Montauk, a village of 3,000 that expands tenfold in the summer when New Yorkers make the 120-mile drive to the eastern tip of Long Island, is a great spot to surfcast for striped bass.

The fish are so prominent that a legend dating back to the the 1920s purports that a Montauk lightkeeper spotted a school of striped bass on the rocks offshore. The lightkeeper apparently made 57 casts in a little more than an hour and landed 56 stripers.

Because of its summertime popularity, the best time to go is after Labor Day. That’s when the tourists have packed up their sand shovels for the season and schools of stripers run south from Newfoundland to spawning grounds around the Chesapeake Bay.

Trip Facts

When to go: April—October

Difficulty rating: Easy