Montauk Fishing Charters
Contact Captain Potts Today
(631) 680-4800 call or text
We Network With The Best Boats In Montauk
If Captain Potts Is Not Available We Will Set The Trip Up For You
Montauk Fishing Charter
Now – Excellent BLACKFISH <—> TAUTOG, Seabass, COD, Stripers
Best Montauk Fishing Charter Experience
Safe – Comfortable – Kid Friendly
Have great family fun and catch fish for the grill !
Captain Michael Potts
Captain Michael Potts has been fishing his entire life. During the sixties his mother would take him along to ride shotgun in her airplane while she spotted swordfish for Michael’s father George and Uncle John on their third boat, the Blue Fin. The Blue Fin was custom built for the Potts brothers in 1954 in Maine. They had been operating a charter boat as partners since 1944. By the time Michael was 10 years old, he had steady work on the Blue Fin and other boats, and in those days sold many fish off the dock to customers who wanted fresh fish for dinner. The family bought a 41′ boat that was custom built in Greenport, LI, for charter fishing in Montauk. It was engineered for the waters off Montauk with an impressive super stable hull design for comfort and a big cockpit. Michael ran the Blue Fin IV as one of the top charter boats in Montauk from the perspective of putting fish on the dock, the number of trips he sails, and most importantly the great relationship that he has with his clients.
Local Fishing Seasons
Local Fishing Rates
AM or PM ... Approx 5 hrs
- Most Common Sailing Times
- AM Trip – Between 4:30AM and 6:00AM
- PM Trip – Between 10:AM and 11:30AM
All Day - Approx 9 hours
- Most Commom Sailing Times
- Between 4:30AM and 6:00AM
It is recommended that reservations be made well in advance
The boat carry’s all State and Federal licenses.
No personal licenses are required.
Catch limits, size limits and open Season’s change
Offshore – Big Game Seasons
Offshore – Big Game Rates
- Options will always be discussed before the trip is sailed.
We also catch Bonito, Little Tunney, Pollack, Hake, Mackeral, Triggerfish, Marlin, Swordfish, Bigeye Tuna, and other species when available.
State and Federal regulations may affect season openings.
For Big Game
(Highly Migratory Species)
regulations please refer to:
(Be sure to read all the way to the bottom)
Testimonials
Won’t Fish With Anyone Else
Known and fished with Michael for 30+ years. Always a great time. Won't fish with anyone else. D. Storm
Always Puts You On The Fish
Have been out three times on the Blue Fin IV....always puts you on the fish.....and monsters at that !! P. Halton
He’s The Real Deal!
Done tons of charters in my lifetime. No one I enjoy fishing with more than Michael. He's the real deal! B. Weinberg
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Montauk A World Class Fishing Location?
Many ports claim the title of fishing capitol of the world. You can go to these ports and experience better fishing for a particular species.
What makes Montauk a special fishing capitol is that you can experience excellent fishing for many species.
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Videos From The Blue Fin IV
Montauk Weather
Captain Michael Potts
Story and Photos by Allan Weisbecker
The Blue Fin IV is just 41 feet overall but she looks gargantuan as she sits high and dry in her cradle at the Montauk Marine Basin. I find Captain Michael Potts by the port quarter, eyeing the seam he’s just sealed with a long, thin mahogany wedge smeared with epoxy. He nods. The fit is tight and true. It’s late spring and Captain Potts is looking forward to another 12-hour day of yard work, getting his boat ready for the summer charter season.
Captain Potts has run the Blue Fin IV since 1975, when his father and uncle, who were partners in the Blue Fun I, bought her to accommodate their burgeoning charter business. (Curiously, there has never been a Blue Fun II or III). Over the ensuing 20 years, the Blue Fin IV has earned a reputation a one of the elite boats of the world-renowned Montauk charter fleet.
Indeed, I have first-hand knowledge of Captain Potts’ expertise. In the fall of 1990, on my first offshore fishing trip, he put me onto a 551-pound bluefin tuna. (The fight and eventual landing of that fish was an experience I’ll never forget).
Of the dozens of Montauk boats hunting giant tuna (greater than 310 pounds) that day, the Blue Fin IV was the only successful one. Considering that a boat can go a decade or more without landing a giant, the fact that Captain Potts brought another home the day before made the feat even more remarkable.
When I ask him to elaborate on his family’s history, Captain Potts steps back and contemplates his boat’s rugged yet elegant lines.
“My dad and his brother started coming to Montauk in the mid ’40s to fish tuna and swordfish in the summers,” he says. “They eventually decided to settle here and were well established when the Montauk fishing scene boomed in the ’50s.
Captain Potts credits part of the family’s early success to his mother, Margaret, who ran her own seaplane charter business. “Mom’d fly out and spot the fish, then communicate their location to Dad in the boat,” he chuckles. “Usually, I’d be strapped in the back of the plane- Mom didn’t like leaving me with babysitters.”
By age 12, the future skipper was a regular fixture on the Montauk charter scene, selling fish from the Blue Fin I’s trips and picking up additional work as a crew member on other boats. And learning, always learning.
Young Mike continued to fish weekends and summers throughout his years in the East Hampton public school system. He first skippered the Blue Fin I in his senior year of high school. In spite of the time he spent at sea, his grades were excellent. Upon graduation he went off to college, earning a degree in environmental biology from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Ultimately, however, the pull of the sea won out over academics. In 1981, he was back aboard the Blue Fin IV full-time. (He bought the boat from his family in 1984).
Over the years, the Blue Fin IV has cultivated a loyal year-round charter clientele that is about equally divided between offshore big game fishermen and inshore enthusiasts bent on the pursuit of stripers, bluefish, porgies, cod and groundfish.
“It was never a conscious decision,” Captain Potts replies when I ask him when he committed to fishing as his life’s work. “As a matter of fact, my parents were completely against it, especially Mom.”
Odd, considering that by the time Captain Potts took over the Blue Fin IV, fishing had been the Potts family’s living for nearly 40 years.
When asked what makes for a successful charter boat, Captain Potts sighs, shaking his head. “There’re a lot of factors, but in the end it’s the skipper’s ability to find the fish,” he says, “You don’t put your customers into fish, they’ll go elsewhere.”
Captain Potts figures that success in finding fish is based on experience, hard work, attention to detail and keeping up with technology. The latter includes space-age navigational equipment, new developments in sonar-based fish finders and satellite communications that produce real-time printouts of water temperature and salinity data. Improvements in fishing gear materials and design- everything from rod and reed to hook and monofilament-increase the odds that once hooked, the fish will be landed.
I ask if there’s maybe another factor that has contributed to the Blue Fin IV’s success. I’m fishing and Captain Potts grins, rising to the bait, “You’re talking about your tuna, right?”
I nod, recalling how the morning I caught the fish Captain Potts had spent a good 45 minutes jockeying with the fleet, looking for a spot to anchor up that “felt right.” Then, after an hour or so of chumming, he came down from the bridge, commenting that he “had an inkling” we’d soon see some action. A few minutes later, I was in the chair, hooked up to what he and mate Dennis Gaviola referred to as “a dinosaur.”
“There’s also what I guess you’d call instinct,” Captain Potts says.” All successful skuppers have it, whether they know it or not.”
I ask if there’s anything about the fishing business he doesn’t like. “Well,” Captain Potts answers, “I’m not crazy about the alarm clock going off at four every morning.” He pauses, glancing toward the harbor mouth. “On the other hand, most days I get to see the sunrise at sea. How many people have that as part of their job?”
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