Things to do in Montauk: Fishing!

Over Labor Day weekend, Chris and I headed to Montauk to have a relaxing and fun vacation (the last of the summer!) We left Manhattan after work and drove to our hotel in Montauk without much traffic. We got in around 10PM and immediately got ready for bed because we had to wake up at 6:45AM the next morning to get ready to go fishing!

It was actually really gloomy and the forecast was rain the entire day (which made us feel damp for the entire day) but we made the most of it and got ready for our 4 hour fishing trip. The dock:

Our boat:

The boat took about 30 minutes to get us to our first fishing spot and on the way, I took some photographs of the dreary day:

And the Montauk Lighthouse:

After the boat’s captain settled on our first location, everyone picked up their fishing rods and started fishing. Since Chris and I had no idea what we were supposed to be doing, I called over one of the fishermen and had him explain to us how to fish. He showed me how to drop the line and then passed the rod to me so I could wait for something to catch. Right as he handed it to me, I asked him why the rod was so heavy and he said it was because I caught something so I should start reeling the fish in (otherwise he’d get away!). After 5 seconds of fishing, my first catch:

A big piece of fluke (flounder)! It was about 5 pounds and we placed him in a bucket and named him Monty. After our first catch, we left our initial spot and went somewhere else (no fish were biting the bait for the other people on the boat). Speaking of bait, we caught our fish with a big piece of fluke (apparently they’re attracted to their own meat), some squid, and some anchovies (I think):

When I was putting the bait together on the hook, I made sure to stick the hook through the fish eyes so its juices would come out and the fluke could smell the fish. Gross, but it worked!!

After fishing for a while and having no luck, we decided to go to another spot (Chris and I didn’t decide, the fishermen decided for us and turned the boat around to find another location). Luckily, the spot we found was filled with flounder because Chris and I caught fish at the SAME TIME:

I caught a rust-bellied fluke (see the rust spots on its tummy?) but had to throw it back because it wasn’t long enough:

Chris caught fluke that was large enough, so we were officially at 2 pieces of fluke (not bad for first timers!). After a while, Chris caught ANOTHER fish….this time, a nice sea bass:

The sea bass wasn’t large enough so we had to throw that back as well, but I would’ve liked to tried cooking THAT piece of fish. After a bit, neither of us were having much success with fishing, although I did manage to win largest catch…of kelp:

YAAAY congratulations! It got all tangled up in my fishing line and I had to have someone come help me get it untangled so I could continue fishing. I didn’t end up catching any more fish that day, but we didn’t have a grill and didn’t know what to do with all the fish we caught so it wasn’t a big deal. As we headed back to the shore, the fishermen offered to filet the fish for us, but before we had our fish gutted, I took one last picture with them:

And then the fishermen went to town on our fish:

It doesn’t seem entirely sanitary that they were gutting the fish on carpet pieces, but it seemed like everyone else was fine with it so I didn’t say anything.

Our final product:

Fishing was a lot of fun and I think it’s a great way to spend the morning (despite the early wake up time). I felt a little seasick AFTER we got off the boat (when we were eating lunch, I felt like I was rocking back and forth every time I closed my eyes) but it was worth it!

Edit: I forgot to mention that Chris caught ANOTHER fish before we got back to the dock (putting our total count up to 5, although we were only allowed to keep 3 of them). We had the fishermen filet his fish (which we ate) and then we gave the other two fish to a family that was having a big party that night.