Peter and I left the dock at around 6:00 p.m. with the outgoing tide we worked a number of creeks and coves in the back bay that I haven't worked yet this season and then tried the spots where I got fish earlier in the week. We both could not buy a hit and never saw as much as a minnow. Saw two ospreys just sitting on their next. They probably have to run out to the ocean to get a hickory shad for dinner.
With a fair breeze we were able to go out the inlet and snug up close to the beach as the sea swell was lighter than the previous trips.
Here I tortured poor Peter. We were both using similar weight lines, similar flies, the same stripping motion. I keep getting hit after hit and hooking fish after fish while he was struggling to get a hit. In the first hour of fishing I landed 10 fish while he was looking for his first fish.
I had 6 stripers, 2 blues and 2 hickory shad and the sun had set and it was dark. Some on a chart/white clouser, some on olive/white clouser and some on larger chart white clouser. The bass were the smallest of the year. I had one that was 12 inches with the biggest 20 inches.
Out of frustration, Pete put on a pink/white deceiver and finally hooked and landed a bluefish to get rid of his skunk.
I offered him my rod, the flies, whatever to get him into fish, which he refused. We could not figure out what was different as we usually catch equal amounts of fish. The whole night I encouraged (Maybe it was harassed) Peter to catch a fish.
I is not going to be pretty the next time I have a bad night and he has a good one, but it was just one of those nights.
Wanted to leave the dock at 6:00 p.m. on the top of the tide but Pete couldn't make it till 7:00 p.m. Pete jumped on the boat with 7 new clousers and was ready for action. We decided to skip the back bay and go right to the beach front and try for weakies and bass.
We never made it. Went to head down the inlet and there were birds and swirling fish starting at the base of the inlet rocks and in patches all the way along to where it met the ocean.
We had to give it a shot. For two hours it was not stop action. Hickory shad were hitting on every cast. We caught atleast 50, 25 of which I keep for my bait fishing trips. If you could get your fly past the hickory shad the 3 to 4 lb blues would hammer you and if you could get by the blues you had a shot at a bass.
We got 6 stripers to 24 inches, 15 blues and a unbelievable amount of hickory shad.
They were so thick I put on a 8 inch super large fly, that Brad Buzzi gave me, to try and get away from them. I wanted big or nothing. Had blues banging it but no big momma, while Peter keep hammering the hickories and blues.
Action stopped around dark and I put on a 5 inch deceiver catching one more blue. It was one incredible couple of hours of fishing and with it being Sunday night there were only a couple of boats out fishing, so we had the place all to ourselves. We called it an early night and were back to the dock by 9:30 p.m.
Another incredible fly fishing night. Had a last minute possible charter call this morning and said he was going to try and get down to fish tonight. He got tied up with the job he was on and couldn't make it. Also said that it looked like it was going to be windy and cold night and he would go another day. After last night's fishing, Pete and I were not going to let the night go to waste.
Wind kicked up late afternoon and was blowing close to 20 mph out of the southeast. We headed out to the inlet again and could see over the rocks that we were not going outside the inlet even with a ton of birds working the beach front.
Found birds, bait and fish on the inside and it was a repeat of last night with well over 50 fish on the fly in less than 3 hours. Only tonight we had 19 stripers between us.
We started out with sinking lines and chart/white clousers and started hammering herring (found out that they are Atlantic herring and not hickory shad), blues and stripers.
Just like last night it was close to a fish on every cast until dark. I started with my sinking tip with my 8 wt. After catching a ton of herring and not being able to cast without catching one I put on a 5 inch bunker fly to try and get only bass.
I worked as I would only get striper or bluefish as the fly was too big for the herring. It worked and I got the biggest bass of the night to that point. A 23 incher.
Pete then switched to a bigger fly and wasn't catching so he switched back to a small clouser. I kept hearing him curse as he would make a short cast and get a herring. You could lay your fly over the side of the boat and not strip it and get hits. I was kidding him about using such a small fly and that the bigger bass wanted a real meal.
He shut me up. A couple of casts later he hooked into the nicest striper of the night. A keeper 29 inches which put up a nice fight.
As he was reeling it in I looked around and we where the only guys out fishing and had the whole place to our selves.
I netted the fish for Pete and couldn't believe how small the clouser was that caught that fish. It was a beauty and Pete's first keeper on the fly rod for the year.
We kept on fishing until the sun set catching more bass and herring. ( Here is one for you. I caught two herring on a 5 inch bunker fly.) I would not of believed it if I didn't see it first hand. Never saw them hit anything that big before.
