Montauk Classic

I spent 24 hours in Montauk Friday into Saturday evening. My sole purpose was to try to get some images for the magazine. I brought a rod and a handful of lures with me, but my primary objective was to shot some pictures. With The Fisherman Montauk Classic on top this weekend, I knew there would be a lot of guys fishing. Plenty of photo opportunities, or so I thought.

I meet Ron D, the ZeeBaaS Guru under the light at dusk. He was there for the same reason, camera in hand shooting away. You can see that the level of excitement was there, as there were few rocks to be had. But from what we could see, no one told the fish they were suppose to be there.

As it got dark, we reset our cameras in the upper lot and spent better portion of two hours shooting at the moon over the lighthouse using long exposures. This was all new to me and judging by my pictures I suck at it, but it was something new. Waiting for a camera to take a 20 second exposure is definitely something different then anything I ever did before.

Around 10 PM the SJ Art Guru “Yo Dude” (Tommy to most of you) arrived. Ron and him suited up and walked down to bluffs while I set up my cameras and headed out to the False Bar. Holy crap! There must have been close to hundred guys lined up in the water on outgoing tide. But after watching them for a half an hour I’ve seen no fish caught. Zero

So I went back to Jones Reef and crashed in my truck. No worries , with hundreds of guys in the contest, there will be some good picture opportunities at sunrise.

The sunrise was at 6 38 and I set a clock for 5 AM. I really do not care about taking pictures once the sun has peaked over the horizon so I like to be in position early. I thought about going to Browns and shooting into the Lighthouse to capture that predawn red glory but I was worried if there will be guys fishing there. I can always take shots of empty rocks.

At 5 am the phone alarmed buzzed….and I re-set it to 5 30. Hey, I got a fluffy pillow award! At 5 30 it went off again and I was up this time. The coffee in thermos from 7/11 was still hot and it felt great as it warmed me up. After pulling into a Weed Bowl I grabbed the camera and started to walk towards the Bluffs. I only seen one guy at the edge of the bowl which I thought it was unusual. I didn’t make more than five steps before I felt that familiar grumbling in my stomach.

Oh shit! Literally. I dumped the camera in the truck and took off for the bathroom in the parking lot. This is EXACTLY  a reason why I like to get up extra early. In front of the bathroom Fisherman Editor Fred Golofaro was manning the weigh in station. He told me John Bruno had a 37 and there were two 18lb fish on board. Awesome I thought as I went it do my business. Five minutes latter I was walking back along the bluff and scratching my head. NO ONE was fishing!

Other then two guys in Scotts and handful under the light, there was no one there. Oh well, they must all be on south side. Or they were exhausted from bailing fish all night.

I drove to Camp Hero, took a peak over the cliffs and counted ZERO guys fishing. But the lot was full. Back over the lighthouse where I spent an hour shooting at people for no reason. God knows that there was not a fish caught while I was there.

Finally around 9 am I made my way to False Bar where I ran into some friends. How was last night I asked?