Shad Fly

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.

Sandy Hook （Ⅱ）

  

I started fishing in Sandy Hook last Saturday morning around 7 o'clock when the sun was rising and an hour after high tide.

I caught a hickory shad right away in my first casting, and continued catching the shads whole morning.
I felt the bite of the shad almost every time when I was stripping the line.  Sometimes it was hooked and sometimes not.

Although a large number of the hickory shads was around the Hook point this morning, I didn't want to miss the chance of catching stripers.
I changed the small sand eel fly to the bunker fly because its large hook would be too big for the shad mouth, but it was not large enough.  I still caught the shads.

Most of the fishermen around me also caught shads except one lucky guy who also caught two stripers.

    Well, catching any kind of fish is better than none.

Surf Candy Fly

I talked about my sand eel fly in the surf candy fly pattern last time.

I would like to talk in detail  how to make this fly with the 5-minute epoxy and E-Z body material.

1)  Place a piece of E-Z body over the tail material.

2)  Apply the epoxy on the E-Z body.
 Then set the fly on the rotary dryer to dry.

 3)  Place the eyes and apply the epoxy a second time.  Set the fly on the rotary dryer again to dry.

To make the surf candy fly this way, I can make its body smooth and in good shape.  I don't even need the special flash light and material usually used for making the surf candy fly.

Sand Eel Fly

I fished in Sandy Hook and Rockaway last weekend.

The water was rough. The wind direction also gave me a hard time.

I had no luck.

I made sand eel flies with the surf candy pattern for Sandy Hook fishing because stripers took sand eels a week ago.

I used the 5-minute epoxy for the surf candy body, but it was difficult to make a smooth and even thickness body with the epoxy, so I put E-Z body material as an applying base for the epoxy. In doing so it would be like I put epoxy on the E-Z body fly. This worked well to make a good body shape.

When the epoxy seeped through the E-Z body, it made a solid body.

The E-Z body's light reflection quality like the fish scale unchanged inside the epoxy body.

To my surprise, the epoxy with the E-Z body base created an even more attractive body color than a simple epoxy body.

Sandy Hook

I fished in Sandy Hook, NJ yesterday. The last time I was there was two years ago and fished there at least three times, but I caught nothing.

Because Sandy Hook is far away from my home, I did not even try last year even though I believed I got the most powerful and the best fit fly tackles for surf fishing. They are the 13 weight, 16-foot two-handed spey rod and a set of shooting heads for it.

It was time to go again with lots of hope.

I parked at the lot closest to the point of the Hook at 10:30am.

I started practicing the shooting spey casting for an hour until the good fishing tide started. The high tide was around 2 o'clock.

I moved to the point of the Hook after lunch and began fishing.

Nothing happened until the high tide around 2 o'clock.
A fly fisherman came over to me and praised my casting distance. He told me that there would be some actions after the tidal current started backward.



I would say I was casting 3 and even 4 times farther than he.

It seemed he would be the least likely person to catch a fish with his casting distance when it was compared with mine or other lure fishermen's.

I continued casting, but nothing happened.

Other fishermen experienced the same.

The current speeded up backward after 3 o'clock. Many fishermen lined up in the point of the Hook trying to get their first catch.

All of a sudden, the fly fisherman who talked to me earlier, caught a striper.

Soon after he caught one more.





The other fly fishermen immediately moved to his sides and some of them caught stripers too.

Many lure fishermen also took positions close to him, but they caught nothing, neither did I.

So I went to the fly fisherman who caught the first fish and asked what he was using.

He was fishing with the sand eel fly and the sinking tip line.
I was using the sinking line too. I changed my fly to a surf candy fly which is similar to the sand eel fly to make things the same as his.

I continued casting until about 5:30pm when the day light almost ran out, I changed the line to a faster sinking one as my last hope.

After several castings, I felt a strong pull on my hand when I was stripping the line. Finally I caught a striper.
When darkness approached, I left the point of Sandy Hook about 6:30pm.

I saw no lure fishermen caught any striper or blue.

I guessed they could not match their lures with the small sand eel.

I was amazed that the lure fishermen around me couldn't catch any striper or blue while the fly fishermen could.

Usually the lure fishermen catch more fish than we, fly fishermen.

I learned a good lesson. The long distance casting has an advantage, but not always necessary. Matching the fly and the fly reaching to the right depth are very important too.

Rockaway Fishing Season Starts

Since the early season stripers action in Little Neck Bay had died down, I started going to Rockaway.

I caught only one school bass at the bulkhead of Rockaway Point in the evening of May 15.

Just after that catch, a fly fisherman passed by and asked me any luck. Then he told me he caught 3 stripers and 2 blue fishes, and showed me his fly.
It was a thin fly with few material which was different from my bulky fly.
He seemed to believe this fly was the reason he got those fishes.









We cannot see exactly what happens under the water. But I think fish is not so picky most of the time. When I cannot catch any fish, I simply believe that there is no fish within my casting range at that time.
No fish, No catch !

Little Neck Bay 2010 (Ⅲ)

This weekend in Little Neck Bay was great. I fished on Friday evening, Saturday morning and evening.

Friday evening was a fishing extravaganza. No fishermen were there when I started fishing at 6 o'clock. I caught a bass with either the first cast or second. More than 10 basses were caught one after the other, size range from 10 inches to 15 inches. The 10-inch one was the smallest bass I have ever caught.
I think these small basses like to group in a very tight circle and they swim and hunt together. So when I casted in an accurate direction and range, I could catch them one by one.

It might be the reason that last weekend the lure fishermen and I couldn't catch any fish but the fly fisherman in the boat and the bait fishermen could catch the fish.

I got a fat 16-inch bass on Saturday morning.

On Saturday evening the place where I always fish was crowded with at least 10 lure fishermen. There was no room for a spey rodder as he needs some space for safety. So I went farther to the back of the bay to fish. Anyway no one seemed to catch any fish.
That was a big contrast from the Friday evening. Even though the conditions: time, tide and weather, are similar to the day before, fish didn't come.

Little Neck Bay 2010 (Ⅱ)

I fished in the Little Neck Bay last Saturday and Sunday. The high tide came at around 1:45 pm and 2:30 pm respectively, so I started fishing after lunch both days.

Saturday was cloudy. I caught a small bass around 4 o'clock.

Sunday was cloudy too, but once in a while the sun came out.

On this breezy day, the water was rough. The wave stirred up the mud in the bay bottom and the water became cloudy.

I saw only bait fishermen caught small basses. We, the fly and lure fishermen caught nothing.

I thought maybe the cloudy water limited a fish's sight, so it had to rely on smell.

However, a fly fisherman on a boat caught a few basses and was not far away from where I stood.

Then I cannot come up with an explanation why I and other lure fishermen could not catch any fish. The reason cannot be cloudy water or distance.

The only explanation I have maybe there are still some hidden factors that I have not yet known.

Little Neck Bay 2010

The striper action has started in Little Neck Bay as early as the third week of March. I fished in the bay on March 26, my first outing, and saw a lure fisherman who was fishing next to me caught a keeper. Since then I have fished there five times already and caught a tiny one only. The new season begins with hope and frustration as usual.

My goals of this season are to achieve the overhead casting from my left side and the shooting spey casting more effectively.