Bunkers

  Stripers are chasing after the bunker fish in Little Neck Bay now.  Bunkers are one of the stripers' favorite preys because they are abundant and fatty.  They like to swim in large schools.  Some are reportedly up to 40 miles long according to Wikipedia.

  I saw several Peanut Bunker schools in Breezy Point 2 years ago.  Each school was as large as a tennis court.  It looked like black cloud floating in the sea and stayed there for a week or two. You bet I had some good times. 

   I have a few selections of the bunker flies.  EP fiber fly is easy to make and has a good imitation of the fat fish.

  
 My Peanut  Bunker tying is shown below:


















 Tie different colors of EP fiber above and below the hook shank.

  After trimming the fiber,  apply Softex on the head part of the body to make  bases for gluing the eyes.

Put a few drops of epoxy over the eyes.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

A school of my Peanut Bunkers.

                             

Little Neck Bay

  I have fished for the last 4 days in a row from Thursday to Sunday in Little Neck Bay.  My friend told me striper action has started in the bay.

  I have never fished in this bay before.  It is quite close to my house, only 20 minutes by car.  It's unlike going to Breezy Point where I always fish and practice,  I have to pay tolls and the fishing permit!  

 

  The bay is pretty calm and not many boat activities which can create bothering wave to shore fishermen.  This lovely bay is like a small lake.  I even forget I am fishing in the salt water.

  Unfortunately I didn't catch any fish in these 4 days. I didn't notice anyone catch any fish for the first 3 days.  But I saw some people around me catch fish on Sunday. I didn't even get any bite of my fly.  So I think the problem was on my part. It might be the sinking head, which was easier to cast in the wind and I retrieved the line very fast otherwise the fly would sink to the bottom quickly.    I  thought striper preys swim away fast when they see their predators.  So it was OK to retrieve the line fast.

When it was almost time to leave on Sunday, I watched the lure fishermen.   They were reeling up their bunker imitations very slowly.  Maybe that is the way to fish here.  I will try the same way next time retrieving slowly the floating or intermediate line. 

  

 

  I always  learn something from lure fishermen because wherever or whenever I fish, I seldom see fly fishermen in the salt water.  

 

 Excuse me for mumbling again:  Flyfishing is the process, not just for the result.

Silver Side

  It was a rainy and windy Saturday. What else can I do at home besides making some flies.

  Silver Side is the most common and abundant bait fish in the northeastern coast.  When I went salt water fly fishing the first time, this was the one my fly snagged.  As you can say Silver Side is my first catch in salt water.

  I emphasize the silver side lines on their bodies by gluing Flashabou outside the E-Z body.



  I use the rod rotor as fly dryer.

  The jig hook point will be in up position when this fly is swimming in the water.

A Convenient Way to Connect the Shooting Head with the Running Line

  I found a convenient way to connect the shooting head with the running line from this home page: (www.geocities.jp/hisuycast/A-menu.html)                                                                       

  

  Depending on the fishing situation, I need to change the shooting head sometimes. I used to use the loop to loop connection to connect the shooting head with the running line. It was quite troublesome. I had to push the shooting head through the running line loop all the way to the end.  

  The way I found is basically making a small loop using a piece of backing line ( I call it the connection loop) to make the connection between the shooting head and the running line.

  The followings are the step by step procedures: 


 Make a noose of the running line:

 1) Make a knot near the end of the running line. 
 2) Tie the running line with a piece of backing line as the illustration above.

 A noose is made.

 Make a connection loop:

 1) Take a piece of backing line, double it and double it again.
 2) Make a knot at the end.

 Use the connection loop to connect the shooting head and the running line:

 1) Fasten the connection loop with the shooting head loop using loop to loop connection.

      Make sure the knot of the connection loop is at the loose end. 

 2) Put the connection loop into the noose of the running line.

 Tighten the noose. The connection is done.

 

 To disconnect the connecion loop from the running line:

 

 Pinch the end of the running line and then pull while holding the connection loop with the other  fingers.  This will make the noose loosen.