How do you choose where do you fish during a storm?

[Mike P]

addict---one problem is that most of the members here fish Rhody and Mass, and noreasters can be a different game. On the Cape, for example, any noreaster, or any easterly wind for that matter, often brings in mounds of mung weed, so most either sit out the blow, or fish estuarine waters.

I fish NY like you. My experience is that easterly winds in the spring often draw in colder water and shut down the bite. I'll fish inlets or backwaters, but often east winds also stir up mung and eel grass to the point where fishing gets tough. In the summer, noreast storms are rare. In the fall, they're dynamite, especially the first line storm after Labor Day in early to mid September. They usually drop the water temps enough to sjhake loose the migration of baits like mullet and so-called "white bait"--bay anchovies, sardines, snapper blues, and so on. Fishing at Montauk, and along South Shore beaches that are near inlets, is often fantastic during noreaster in September and early October.

Once you get later on in the fall, say November or early December, a severe storm can write the book on the season if it drops the water temps too much---the bait and the fish often move offshore to 60' depths for the balance of their migrations.