After this mornings grand slam with my charter on spinning gear and with the fog lasting all day I had the need to get out. Called Peter Cole up and told him with the fog I think we could get some fish.
Tide was better than half out. Left the dock at 3:30 p.m. Still pretty foggy but not too bad. Went to spot that drains flats into the intercoastal waterway. Stopped the boat in about 5 foot of nice clean green water and Peter said he saw the flash of a fish.
First cast with a Chart/yellow grizzly feather deceiver I hook up.
Could see the bass come up and strike in the clean water on almost every fish. Fish were aggressive and we had many hits. My fly was not much different than Petes but I was getting more hook ups. In an hour and a half we ended up with 9 bass and three blues and Peter lost one fly to a blue. He did get the nicest fish.
As the tide was dying and the water was getting real shallow we decided to head out the inlet. Found nothing at the rocks so we thought we would try for some weakies where I caught this morning.
First couple of casts we were into weakies and sea herring. Peter was using a yellow/white jiggie and I was using a silver.green super small fly. It was hits on almost every cast. Weakies were all smaller than we caught this morning but most were keeper size. We released them all. Pete got the smallest weakie of the day. Had to get a picture of the big weakie killer so we could put it next to the big one he got two weeks ago.
It was one heck of an afternoon. We got 15 or more weakies a mess of sea herring and a few more blues. We had close to 40 fish in total in less than 4 hours fishing. I put a clouser on trying for a fluke with no luck. It was some of the hottest fly fishing we ever had and we enjoyed every minute of the afternoon.
Here is a shot of a weakie with 1 1/2 long fly with a big clip attached. So much for fish seeing it and being scared away.
Here are the two flies that worked for me yesterday. A no eyes fly that has held up pretty good. I have had it for awhile and it has caught atleast 15 bass and about 5 blues. Also a beat up old nothing of a fly that worked for the weakies and herring.
We were catching our fish in 5 foot of water right outside where the waves would break on the beach. I was using intermediate line and Peter was using sinking and we were both stripping slow.
Yeah, he has the spot for fluke. The only place I ever get fluke on the fly is the beachfront where we got the weakies or at the point from the beach were there is a sandy beach. Never anything as good as he gets. I buy most of my fluke from the fish market as I rarely target them with stripers around, but love to eat them.
We usually start getting some nicer bass about this time of year as they leave Delaware Bay after spawning. Know there weren't any around as they would be eating away at those weakies like potato chips. Here we fight the stripers and the porpoise that are always running the beach. Have seen porpoises come up with big weakies across their mouth. Even caught a big weakie one year that had porpoise teeth marks across its back.
Would of tried again today but there was a strong southeast wind blowing there was heavy chopped up surf and with low tide, there no place to fish in the back.
My bud got one today.. Just under 7lbs.. ugh. The guy goes once a year and every time he gets one over 5lbs. Amazing.. I get maybe 4 a year over 5lbs and go a dozen times.. Life just ain't fair sometimes..
edit..
Ray.. man it's funny because I've never... I mean never caught a big weakfish. Right across the bay and look at the difference.
MISSED ANOTHER FLY FISHING GRAND SLAM TODAY BY A WEAKIE
Was cloudy all day and decided to try and get a fly trip in tonight the predicted storms. Picked up Peter just as it was starting to rain with thunder and lightning off in Delaware Bay. Waited at the Marina of about a half hour and it looked like the nasty part passed to our south and it looked a bit clear to the west.
Left the dock at 4:30 p.m. and we headed to the back bay hot spot from the other day with the tide half out. First cast Peter caught a nice blue just as it started to rain.
No thunder or lightning so we kept fishing. We worked the area for about an hour and got two small bass a piece and Peter's blue with a few hits and misses.
I was using the same fly as Thursday. (It is getting a little more chewed up but it still works.)
Water was 66 degrees. Six degrees higher than Thursday with about the same stage of the tide.
With a pretty good wind blowing out of the southeast we decided to hit the inlet and then the beachfront for weakies. Got to the inlet and found pretty good waves on the beach and a heavy chop with white caps along the beach. Worked the inlet were Peter got another blue and lost another to a bite off while I put a big horse choker fly in search of a big bass with no luck.
It was now starting to get more threatening off in the distance. Before we headed in I wanted to try a shalLow section with a sandy bottom. It was dead low tide with the tide just starting to turn. Thought we would have a shot as a fluke. Idea paid off Peter got a nice 18 1/2 inch keeper fluke.
Then the sea herring turned on. We were getting hits on every cast and missing more than we caught with a number of jump offs. I was using a fly that Peter made for me. It was just like the one that he used on Thursday for the weakies and herring on the beachfront.
It worked for me as the herring slammed it on every cast. About this time the storm was getting close, so we raced back to the dock and just got to the van as it started raining hard and rumbling good. Another fun trip. We are really getting spoiled as our last few trips have provided a ton of fly action.
Where I fish on the flats in the back bay it is 2 to 6 feet of water. Floating and intermediate work great. Around the inlet and deeper water I use 350 450 and 750 grain line. Do most of my fishing in low light and in the dark so I can fish a lot of shallow water. Bigger fish have just been a little slower in turning up this year. Still waiting for more bass to leave Delaware Bay and start moving up the coast and the schools of large bunker to be along the beach.
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