BugChucka
07-19-2006, 11:05 PM
Tonight I was a little hesitant to make the drive to the coast. I had already fished 6 days straight. When your going at that pace the other things in your life can sometimes begin to deteriorate, if you have a life outside of fly fishing, I don't. Call me a fly fishing loser if you'd like. Both of my windows aren't working in my truck, my cell phone's dead from dropping it in the wash, and I'm a cranky jerk at work if someone interrupts my fish daydreams.
Things are starting to come together for us on the coast after a long period of mediocre fishing. It all started 2 evenings ago when we discovered some bait around one in the morning. With the small bait came the feeding fish. The next day we found the pattern and the fish, and tonight I found some better fish. With this type of fishing, if you miss a day of it, things can change pretty drastically. If your serious about Stripers, you don't necessarily have to fish everyday, but I recommend that you at least stay in the loop to track what's happening. Consider this post a portion of that loop and take my advice and hit the coast now, before something changes again.
The warm weather appears to have pushed a lot of bait into the bigger rivers this week and the fish have followed. Tonight I stopped at a small section of marsh that's basically dry at low tide and whacked one only a minute into it. After landing that 18 inch fish I packed it up and went down to my little marsh spot. The best part about that fish was that I landed it on Kyle’s fly. The fly had been sitting on my dash for a couple weeks and I had contemplated on using it before, but I could never break down and fish that small clouser. I finally had to, especially since it was just about the same color as Saint Nate's clouser which slaughtered fish yesterday. Not that Kyle would care, he already has this year’s picture of a fat 41 inch glutton.
My spot produced fish on just about every cast about an hour before high. I finally had to break down and switch patterns when the fly started to look more like a shredded gurgler than a clouser. I mean, this thing was destroyed, but it did still catch fish. Saint Nate would have shook his head in disgust had he of seen this tattered fly. I switched over to an even smaller fly after even I could no longer bear the site of the thing and tied on to a decent fish on my first cast. This fish isn't big by any means, but a heck of a lot better than what I've been getting lately from shore...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/vfsholdover/2006-07-19001.jpg
After that fish the water turned glassy as it approached high tide in conjunction with dusk. A perfect combination for the marsh but I stopped getting anything. My fisherman's intuition kicked in and I sensed big fish. I wanted to throw something big. After debating whether or not to throw the eel fly...
I opted to chuck the Pollock imitation tied on a 6/0 hook instead. I'd love to post a pic of that big eel thing but the only photo I have is somewhat graphic in nature and I wouldn't want to offend anybody. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to see it... anyway...
I can actually say I expected to see a big fish. Like I said, something just felt right. And sure enough, as I'm slowly stripping in I felt a quick "bump." "Little schoolie trying to bite off more than he can chew," I thought to myself. WRONG! A solid hog came in to shore right on it. Of course he saw me and spooked, but he did touch it. Yes, tonight while in the marsh, a hog touched my fly. One step closer.... so close I can taste it.
P.S. Fly fishing crew.... my phone's dead...
Things are starting to come together for us on the coast after a long period of mediocre fishing. It all started 2 evenings ago when we discovered some bait around one in the morning. With the small bait came the feeding fish. The next day we found the pattern and the fish, and tonight I found some better fish. With this type of fishing, if you miss a day of it, things can change pretty drastically. If your serious about Stripers, you don't necessarily have to fish everyday, but I recommend that you at least stay in the loop to track what's happening. Consider this post a portion of that loop and take my advice and hit the coast now, before something changes again.
The warm weather appears to have pushed a lot of bait into the bigger rivers this week and the fish have followed. Tonight I stopped at a small section of marsh that's basically dry at low tide and whacked one only a minute into it. After landing that 18 inch fish I packed it up and went down to my little marsh spot. The best part about that fish was that I landed it on Kyle’s fly. The fly had been sitting on my dash for a couple weeks and I had contemplated on using it before, but I could never break down and fish that small clouser. I finally had to, especially since it was just about the same color as Saint Nate's clouser which slaughtered fish yesterday. Not that Kyle would care, he already has this year’s picture of a fat 41 inch glutton.
My spot produced fish on just about every cast about an hour before high. I finally had to break down and switch patterns when the fly started to look more like a shredded gurgler than a clouser. I mean, this thing was destroyed, but it did still catch fish. Saint Nate would have shook his head in disgust had he of seen this tattered fly. I switched over to an even smaller fly after even I could no longer bear the site of the thing and tied on to a decent fish on my first cast. This fish isn't big by any means, but a heck of a lot better than what I've been getting lately from shore...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/vfsholdover/2006-07-19001.jpg
After that fish the water turned glassy as it approached high tide in conjunction with dusk. A perfect combination for the marsh but I stopped getting anything. My fisherman's intuition kicked in and I sensed big fish. I wanted to throw something big. After debating whether or not to throw the eel fly...
I opted to chuck the Pollock imitation tied on a 6/0 hook instead. I'd love to post a pic of that big eel thing but the only photo I have is somewhat graphic in nature and I wouldn't want to offend anybody. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to see it... anyway...
I can actually say I expected to see a big fish. Like I said, something just felt right. And sure enough, as I'm slowly stripping in I felt a quick "bump." "Little schoolie trying to bite off more than he can chew," I thought to myself. WRONG! A solid hog came in to shore right on it. Of course he saw me and spooked, but he did touch it. Yes, tonight while in the marsh, a hog touched my fly. One step closer.... so close I can taste it.
P.S. Fly fishing crew.... my phone's dead...