I caught many shads with the sand eel flies two weeks ago.
Later when I came to think of what happened on that day, striped basses might be chasing small shads, not sand eels.
I assume that sand eels were eaten by shads and shads were eaten by striped basses.
Based on this assumption, I tied some 7-inch yak hair shad flies which are almost the largest size my tackle can handle.
When I fished in Sandy Hook last weekend, I was ready to use these flies. I saw many fishermen caught small shads with the small lures and then they used the shads as live baits.
A fisherman near me landed two large striped basses in a row with the live shads which were the same sizes as my new shad flies, so I felt confident casting with them whole day. But I got no luck.
I found the yak hair always tangling on the hook bend. I have to make changes to these shad flies.
I think the roll cast flips the fly in the water and causes the yak hair tangling on the hook bend.
To prevent this tangling, I tie the yak hair closer to the bend. This leaves some spaces in the front of the hook shank, so I wind lead wire there for fast sinking.
The striper season will soon be over anytime when the weather turns really cold and the striper goes more down south.
I hope I have a chance to use this improved fly in the coming weekend.
