By Zeno Hromin

This article originally appeared in the Fisherman magazine, Long Island edition

Surf Fishing Tips from the Pros:

 Eric Ernst

This month’s featured sharpie in Eric Ernst ‘affectionately known in Montauk circles as “Tree Man”. Full time resident of Montauk, Eric has a knack for bringing to scales large bass every season including a 43 pounder he nailed few days before this interview took place, in the stifling heat of August. His propensity for fishing during Nor’easters and other nasty weather conditions has earned him respect of his peers. A 50 pounder and numerous 40’s to his credit over the years didn’t hurt either. Eric strictly uses artificials and this month, he shares with us his thoughts on fishing Montauk beaches during the month of October.

Many surfcasters wait all year for September daytime blitzes at Montauk. You actually prefer October. Why?

There are two reasons. One is the people thing and the other is the actual fishing. I am sociable and I enjoy people but I prefer to fish alone. There is such a bait presence and there is so much of a predator presence within reach because the bait that is moving thru from lets say, early to mid September to late October depending on weather.

With anchovies mixed with brief but tight pods of mullet, peanut bunker pulling in the rear, interspersing with alternating pods of anchovies, one way or another, from early September thru October you got a number of bait species which might be dispersed in the back bays during summer, condensed close to the coast line in between storms. That puts predators, bass and bluefish right in your face. People standing on the beach can catch these fish. So it’s easy fishing, its fun and exciting but it creates such a high density of people and I am not trilled to fish in that high of density. And yet, its one of the times of the year when I get to see a lot of good friends from out of town that I wouldn’t see otherwise for that reason. My wife and I frequently drive to upfront just to watch a blitz. It’s exiting to watch with bent sticks all over the place and chitchat with friends. I enjoy as a social aspect of it, I like the people and I like the action. But I actually prefer a slower pick of fish. When I am getting fish after fish the adrenaline wears of after half an hour. My trill is to hook into that big cow, which instead of racing out the drag slow pumps and power throb, making the hair on my neck stand out. I know people literally like to catch small fish and lots of it, that turns them on. Everyone is different and you have to come to know your own niche. This is not a job, this is not law, this is not mandatory, it’s optional, you have to find out what you like. For me, it’s going after big bass and not going for numbers.

How much effect the weather has on your approach?

It’s almost like there are two half’s to fall fishing in Montauk surf. The first half is relatively calm waters, anchovies, mullet and early peanut bunker and the storms will shut down those bites. You want typical southwesterly breezes, calm weather and small bait that is conducive for that calm water coming in close, producing all that easy school bass, blitz fishing. The second half, to oversimplify, a lot of that small bait is gone along with school bass. Were before 25lb was a good size fish now you are getting some bigger fish maybe coming from further north. You don’t have that abundance of bait, not as predicable. They will be pods of it but they will be spaces in between and you will have storms that will produce some on the reefs. These fish are not coming in calm waters to feed on myriad of small bait but if there is sparser, bigger bait or a stormy enough surf that rips up the shellfish of the reef and large cows will be cleaning up some of the shellfish. To answer the question, October puts you into transitional period, depending on the weather patterns. You either getting a prelude to November with some butt kicking easterly blows or you have some calm stretches of several days were there some nice pods of peanut bunker .You can have blitz type weather and bait in the middle of October or you can have 20-30 knots out of the east blowing for two days giving you a fall storm pattern. So, October is nice in that is borrows from both the first and the second half of fall run but the best part is that in general you will have bigger fish in October than September.

Bigger fish?

There will be some cows culled out in September but you are also getting a lot of school bass to mid-20’s fish onto school bait. But even so, I am not saying there are no 30’s or 40’s but you are not seeing as much of them. They are there but you are not seeing as many of them because of abundance of these more aggressive midsize fish. In October after many of those have left and a lot of bluefish have left it’s a little bit more open for some of these bigger fish to come in. You are more likely to see one of theses cows on your terminal tackle if only because the competition for food is less intensive.

Montauk is a large place…how do you decide were to actually fish?

I keep fishing logs and I came to appreciate that bass are creatures of habit. Let’s put it this way, if you caught a big fish on a certain day in a certain month it might have been an accident that you got lucky caught that slob but it’s probably not an accident that the fish was there. If you put time in and don’t let memory fade by keeping fishing logs you’ll see that certain things happen at certain times. You watch good fisherman who are quieter than me and don’t advertise their fish, they are out here like clockwork fishing certain places during certain time of the year. And it’s not because there of a fishing report, the report results from them getting large fish. So I’ll fish north side or south side according to my log.

What’s in your surf bag?

I use the same stuff all year around. If its calm and people are into anchovy blitz during the day I would be watching it for enjoyment and then go out at night. Those same calm conditions are what I like all season long for night plugging. In October I like night fishing in very calm weather and I like day buck tailing in ugliest of weather and nothing in between. There are days when is sloppy but not sloppy enough for bucktailing, you catch the small fish but not the big ones and it’s a little too sloppy for fishing at night. That is frustrating.

