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32 . Montauk (stripers)

Location: Eastern tip of Long Island, New York, about a 3-hour ride from New York City; and a 3-hour ride—partly via ferry—from Boston, Massachusetts. Full-service airports are available in both cities.

The town of Montauk, at Long Island’s easternmost point, is rich in fishing lore and history. Fly fishing is just the latest in its centuries-old recreational angling and commercial fishing history. Not only is Montauk the biggest commercial fishing port in New York, it is by far

the largest saltwater recreational fishery in the Northeast.

Starting in May and running through November, Montauk Point and its treacherous, yet fish-friendly tide rips and currents attract gamefish in numbers not seen in many other places in the world. It is a complex ecosystem with its foundation in migrations of baitfish, gamefish, butterflies, birds, and not least, recreational and commercial anglers. The wildlife migrations are regional; the anglers come from all over the world.

Although Long Island Sound is 25 miles to the north and west, its effect on Montauk Point is significant. There are more than 100 miles of baitfish spawning and rearing creeks, bays, rivers, and estuaries that eventually flow past the George

Washington–commissioned lighthouse at Montauk Point. Some say it represents up to five trillion gallons of seawater. The estuaries of Long Island Sound stretch all the way west to New York City, and as far east as Watch Hill, Rhode Island. It is this fact, and the forage that it produces, that creates the fish-so-thick-you-could-walk-on-them blitzes that Montauk is famous for.

Striped bass, or stripers, are the main attraction at Montauk. But both bluefish and false albacore are also pursued, making great additions to what is already a great fishery. Striped bass are a migratory species. Their native range is from Maine to the Carolinas. Two-thirds of the