We were treated to a beautiful sunset. With the wind blowing good it got pretty cold when the sun set and called it an early night. I was wearing 2 sweat shirts and heavy hooded coat but the hot action kept us plenty warm.
Pete kept the keeper for dinner and we released all the other fish. Hope the weather and fishing holds for tomorrows charter trip.
Nice pix ray. We were out there last nite too in a little sundance skiff (ps, sorry if we got to close to u a few times, the tide was really rippin) we had similar results as u a mixed bag of blues, sea herring, and we even managed a couple keeper bass one at 32" and the other was barley legal at 29". We caught them on bombers but i really need to bust out my old fly rod. watchin u guys reminded me of how much fun it is.
Chill, not a problem with the tide and wind and fish busting you don't know what to focus on as fish are jumping, rods bending, it is all part of fishing and doesn't bother me. The fish were spread out well all had room to catch. See you on the water. I will be out there again tonight with a charter, but with the strong wind it should be more exciting or frightning depending on the waves. Hope the fish show up. Glad you guys had a good night.
Making this report 2 part post as I got a ton of interesting pictures.
Headed to the inlet around 6:00 p.m, with the wind blowing 25 to 30 mph out of the south southeast I thought we might have a shot at fishing the inside of the south inlet jetty and at best new it was going to be an exciting night. If not fish-able we would work somewhere sheltered in the back bay with the incoming tide.
I was right. Got to the inlet could work out toward the end. Found huge waves blasting the inside of the north jetty and the outside of the south, but inside I was fish-able.
Worked out as far as I could and used the big motor as the tide and wind made steering a full time job. Found birds diving and fish swirling all over.
You could see Blues and herring flashing in the water along with an occasional striper swirling after bay anchovies. It was the perfect tide for fishing this type of wind as the you could motor up to the nasty water at the end of the inlet and the incoming tide and wind would blow you back in the inlet away from danger. If it was an outgoing tide it would of been dangerous if a motor died.
Just to get and idea of what it was like at the end of the jetty, here are a 4 shots of a big commercial guy that came in. A couple of waves really pushed him around pretty good.
As if the waves and wind were not bad enough there were huge pieces of wood coming in the inlet. Saw what looked like part of a pier, it had a couple of 20 foot 10 X 10's bolted together with short telephone pole thick pieces attached. Had 4 X 4's and logs and part of trees. Here is a shot of a 30 foot tree that swept by us.
It was another 50 to 60 fish night like the past two. It started from the first cast and went non stop till we moved to get away from the bluefish.
About the third fish was a striper and we thought it would be a great bass night. It was 1 bass for about every 20 blues. Charter started with a spin rod and then used my 350 grain 9 wt as he only brought a fly rod with floating line, which was impossible to cast with the heavy wind. After catching a number of blues he decided it was too much work with the blasting wind.
My charter was having a blast, but you can only take so many blues, so we decided to move away from the birds and work down the jetty looking for bass.
Here the wave action was a little less and I was able to use just the electric bow motor to control the boat. We now started getting herring, more blues and an occasional small. bass.
Now that I had the boat under control my charter said why don't you fish. Picked up my 8 wt multi-head with sinking line and started casing a small Chart/white clouser and started catching herring, blues a couple of small bass.
Just got done telling him about how Peter, yesterday, caught a nice keeper on such a small fly. Just then I got a nice hit and the rod doubled over and the line screamed out. I knew I had a nice fish on. It put up a nice fight and we blew half way across the inlet before he netted it for me.
My biggest of the year. A nice 33 inch striper, caught on a beat up bluefish chewed fly.
Charter was amazed that you could get such a nice fish on such a small fly. Getting paid to take out a charter, catching biggest fish for the year on a fly, getting a ton of fish for charter, could life get any better!
After my fish we went back to the south side of the jetty and caught more herring, blues.
We caught a ton more herring, blues and a few more bass before dark and stopped fishing at 9:00 p.m. My charter caught enough fish and as the tide had started out and the sea swells were getting big with the wind blowing against the tide he was starting to feel a little sea sick.
Got him for another charter tomorrow night, weather permitting and might try the back water as a change of pace. He does a number of charters with me and we usually work the back with popping plugs for bass.
Last edited by CapeMayRay; 05-16-2007 at 02:31 AM.
Dave, you are right. I use to call them sea herring and then I was told they were hickory shad, which is wrong. The hickory shad are not lond and thing and have a deeper body. Turns out that once in a while a hickory is caught but the are all mostly Atlantic sea herring. One in the picture is what we are catching tons of and it is a sea herring.
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