What I learned this summer

[steelhead]

By the end of the summer, I had stopped using intermediate and sinking lines and was using floating lines exclusively. I found I had more flexibilty in my presentations and fishing techniques and more control over my fly. It's like i have gone back to my freshwater fishing roots. My flies have become very sparse, as though when I tie a fly I'm trying to suggest a bait, as opposed to literaly interpret a bait.

[steelhead]

Come on you guys. Don't tell me you didn't learn anything....
I feel like I'm just scratching the surface!

[steelhead]

http://www.stripermoon.com/archive/arc4.html

A great article on fly fishing techniques in the saltwater.

[LinesidesontheFly]

I learned this over the past ten years. Fly fishing for Stripers.

1.) If you want big Stripers on the fly fish the rock shores at sunrise and sunset.

2.) Use dark colored flies on intermediate line , poppers and floating line at night. Light colored flies and shooting head line during low light hours.

3.) The "HOT" fly seems to change every season. Trial and error.

4.) Often times sparsely tied flies work better. The more fish caught on a fly the better the fly is able to catch more fish.

5.) Fish the places where current and structure meet. Waves crashing against the rocks is like ringing the dinner bell to a Striper.

6.) Nothing is etched in stone. Be flexible and experiment.

7.) Bring a camera. You see some amazing stuff while on the water.

8.) A bad day fishing is far better than a good day at work.

9.) Always have grocery flies on hand. You never know when you will be within casting distance of a school of Mack's.

10.) Be patient in getting the fly down into the strike zone. If your fly gets caught on the bottom you are fishing the correct depth. You will lose a fly on occasion but it is a small price to pay for catching more fish and better quality fish.

11.) Use barbless hooks. Practice catch and release.

12.) Set the hook good and hard and more than once after a take.

13.) Use a stripping basket.

14.) Buy the best equipment you can afford.

15.) Stripers have an incredible sense of smell. I never handle flies with a bare hand. Bring along laytex gloves ( if you are not allergic to laytex) put them on before tying a fly to the line. I know it sounds stupid but give it a try.

I am sure I could go on. Maybe you should add more of what you have learned so everyone would benefit. Tight Lines.

[steelhead]

This was very instructive evening this past summer. It happened in early June. TIme was dusk into darkness.


"I spent the last two hours on the water down at the Kernwood Bridge here in Salem. Got there at dusk, about two hours after high tide and fished a sand bar the carries out in to the river a ways. I started out with an Ozark bass Minnow in White/Chartreuse and Purple with two split shot. Initially, they were taking the fly after an initial up stream mend and the fly was retrieved in a slow twitch manner. After a while it tailed off and I noticed that they were hitting the fly as I lifted it out of the water. So I took the split shot off and would do a drift with a retrieve consisting of three quick strips and the a long pause. the fly would often be picked up on the first strip after the pause. Then this stopped working. So I just let the fly drift and low and behold they started hitting that! Then that stopped and they began rising in the shallow water all around me and the Bass Minnow stopped working. Then I was stumped! Tried shrimp, worms, etc. with out any luck. Used my flash light and couldn't see anything. So I left puzzled. On the way home, I began wondering if they might have been feeding on glass minnows or very small isopods. I'll try there tomorrow night and bring a dip net and a seine net. Hopefully the same thing will happen again and I can figure out what it is they're feeding on. All in all a good evening. "

The next night the same thing happened. I finally caght glass minnows about an inch long. The fish were holding in the current ans sipping them down as they came by their feeding stations. So I put on three very small, very sparse bucktails that I had tied up earlier in the day, each a slightly different color. They consistently took the the one that was tied as a Ray's Fly pattern.

['ol pajamas]

I experienced three cinder worm hatches this past summer. Since I always carry some different types of cinder worm patterns that I tie I was somewhat prepared. On the first night I was fishing with a friend.

We were fishing three days before a new moon at around 8 pm and just before outgoing was to begin. At first we were only aware of a bizillion silversides. It sounded like rain as I waded through the water. There were also a great deal of grass shrimp. In fact, this past summer produced more varieties of bait, in massive amounts than I have seen in a few years. There were also more gnats eating our faces off than in the past.

We were both working silverside patterns but nothing was working as we heard bass busting the surface. As each quarter hour passed the noise of busting fish grew. It was so crazy that my friend and I couldn't stop laughing. It was really nuts. However, we weren't catching anything.

At one point, I was changing my fly and I saw a cinder worm in the water with my headlight. I took one and made a rough measurement: 1 1/2". I yelled to my buddy worm hatch. "Oh, #^&#^&#^&#^&" he said. I asked him if he had anything to use. He did. He had some red gartside gurlers with long red bucktails. I put one of my worm flies on and caught a bass. I then told my friend to chop his fly down to 1 1/2". He did and he began to catch more than I was.

The gnats were horrible and drove my friend home but he left me one of his flies. I chopped it to the correct length and caught a couple of stripers. But I was NOT satisfied with the results.

The next day I contacted a friend and I described how the hatch went down and I asked him if he thought it would happen again tonight. He said definitely yes and gave me explicit directions on how to deal with it.

What I learned was that the fly I was using was fine. It was the right size and had nice life to it. I ended up tying some different flies that were closer to what I had observed. The problem with what I was doing lie in feeling the almost imperceptible hits. I was most likely getting hits but either I didn't feel them and/or I was pulling the fly out of the bass's mouth without knowing it.

In addition to the 1 1/2" hot orange General Practioner fly I planned to use I was instructed to attach a float about 10" above the fly to keep it high in the water column for the entire drift. The key however was how to control the line through out the drift. What was critical was yo keep an absolute tight line by constantly retrieving it, not stripping but taking up line. The second piece of advice was how to set the hook. The stripers (and large shad too!) were inhaling these worms but I guess were not moving away and the hook would just come out of their mouths. However, when the slightest interference in the line was felt I was instructed to not set the hook but to hold the line tight and as tension grew on the line to match it by gradually adding pressure from my side with my line hand. It worked well. I got down their that night an hour later (9 pm) with turning tide and left at 1:30am.

I wasn't able to get down to the water for the next couple of days but I did find another worm hatch four days before the next new moon and had the similar positive results. It ended up being the best fishing for the year.

[steelhead]

Great post! I had never thought of using a gurgler! Keeping in touch with the fly and the hook set are so critical. Did you use droppers at all? I had a similar experience one night with worms and they only would take a small !1 1/2") olive and orange flatwing, ignoring the GP and the other worm fly I had on. That night, my best results were when I'd cast almost directly upstream and strip the line in to keep in touch with the fly.