Little Neck Bay 2

I have fished in Little Neck Bay ten times but have not gotten any fish. It seems this is the realty of salt water fishing - so much effort and no fish; or is it my bad luck?

Last Sunday was my last attempt. After I finished for the day and was about to leave the parking area of Crocheron Park, a guy asked me how my fishing was and checked out my fishing tackle. He commented in his broken English, "This rod, you, no good ???." I guess his meaning is that using only one rod is not an effective way to catch fish. I see many fishermen use two rods or more, bait and lure, at the same time to increase their chances.

When I fish side by side with them, sometimes I wander what they think about me or other fly fishermen. Everyone can see that fly fishermen have a big disadvantage. They cannot cast their lines as far as the bait/lure fishermen who probably roll their eyes and say, " What the hell are they doing?" I cannot help asking myself the same question.

I used to fish in the lake using a 8-weight rod, a shooting head and double haul casting for farther distance. But when I started salt water fishing, I realized the limitation of the single handed rod.

I could not reach the distance that I wanted.







Therefore I changed to spey rods. Now I use 10-weight, 15-foot spey rods. They allow me to cast longer distance with less effort. A spey rod is more powerful and useful than a single handed rod in surf fishing. I can have many different casting ways to suit different situations.

Using the spey rod, I feel more comfortable fishing among bait/lure fishermen. Hopefully there are no more rolling eyes.

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.

Line Twist

 

                                                                  

  I am bothered by the twisted line in the salt water casting which tangles the line all the time.  I always think the roll cast is the cause of line twist.  Many times the roll cast is performed to straighten the line, to change the line direction or to pull the sinking line up, etc. 

  

 However recently I realized the roll cast is not the cause. It is the line's coil memory causing the twist.  As the coiled line goes through the rod guides at high speed during shooting, the line gets twisted.

  

  There are two kinds of twist.  The first kind is the one that one end of the line is fixed but the other end is loose (Diagram B). The other kind is the one that I experience during casting when both ends are fixed (Diagram A) and the twist occurs between two fixed ends.  So this kind of line twist will be eliminated if the line tip reaches the full length of the line and the line straightens out in the air.

  

  In my case I should not pull out the line more than my expected shooting length; and I must be aware of the shock on my hand caused by the line's inertia when its tip reaches its full length.   

Casting Practice

  Since I have  built my Sage's rod, I have been  going to the beach to practice spey casting several times already. I am trying  two new fly lines from Japan: the shooting head, which is called the shooting spey line by the Japanese, and the running line, which is developed by an expert Japanese fly fisherman.

  A new spey casting method created in Japan becomes popular now. It it called the shooting spey casting which is supposed to shoot the line over 50 yards with less effort. I am learning it now. 

  The running line is supposed to be good for long distance casting in the beach using stripping basket. After trying this new running line, I can say it is better than any lines that I have used.

 In any case I am still a long way to go.  

     

Rod Building 2

Find the spine to determine the guides location.



Thread Wrapping:

You don't need a wrapping machine, just patience.

Complete the wrapping:

Last year I found the stripping guides on my Cabela's spey rod cause some inconvenience when I tucked it under my arm during a two-handed retrieve; so I removed the stripping guides and placed them in the positions of the first two snake guides.  Though the space between the reel and  the first guide became unusually wide, I never experienced any problem.  Therefore I do the same to the Sage's rod.  

Apply epoxy to the wraps.

My new toy is born.

Rod Building 1

I have built a spey rod this winter to improve my casting.

The rod is Sage's TCX which has a stiff butt and a relatively

softer tip than my other rod, the Cabela's.

I think the TCX's action is good for learning spey casting.

The followings are the building process:

                                                                                                                                                                  
The rod building package costs $570 and is almost

half the price of a ready-made rod.         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Widen the hole of the rear grip to fit the rod butt.

Take more than an hour.

                            

                               

    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Mount the reel seat and the rear grip.

Use masking tape to adjust the diameter.                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                        

Reaming out the fore grip is the hardest work 

in the process.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Mount the fore grip to complete the butt section.