The big news is the offshore boats targeting cod,pollock,seabass and blackfish have been doing extremely well and so far there is no sign of this action slowing down,local cod catches similar to the "old days" have been reported with some fish hitting the 40 and 50 lb marks.This will be a great way to fill the freezer with some quality fillets for the holiday season and the drive is alot closer than heading out to Montauk.The action on the local beaches has been slow with the lack of bait and the epic sandeel bites of the past few years non existent coupled with rain,early snow,wrong winds,etc,its been a tough go for most surfacasters although a few diehards have been picking away at mostly schoolie sized fish on ...fresh salted clams.Although I'm told that when the sandeel bite is off the herring run could turn on a nice bite on large bass so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the fall surf run might end on a big note.The boat anglers have been doing much better on the bass with large fish being wire line trolled on bunker spoons and shad rigs between Jones and Debs.This action has been taking place in mostly the 35-45 ft depths.Some anglers have been following the birds or marking bait and jigging diamond jigs and this has been producing good catches of bass and blues.Anchoring the mouths of the inlets and clam chumming also has been productive with Jones inlet getting the most play at the West Bar.The bridges are still holding fish and some nice bass have been quietly taken on live eels by those in the know.