DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP! Each day I see fewer boats on the water and MORE FISH! The local crowd of James, Emory, Eugene and Willard of the Butts clan has been taking and releasing tons of school stripers and a keeper once in a while in Cold Spring Harbor. They use rattletraps and bucktails. I have been finding these same fish in Cold Spring and Huntington on the fly. Captain Todd Calitri hosted some of his guides from the Alaska Sportsman Lodge on my boat Csicagain. Monday was Montauk and it was a gorgeous day. Reports had been discouraging but we found fish from the jetties at Lake Montauk all the way around the point past Turtle Cove. It was non-stop fly action with Bass and Blues on the surface all day. The team spirit was wonderful and we fished the 18-foot Maritime with four anglers in a choreographed rotation. Amanda Schweitzer and Paul Dixon had clients and we worked cooperatively over fish. The surfcasters at Turtle Cove also had great action. Jim Del Grosso of Amagansett reported numerous bass and blues off the beach. The seals even got into the act. At one point the blues and bass rushed the peanut bunker up on the shore where they twinkled like living diamonds on the beach. When the wind picked up the Alaska crowd of Todd Calitri, Erik Ebetson and Chris Morton were treated to a Cold Spring Harbor picnic, Tuesday and Wednesday. In calm, shallow water we sighted bass and caught them on flies and poppers. The bay in covered with fish. This could be the best and latest season on record. There are still fish of Mass., the Tuna are still off Jeffery’s Ledge and the herring have not hit Montauk yet. Why would any one not be fishing now?