I found a couple of trucks belonging to members of my club, so I pulled in nearby.  There were a couple of guys wandering about, and a couple suiting up to hit the water.  I was still shaking off my overnight drive when three club members came up to the lot.  They told me it was a night bite, and the sun breaking the horizon stopped it.   A few more returning fishermen confirmed the bite had stopped. 

The guys who fished in the dark got their fish on darters, so when they decided to take a ride to the local tackle shops, I went along.  I wanted to beef up my supply of darters, and after adding a black & purple, black & orange, smokey joe, and yellow super strike darter to the collection, I figured I was good for at least a night of fishing.

I spent the next few hours in the lot, planning for the rest of the trip, BSing with other club members, and waiting for check-in time at the hotel.  I followed that with a trip for my night parking permit.  You purchase those at Montauk Downs, a nearby golf course.  It is a weird mix of people in line between golfers dressed in clean polo shirts and pressed slacks, compared to fishermen wearing jeans and old sweatshirts (or worse).  As I was leaving, I passed a group of high school age kids wearing team uniforms and smelling of strong cologne.  I wondered who on the golf course the cologne was meant to impress.

At the hotel I checked in and hung around a bit.  The club tries to get a person with strong local knowledge to give a presentation to the club.  This time the club arranged to have Paul Melnyk talk.  It was less a formal presentation and more a quick how-to followed by stories about skishing and Montauk fishing in general.  Paul described the tackle he used, and mentioned a big fish will test your tackle within the first few seconds after hook up.  If your stuff is not good, i.e. bad knots or nicked line, you will know very quickly.  He spent over an hour talking to the club and answering questions, and had some great stories.  It was both informative and entertaining. 

I went and got some lunch, and then tried taking a nap in preparation for an overnight session.  I didn't really sleep, as I kept dozing off and waking up from noises outside.  Around 7:00-ish I got up for good and went out to see what was going on. 

A couple of people were coming back from a fruitless afternoon of casting, some others were leaving to start the night shift, and my friend John was looking to go get some dinner.  Since the night bite had a few hours to start, I decided to tag along with John.  We stopped at a couple local establishments.  One only had ice cream, since it was their last night open while another seemed to be too busy to wait on anyone but one set of customers.  We landed at a Chinese food place, where I got egg drop soup.  It was better than I expected.  Actually, it was good.

I bummed around the hotel until 10:30-ish, at which point I started getting my stuff ready for the evening.  Being I was only going to be here three days, I wanted to maximize the time I spent fishing during the productive hours.  And those productive hours seemed to be midnight to sun-up.  So although I felt like I wasted a day, I also felt like I was setting up for a good night.

I got to the light around 11:15 or so.  Three of my friends, Tony, Tim, and Paul were already out there somewhere.  I suited up, making sure the korkers are on nice and snug.  I debated whether I want to go with tape, but the newer korker shape is wider than my old ones and fits my wader boots nicely.  After a few tests on the parking lot asphalt I feel I am good to go.  I threw on my new Simms dry top, that I bought specifically for fishing at Montauk, and started making my way down to the water. 

I had no idea where the other guys had gone.  I knew about where they were the previous night, but right about then I was regretting not scouting the area in daylight.  At the water's edge I can see two guys out on rocks, pretty far out.  The tide was low, so it was a long walk.  They look like Tony and Tim from the silhouettes, but I cannot tell.  And I cannot see anyone that looks like Paul.  I can, however, make out a nice looking rock to the right of the guy who I assume is Tony.  So, I now have a goal.  Get on that rock.

I started working my way out through the kelp encrusted grapefruit-to-bowling ball sized rocks.  It is not easy going, and I need to keep telling myself it is not a race.  That becomes difficult when I see the guy I think is Tim turn a light on to unhook a fish.  In the dim light from the lighthouse, it is tough to tell what is kelp and what is rock, and where the good footing is.  I could turn on my light, but it won't help much with the waves washing across everything, and I did not want to screw up any bite the other guys are having, whether they are my friends or not.  So I am forced to go slow and pace myself.  I would have gone down once or twice had I not been using my rod as a walking stick. 

So I eventually get out to my rock, only to find up close it was not nearly as perfect as it looked from 100+ yards away in the dark.  It was shaped like a tee-pee and was covered with loads of kelp.  I stopped next to it, put my hand on it, and start looking for plan B.  In the reflection of the light from the lighthouse, I see a rock that looks flat, but is only out of the water between waves.  It, however, is my best option and will have to do. 

So I begin my trek to "Plan B rock" by moving into a little shallower water where I will get less of a beating from the waves as I go.  I get about 10 feet inside plan A rock when I mis-step.  I'm not sure what happened, whether I stepped on kelp instead of a rock, or just slipped off the edge of a small rock, but I went over face first.  One minute I was walking, the next I was under water…

Lucky for me, I fell in deep enough water that I didn't land squarely on a hard surface.  There was enough water to soften my fall.  There was also two outstretched arms and a fishing rod.  For a few seconds underwater, I went through the inventory of body parts, to see if any were telling me they had problems.  No significant pain, so my next thought was "It is going to suck fishing all night soaking wet."  Then I thought about getting up.  I guess I'm kinda comfortable under water…

After getting up and finding a spot with more stable footing, I made sure I still had my plug bag, both korkers, and checked on how much damage I did to the rod and reel.  The rod was fine, but the reel had the handle moved back a bit, and it was loose.  I needed to hold the spool while I gave the reel a crank to tighten it.  I had no idea Van Staal handles loosened like that.  That's when I noticed I wasn't wet.  Obviously my hands and head were wet, but nothing got into the dry top.  Sweet.

