Montauk 2011

I fished at Montauk last Saturday.
It verifies to me that fishing around the Montauk point is not easy for fly fishers.
If someone recommend surf fly fishing there, I'd say he is not honest or doesn't know what he is talking about.
The chance of success there is slim and it requires a lot of luck.
Am I still going there?  Yes!

Sandy Hook 2011 (Ⅲ)

There was not much action in the Sandy Hook point last Saturday.
High tide came at noon.
I fished from around 11:00 o'clock to evening.

I felt the receding water from the bay was warm.
I guess many fishes have headed more to the north; I may too.

Sandy Hook 2011 (Ⅱ)

I went to Sandy Hook again last Saturday  and fished the receding tide from early morning till noon.
I tried Scientific Angler 750 grain fast sinking shooting head line for my 13-weight spey rod.
The line went well with the rod.  It becomes my fastest sinking system.
I fished like wet fly fishing in the tidal current to make the fly swing like other fly fishermen in Sandy Hook Point.
I caught one school bass.










In the evening, I came back to fish for two hours each before and after high tide at 6:00 pm.
I got a few hickory shads only.
Two plug fishermen who looked experienced, were fishing a little away from me and caught a large striper each.
It seemed to them catching the keepers was not unusual.
They looked happy, but not like crazily joyful I was.
I was fishing at the corner of Sandy Hook Point and casting to the north while they were fishing 50-yard away from the corner and casting to the east.
I liked to fish near their spot, but I couldn't because the wind came from the south and on my right.
As I am a right-sided caster, it would be difficult for me to cast far distance.

I need to practice the left side casting.
For a right-sided caster, it supposes to be easier to learn left side casting with the two-handed rod than to learn left hand casting by the right hander with the single-handed rod.
Regardless, the two-handed rod demands a lot of work, but I am sure using the two-handed rod in the surf makes the surf fly fishing more effective.

Hey man, I still have a long way to go!

Sandy Hook 2011

My saltwater fishing season started in Little Neck Bay., NY.  Sandy Hook, NJ was next.

I fished in Sandy Hook point two previous Saturdays.

I saw about 10 fly fishermen on the first Saturday.  It was unusual to see that many.
They didn't catch any fish, nor did I, except
one fly fisherman.
He caught one small striper and one large keeper.
He said to me, "30-foot deep here! Sink it!  Sink it!  Sink it!"
The way he fished was like nymph fishing.

After casting, he walked along the beach following his line drifted by the tidal current with his rod tip high up to sink the fly deep down.

To prepare the following Saturday's fishing, I made flies using lead wire to make them sink quickly.
I know Clouser minnow is a good deep sinker,
but it is not durable.  I don't prefer it anymore.

 

                             Last Saturday, high tide came at 11:30 am.

                             I caught several fishes from early afternoon to evening.

                             I think the heavy weighted flies helped a lot.
                             I tried that guy's method, but I had no success with his way.    

                             In this afternoon, sea birds were very busy too.

Shooting Spey Casting

The over head casting of fly fishing needs back space,
especially with two-handed rod casting.
But it is not always possible.
In Little Neck Bay where I fished this early spring, the back space is limited.

To tackle this problem, I have been practicing the shooting spey casting which is the variation of the perry poke casting.  The shooting spey casting requires special rods and lines and I have them.
The line can be shot quite far away easily.




My shooting spey casting has improved a bit.

Little Neck Bay 2011 ( Ⅱ )

I

It was an usual weekday evening at Crocheron Park in Little Neck Bay.

But for fishing,  it seemed the best day.
It was cloudy and the high tide came at sundown.

I got a keeper for the first time.

Little Neck Bay 2011

The swan couple is here this season as usual.

First Fishing, First Catch!
The stripers have already started migrating to the Long Island Sound.
Little Neck Bay is the first place to go for them.

My newly designed flies work well.

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.