What is frustrating is you avoiding an answer. C’mon, cough it up.

In order of priority, darters, needlefish and Redfin’s, I don’t even use Bombers these days because Redfin cast further than a Bomber and if you loaded with some water and seal it up you got a version of a Bomber. I only fish 7-inch plugs for two reasons. First, the 5 inch plug would take a space of another seven inch plug furthermore I don’t trust that 40 pounder on that 5 inch plug. Other plugs in my bag are all made by Super Strike. Reason being, I am a small person and not the greatest caster and Super Strike darters gives me probably 20% more casting distance than say a wooden darter. I know there are plenty of good fish close in but there are plenty of quality fish far out, why reduce my ability in scope and range? The other reason I like Super Strike is, if you are fishing a nasty place like Montauk Lighthouse it will take a beating before it cracks, furthermore you don’t have to worry about imperfections. They are made with precision, every one digs alike, they good casting and impact resistant you just have to beef up the hooks. As far as color, if I am throwing a darter or even a needlefish I personally like the “smoky Joe” pattern, black back and silver belly. I can’t remember ever seeing a baitfish that doesn’t have a white belly and a pigmented back. For that reason I tend to like dark back and light belies, it typifies bait. I will adjust that to brightness, moon phase and calmness or roughness of the surf. Calmer, brighter night are harder to fool fish and I find myself having to go into the stealth approach and the lightest lure I will use is black with white belly fully prepared to switch over to black over purple or all black. Location is another important consideration when it comes the color selection. I am not sure why yellow or light color plugs work so well on the north side or under the light, maybe it’s because of the sandy, gravely bottom but light plugs work there 3 out of 4 nights during fall run. If you fish mainly light plugs on South side however you might be disappointed so location is very important when choosing what plugs to carry.

You   always had a knack for pulling large fish during Nor’easters. How do you fish these storms?

Going back to fact that I like it nasty by day and pretty by night Noreast going to be nasty 24/7 so I rule out fishing at night. They are times however when you can fish at night but you kind of have to fish it around it, in timing and geographically. Around it, I mean as you know its starting to build by listening to NOAA radio get the night fishing in before it gets too nasty. Afterwards, as it’s calming down get out there to bat clean up. Also, fish in lee by finding a place were you could work your plug. But by large I will save energy at night for sleeping and bucktailing the next day.

You fish strictly daytime and only bucktails in these storms?

Yeah. I have a couple tins in my bag but I never do that well with them. I don’t use tins a lot but I try them when I want to get a greater distance. In Nor’easter when it’s sloppy I won’t use poppers and other plugs. It’s pretty much a bucktailing thing because it works for me. What it comes down to is what size of the bucktail I will be using because I am not happy if I don’t get that lead under. During different stage of the tide I will use different weights, anywhere between 1 ½ and 2 ½ ounces.

You mentioned to me previously how large fish feeding habits, in your opinion, are different than is younger siblings?

Look at it from peoples prospective. We are basically lazy but we want a lot of results. Always looking for a maximum yield on minimum investment. Young kid is young and energetic and stupid, they’ll spins their wheels while an older person must rely on its wisdom. You’ll catch schoolies in all kinds of tumultuous waters, mixed with bluefish but bigger bass want to work less and yield more just like we would. When you get a sloppy, nasty surf that concentrate bait but right next to it you got a bit of a hole or a lee with deeper water and a current sweeping into that hole; bigger fish are going to wait there.

Gives an idea of how do you fish the tides in relevance to locations?

Incoming under the light, outgoing on North facing beaches which would include anywhere from the Bluff’s and points west, Jones reef, North and false bar and all the way to Shagwong. This conforms to general rule of thumb, as you would if you were fishing the inlet, all this bait coming out on the outgoing tide and predators setting up at the mouths, saying come to mama. In addition to bait streaming out of Gardiner’s bay you have some very nice fast moving waters on those north facing beaches. As far as south side the last two hours of outgoing is a productive and as a general rule of thumb. If you fishing particular reef and you are catching fish and you don’t mind twiddling thumbs for an hour or so of slack water, you’ll probably won’t be disappointed on early incoming. For some reason I don’t do well on the mid tide on south side, regardless if it’s incoming or outgoing. If you don’t get them on the drop, however, walk away. Do not, I repeat, do not spend the hour and a half of slack and another few hours of incoming just to make sure they are not there. Because now you are spending two hours of outgoing an hour or so of slack and two hours of incoming. Guess why? Some dummy did it over and over and over again just to make sure it doesn’t work. Here is a profound secret but please don’t pass this on to the readers, it’s took a lot of years to learn but here it is “if the fish aren’t here they must be there”.

.