I got to my plan B rock, carefully, and got on top of it.  I watched a couple of waves break to gauge how well protected I am up there.  I'm not.  I looked around for a "plan C rock" but didn't find any.  So this one was it.  I clipped on a jig, slid on a 6" Gulp grub, and proceeded to start casting. 

And 20 minutes later I decided it was time for a switch.  I had hoped the Gulp would make a nice alternative to rubber or pork rind, but I was not going to figure it out this time. I picked one of the new darters out of my plug bag.  In the dark, I could not tell what it was.  I thought it was the black and orange.  When I picked that one off the wall, I said to Tony I was going to catch a big fish on it.  I clipped it on, made sure I was still on the center of my rock (which I needed to do between waves), and went back to casting.

It didn't take long for me to learn darters were the ticket.  Maybe 10 casts.  I had a good hit, and set the hook.  The fish made a short run on me, pulling my rod down almost parallel to the water.  I was surprised at this.  I felt the fish give 5 to 6 really strong head-shakes, and then it was off to the races.  My drag, which was set pretty tight, was screaming.  But it did not scream very long.  My line parted after only a few seconds.

As I stood there, on my plan B rock, with a busted line and a tear in my eye, Melnyk's words echoed in my head: "A big fish will test your tackle and let you know what is wrong in the first few seconds."

I had a weak spot in my line. 

I was dejected, but also filled with a grim resolve.  While standing on that sketchy little rock, in the dark, without turning on my light, I managed to pull 15 yards or so of line off my reel, tie on a new leader, loosen up the drag, and snap on another darter.  This time the smoky joe. 

I worked that darter for at least an hour before anything else significant happened.  I watched "Tim" and "Tony" each get a fish or two.  Then I got another hit.  I sent the hook home and felt a couple of head shakes.  The fish made a run to the west before I could turn it.  It ran back east past me, not quite as strong this run.  A third run was short, and it made that just as it felt the surge of the breakers as I worked it in close.  I got the fish to my feet and looked at it in the dark for a few minutes to get an idea where the hooks were.  The darter was on the outside of its face, so when a wave lifted it up, I bent over and grabbed its lower jaw.  I popped the hooks out and held it up to inspect it.  I estimate the fish went about 15 pounds, maybe a little more.  I released it in another wave.

After another 45 minutes I see "Tony" and "Tim" working their way back to shore.  I decided to jump off my rock and head in too.  I wanted to see if it was them, and how they did. 

Turns out it was them, and they had similar results to mine, a slow pick but decent fish.  The bite seemed to be dying with the change of tide, so they were up for a move.  Tim was heading to another spot, while Tony needed coffee.  I couldn't stop yawning (my afternoon of interrupted sleeping was not cutting it), so I opted to head back for coffee too.

Back at the hotel at 2:00 am, Tony and I sat outside drinking the coffee Tony brewed up.  I told Tony about losing the big fish, and he said he heard my drag on that one.  I told him that I thought it was on the black and orange darter, but then went to check my plug bag and found the black and orange darter in there. It turned out I lost the blurple darter.  By 2:30 we were both still falling asleep, so we decided to get some rest and hit it again at 4:30. 

The 4:30 alarm went off way too soon it seemed, but I dragged myself out of bed and met Tony down by the trucks.  John was coming along too.  We went back up to the light to try again.

By now, the tide was higher.  As we walked out onto the beach, I saw a nice flat rock in a good spot, empty.  I didn't bother saying anything, I just started making my way out to it.  John did the same for a nearby rock.  Tony stayed on the beach talking to a couple of club members. 

After 30 to 40 minutes of casting, I didn't get anything on the smoky joe super strike darter.  Since the sun was coming up, I switched to a smaller yellow "beach darter" made by PA Surfer.  It took me about 15 minutes to hook and land a striper of about 28" on it. 

A short while later, it was light enough that we could see some fish working their way in.  I switched over to a yellow super strike popper, since that was the best lure I had for reaching way out there.  We could see people up the beach landing bluefish.  My first cast was still a good distance from where the fish were breaking, so I was surprised to get a hit.  I set the hook and after a few minutes was releasing another 28" striper.   

During the next 30 minutes, the fish stayed a long cast away from us.  I got two more 28" fish by casting close to, but not into, the school of feeding fish.  Most of the guys around me got blues.  They were casting right into the fray.  John got a couple of stripers.  I had one blue on, but thankfully lost it at my feet, just before I needed to deal with the writhing mass of teeth and treble hooks.

As the sun climbed higher, the fish moved off.  I jumped off my rock and walked out of the water.  The sun hung in the sky at the same spot as when I arrived.  This time it was at my back.  My first 24 hours in Montauk were over.

JohnB