So I wake up, and its dark out… go to work and leave and it’s dark and cold out. Yep… winter time in New England. Which means we have at least 4-5 months before those big silver black striped beauties comes back ourways with some fresh lice, and an insatiable appetite.
So now I go home, turn on some itunes music, settle infront of the vice…
I have deceivers, Clousers, Ray’s flies, rabbit zonker flies as tied by a local shop owner, up the wazoo.
My question is, and I hope this is the right forum, Any other New England striper guys tying up for the spring run? If so, can you suggest and or share any other patterns that you tie up?
My go-to fly is a flatwing deceiver
Others in my “#1 box” include Gartside gurglers, Tabory snake flies, and a very sparse Brook’s blonde in the Ray’s fly colors. (olive over yellow over white)
Here’s the basic steps for tying a flatwing style fly
You do not have to make them as long as the one in the illustration
I never make mine any longer than about 7"
Being trapped by the great lakes, I have only had the gumption to try ocean fishing once. I went striper fishing with my brothers in the Long Island Sound. I had a great time. I even caught a pretty big one.
I understand the part about the appetite, but am confused by the term “fresh lice”.
Can you elaborate on that? Is that a term of endearment for a food source? Do the fish commonly host a parasite?
dudley thanks for those! I have a couple of gurglers but havent’ had much luck doing topwater with stripers. I usually find pockets of water from shore that drop 8 - 10 feet and fish the bottoms! Although I have got to fish for some on the flats!! But I like finding estuaries and bays! I think i just need to man up and get out in the dark and pop those gurglers!!
What is a deceiver flatwing? Just a flat wing in deceiver colors? Or just an elongated deceiver with the center feathers flattened?
B540Glenn, in New England people associate Sea Lice on Stripers to mean fresh fish coming from a southern migration. Now I am not a marine biologist, nor an old salt (just been fishing for stripers for a couple years now) but my understanding is that when Stripers come up from the south they pick up Sea Lice (actual black/brown parasite) that lives on their scales. When they get up here in our coastal waters (massachusetts) after a while the lice seas to fall off and dissappear. I remember reading once that the sea lice reference might actually come from Salmon fishing? Salmon from the ocean would pick up sea lice and as they moved into the freshwater, the sea lice would die. So if you caught a salmon with lice, it was fresh in from the ocean.
soooo basically, what I meant by fresh lice, is probably an incorrect reference to migratory stripers (not holdovers) that are just arriving to Massachusetts waters!!
Man just talkinga about these guys are getting me going! :D:D
What is a deceiver flatwing? Just a flat wing in deceiver colors? Or just an elongated deceiver with the center feathers flattened?
The tail feathers, instead of being tied vertically as on the Lefty’s deceiver, are tied in horizontally per the flatwing instructions.
Here’s a link for the snake fly
I carry white ones for when the peanutbunker are in and fish a black snakefly as a slider in current at night
I was going to attempt some Skok’s mushmouths as well, but I have really shy’d away from the bigger patterns! I will definitely find it in me to give em a shot this year!
I remember there was a fly on here, i believe posted by bonefishwhisperer. It had barbell eyes, and the hook point up like a clouser. but the shank was completely bare, and it had bucktail or some sort of material, coming from the eye upwards a 45 degree angle, covering the hook point. It looked like a bait fish feeding on the bottom. I can’t find the post, picture, or name of the fly, but it looks killer!
Clousers in chart and white, purple and black for the rocks, tan, copper and white for general use, Beadchain shrimp, 12" lavender and white herring for June on Joppa. Snake flies for night. Hard Bodied poppers for busting fish. White deceivers tied with white ostrich herl (movement) in 1/0 and smaller for fussy fish over sand. Other than that- what sogs said.
Shakey while I am not going to offer any specific pattern I will suggest you add at least a couple of squid flies to your fly wallet. My biggest striper taken in the monomoy rips beggining of July last year was on a squid fly. That fish was in the 20lb range. Squid flies have been responsible for my largest bluefish on the fly too.
