Night Fishing in Jamaica Bay

I fished in the bay side of Rockaway last Sunday night.

Before going to the bay side, I checked out the ocean side. The wave on the ocean side was a little too high for night fishing.

I got to the bay side parking lot around 9 o'clock. It was empty.

The east wind blew steadily. When I faced the bay, the wind came from my right hand side.

I waded about 20- foot from the shoreline and casted in the direction between parallel to the shoreline and less than 45 degrees of the shoreline. It was easier to cast this way because I got the tail wind position and the fish was coming close to the shore at night.

I used a 25-foot short shooting head line which was easy to handle in the dark. I pulled out 15- yard of the running line which was also easy to handle and a good enough length to reach the fish at night.

I casted and felt quite a bit of shock. The rod tip nodded and this indicated the line stretching out very well by the tail wind. Because I could not see the line in the dark, these feeling and guessing were the alternatives of the sight.

The crescent moon was shining west of the sky. While fishing, I was always facing the moon.

When the moon was almost down to the horizon, I left the water.

I caught a school size bass with a saddle feather eel fly.

(Night eel flies)

Rockaway - Morning and Evening

In the last few days the gusty wind had blown very strongly. The coastal water in the ocean was very rough.

Finally the weather became nice last Sunday, so I went to Rockaway early morning. I walked along the bay side beach to Rockaway point, stopped and fished at good spots along the way.

I caught a few school size stripers.

Fishing on the jetty was impossible today because the huge wave kept washing up the jetty.

Because of the high tide both in the morning and evening, I planned to fish also in the afternoon till sunset again after lunch.

I went back to the parking lot after morning fishing, and wanted to drive somewhere for lunch.

The parking lot was overflown with cars. Cars were even waiting in line for parking spaces.

The reason for such a crowd was that those people who usually drive to the ocean side beach with their beach driving permits, could not drive to the beach because the big wave was surging in. They came to fish on the bay side instead.

(Night flies)
I figured that once I gave up my parking spot, it would be difficult to find another one after lunch, so I came to fish after dusk.

Like in the morning, I walked along the bay side beach, almost to the jetty, stopped and fished along the way. It was a quiet evening.

Fishing in the dark stirred me up to an isolated feeling.

My Tackle Assemble

Last weekend I fished in Rockaway. On the early Saturday morning, I caught a small striped bass on the bay side.

So on the early Sunday morning, I went to Rockaway Point hoping for a bigger fish. I got there around 6 o'clock. Several spinning fishermen, lining up side by side on the beach, had already started casting their lures. I joined the line and started casting the fly with my two-handed fly rod.

Because of the tail wind, I could cast the fly quite far away. The casting distance did not look so bad as compared with spinning fishermen. After fishing there for an hour or so, no one caught any fish. So I moved on to the jetty and fished in the deeper water, but I did not catch any fish either. I had to hold out hope for next time as usual.

Because now is the climax of the striper season, I would like to talk about my tackle assemble which I have built up with trials and errors since I started using the two-handed fly rods.

RODS AND SHOOTING HEADS

I used Cabela 10 weight 15-foot rod with Rio scagit shooting head last season. Before this season started, in the early spring, I built a Sage TCR 10 weight 15-foot rod. I thought this one would be better than the Cabela one for long distance casting, but the Cabela one turns out to be better because its rod tip section is stiffer.

I still wanted a more powerful rod than the Cabela one. So I bought a 12 weight 16-foot rod and three shooting heads especially for this rod ( type Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, all 740 grain and 39 foot) from Japan. It has become my main rod.

STRIPPING BASKET AND RUNNING LINE

The tangling of the running line used to be a big problem. I modified a dishpan to become a stripping basket with heavy duty cable ties as spikes inside. It works very well, more than I expect. The running line tangling problem has almost gone with this new basket. With the new basket, I am able to use Rio Slick Shooter running line now. This line has a narrow diameter which can cause line tangling easily, but narrow diameter and slickness are essintial for long distance casting. The original length of this line is 115-foot long. I extended this line to 170-foot by connecting it with the other half of a Slick Shooter line with blood knot.

TIPPET AND LEADER

I use the poly reader for better turn and 20lbs fluorocarbon tippet for strength. For blue fish, I use the Rio wire tippet because it is softer and less kink than other blands.

REEL AND BACKING LINE
My reel for two-handed rods is Pflueger Trion for #12 line. This one has good line capacity and light weight in this class. I set 300 yards of 30 lbs test gel spun backing on the reel.

These are my tackle assemble for surf fly fishing right now. I think I have a better one this season than last season.

Still the biggest problem is: Not many fish have been caught yet!