Stripers on the fly
 

Lost two and landed two in the surf this morning. I'm brand new at the 2 hand game, but I practiced a bunch and now... It's game on! Homemade clouser fly, Echo Classic 11' 6w, Pflueger Medalist 7/8, Airflo Sniper 40+ line.

Uncle Stu,

Nice. I'm and old salt - been doing it in SW for 35 years in the Northeast. I use SH rods in the salt but nonetheless fishing for bass on the fly rod is quite an addiction. They are primarily night feeders and fishing at night is heavenly...

I agree. I live five minutes from Sandy Hook NJ and Im always sneaking out at night to fish both sides of The Hook. We are having a great season so far.

Nice fish Uncle Stu!

I can't imagine fly fishing in the dark with the surf around here... I can barely keep my feet in the day time. I'm always getting slammed by dangerous waves.

Night fishing is a **** show no matter where you are or what you are fishing for. The first time a striper takes off with your line in the dark is an exercise in controlled chaos. You have to try it. What part of the country are you in?

By the looks of that kelp, I'm going to guess Northern CA, possibly Monterrey Bay...

If you want to catch stripers during the day on a fly, come to Maine....Sight fishing to big cruisers all day long at pretty much any tide. There is good night fishing to be had, too, but why bother?

I used to catch some beautiful fish around Popham in the mouth of the Kennebec. I miss New England.

The ponds in RI
 

I just bought a second home in Smithfield RI and want to fish the ponds in southern RI. I heard the worm hatch is late this year and may be going on now. Does anybody have info on this?

Cheers,

Stripers on the fly....
 

I'm new to fly fishing for stripers myself but have found some great sport fishing for them on inner Bay of Fundy rivers in Nova Scotia....

Nice fish in skinny water, love the smile Steven. Congrates. Daryl

Uncle Stu. Nice setup! I'm headed out to SouthEast Maine on Wed for an annual family trip but will include a lot of fishing for a Stripers with a two hander. Last year I fished a Sage TCX 6119 with an Ambush Neutralizer line. It worked well, but felt like I was only fishing the top section of the water column. I want to try bigger flies and getting down deeper with some tips so this year it'll be a Sage TCX 8119 with Beulah Elixir line in 500 grains. It's a blast no matter the size, but I'm hoping to find some bigger fish like Steven (Nice fish!)

Uncle Stu........the post and this pic are really cool! Great vivid color. Steven........that hawg is a BEAST.


Im learning the striper game after some years at it from a guy who is exceptionally fishy by nature, ties awesome flies of every type and is just highly intelligent at understanding movements, tides, reading water, etc. On 2 occasions, this guy has just plain outfished a very well known striper guy/personality/author who hangs out often between montauk, cape cod, and southern jersey coastlines. He does things that most folks just dont do.

ANYWAY.....

My misconceptions that taught me some things. Maybe they will help you?

I learned that stripers arent these fish that "slam" flies. I was missing a LOT of fish that inhale and you feel a tiny "tick" like a walleye.
they aren't always grabbing giant flies.
they aren't always requiring dramatic epic casts. (spin fisherman are constantly casting for the moon with giant plugs)
They aren't always feeding in the top 6 inches of water
You don't need to always agressively race/strip the fly in.

often they are just crusing along, gently turning an 'inhaling' small stuff like anchovies, crabs, freshly hatched juvinile squid; right at the spots close in where current swirls or the waves are breacking and lapping up on shore. like. 30 ft out.

The one area he/we haven't started exploring is what happens at night. We've strictly followed the tide tables and based our fishing around that.

This is interesting to me; We've started getting consistent results; but as always, we're addicted to MORE....but its been mostly a first light/last light effort for us. Nothing through the dark hours.

Is your night fishing based heavily on tides or are you finding they just come in closer? We are bank guys. No boats.