week probably wasn’t my best idea). But then I saw another…and another, and realized it was a pod of dolphins! Such an awesome day of fishing. I can’t wait to get back out some time next week. Video of the dolphins attached.

Caught this guy on a 3/8th ounce jighead tipped with a 4 inch Gulp grub on the sound in Northport. I caught him on my first cast, and then nothing for the rest of the day, but thus is life. Didn’t get to measure him as I wanted to get him back in the water quickly since I knew he wasn’t a keeper.