Little Neck Bay （Ⅵ）

My haiku:
Saturday strong north wind
Rough murky water
No fish, still fun

Last week I saw bunkers jumping in the Bay and I was not sure why.
So this week I tied some large 8-inch bunker imitation flies just in case stripers might be chasing them.
I could barely cast them out 25 yards in the side wind.
But when I casted them out in the same direction of the wind, these bulky flies could ride on the wind and go quite far away for their sizes.
 I hope I'll have a chance to catch some large fishes with these large flies.
 It will be very exciting.

The 2012 Season Is Coming.

I am ready for the new season!

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.

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.

Diving Bunker

Rockaway Point is one of the best places for fishing stripped bass and blue fish around the city.

I saw some fishermen catch large fish at the tip of the jetty in Rockaway Point, so I tied a fly especially for fishing there.

The Diving Bunker is a large fly for large fish and weighted heavily, so it will sink quickly and deeply.

Unfortunately I didn't have any chance to fish at the tip of the jetty this season.

I went to Rockaway Point several times, but most of the times the wave was too high to go to the tip.







When the condition was good, the tip was crowded with fishermen.

I, a two-handed fly rodder, need some space for casting, so I had to give up fishing there and just fishing in the mid-section of the jetty.

This Diving Bunker has never caught any fish, but I dream it will catch a big fish one day.

I think when you believe in a fly and use it often, it will catch fish eventually. This is one of the point of views about fly fishing, isn't it?

These are the materials for making Diving Bunker.

The hooks are Timco 600sp size 8/0. They are large hooks to be wound with a lot of lead wire.















Tie the yak hair the same way as Puglisi fly.















Apply Softex to the head part to make the foundation for the eyes.


















Trim the body hair.

Wind a 10-inch length of .035 lead wire to the bend of the hook, then apply super glue on it.

Place the eyes and apply the epoxy over them.

Apply a thin coat of clear silicone to the body of hair around the hook to prevent it from tangling the hook.

Realistic Silver Side Minnow

My saltwater fishing season is about to end.

I want to go to Sandy Hook as my last fishing trip,

but I have got a backache since the Fire Island Inlet fishing.

So maybe that is it.

What we, fly fishermen, can do in off season is to tie flies for the next season.

I'd like to talk about some of my previous season's flies which caught fishes or for whatever reason I like them.

The first one is "Realistic Silver Side Minnow".

Silver side is the most common bait fish in the northeastern coast.

I made many variations of "E.Z body" head ones,

then I thought why not using "E.Z body" for the entire body to make a realistic imitation.

(By the way, the same kind exists in the market. People thought about the same thing hundreds years ago.)









I know a realistic fly for the human eyes may not be for the fish eyes.
But at least I caught a fluke with this fly.













These are the materials.


















Make the fish body frame with a plastic sheet. I cut it from a clear plastic salad container.














Color the frame with marker and paste a piece of aluminum foil on both sides of the belly.














Tie the "E.Z body" on a hook and slide the frame into it.

Tie the marabou tail and paste the flashabou on both sides of the body.

Place the eyes and apply epoxy to the head.

Trim the marabou tail to complete the fly.

This is a natural one.

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.

                             

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.