Searching for Lost Fishing Lure Treasure off a Montauk Inlet Jetty

While spending some time on The End this summer, New Jersey-based fishing vlogger FishAholic Fishing took a break from traditional angling to chronicle a bit of treasure hunting off the west jetty at Montauk Inlet. The video offers an excellent view of what lies beneath the surface and demonstrates that little treasures can indeed be found right off shore.

Lures and fishing rigs can easily be lost in the Montauk rocks, but it appears this bounty can be reclaimed using a mask and snorkel, a pair of fins and a couple containers to hold your finds!

Watch as Rich shows off some crabs, small jellyfish and a variety of undersea flora and fauna throughout the search for lost lures. “Freediving is the reason I bought my first GoPro,” he explains before hitting the water.

While the water was warm in the shallow water closer to shore, Rich notes it got quite cold as he reached the end of the jetty. Without a wetsuit or weight belt, he says he was only able to spend about 40 minutes treasure hunting, and all his finds came in the last 10 minutes before he began shivering and had to stop.

Still, Rich came away with “some decent stuff,” including a fairly heavy bucktail with clip and Berkley Gulp! grub, a Berkley Gulp! swimming mullet with intact hook, a second bucktail in much poorer shape with yet another Berkley Gulp!, a barrel swivel, and a 3oz sinker with attached rig. They also collected a tangle of monofilament line, which is good to get out of the water.

All in all it was a decent haul!