Seeing as this is my first full season of Salt FFing I am still learning the basics. Yesterday while fishing there were a ton of good size, keepers, bass moving across the sand flats at the mouth of the Narrow in 6- 12 inches of water. I know that they were feeding because they were hitting the surface. I threw every fly I had in my box at them but didn’t get a single take. Does anyone have any suggestions for mid summer patterns or different stripping techniques. The only bait that I could see were sand eels and silversides.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
Try varying your retrieve. Strip like hell (we’re still talking about fishing, don’t worry) and see if it works. if not, strip and then pause every once and again–a lot of times they hit on the pause. A great trick from gartside’s “striper strategies” is, when you get to the last 25 feet of line or so, thrust the rod out to the side and wiggle the tip as you’re stripping in, giving the fly a lot of action. if you’re fishing from shore this will often cause a strike as the bass has to make a quick decision to hit or not before the water gets too shallow and that frantic action often causes them to take the fly.
Try a small,size 1 or 2,Clouser in tan/white or crab colors(olive-tan-white).Just hop it across the bottom as stripers love crabs.In shallow,clear water,think smaller flies with less flash.A Blonde fly tied sparse might also get some attention.Try a gurgler or a shrimp pattern also.
On the fast stripping, put the rod butt under your casting arm pit and use both hands to strip!
Be prepared to grab your rod AFTER you line strike the fish with your line hand.
[This message has been edited by LadyFisher (edited 02 August 2005).]
Having fished the Narrow a bunch myself, you may find the following tactic useful ? I say you may - it is not a definite. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn?t.
Using a floating (or slow intermediate) cast upcurrent and let the fly drift like you are trout fishing. Mend the line and try to swing it into the fish if possible. Right at the end strip, lift up and recast upstream. Sometimes they hit the fly as you strip and lift it.
If a straight drift does not work then drift and strip, drift and strip, drift and strip then feed line back and mend it to extend the drift.
Don?t be afraid to try this with two flys spaced 18 ? 24? apart. If you use different flys you will increase your odds of using what the fish will hit.
There have been a few crab hatches latley in the sound , a small brown crab ( calico ?) that’s about a 1/2" in dia. I saw bass feeding on them (small crabs) with bait swimming right in the same area . I did manage a couple of small bass on a mole crab pattern that I cut the lead eyes off of and let drift . Could have been that ?
John
Landed a 24-25"er a couple days ago and got skunked again last night. I am thinking that the fish are taking bait that is hitting them on the head and they are not actively searching for it. Tonight I am going to sit down at the bench and tie up a couple new ideas. Thanks for all the input on flies and strips.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
Micropteris- The bass sound like they are feeding like trout-catching what drifts to them and not chasing. I’ve seen this during the shrimp and worm hatches. Last nite I ran into a worm hatch but there were also sandeels and p’bunker in the mix, and probably some shrimp. With this smorgasbord what chance does one have with a fly that rresembles the prey. I ended up trying an eel pattern and managed a couple of mid 20" fish but the catching was tough. You might try fishing with droppers like I do and give the fish the final say in what they are looking for.Check Ken Abrames’ site :Stripermoon.com for some ideas that might help. Ron
The only flys working right now with any consistancy are sand eels(lances) and they are everywhere, even the bluefin tuna in the race are hammering them.