Fly Fishing the Surf

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Date: June 23, 2006 at 23:55:21
From: ken, [pool-64-223-36-182.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Re: locating "richer" fly fishing spots on Long Island's...


There are a few simple things to keep in mind.
The first one is there are worms everywhere even in the Arctic and in the tropics and they do swarm to mate. If you do not see them it is only because you have not looked for them long enough and hard enough.
You will find them and when you do you will find that the more you notice them the more different times and types you will find.
There are worms that swarm every month of the year even in winter.

The next thing is shrimp.

Shrimp are very important to stripers much more so than everyone who fishes part time thinks.
Shrimp are a mainstay in an inshore stripers diet.
The next is crabs.
Stripers eat crabs like gangbusters when there are no large schools of bait to eat and they don't miss the bait.
It is a natural alternative for them.
Big fish and small fish do this all the time.

Crabs also swim and are not always on the bottom and if you fish crab flies in the drift you will catch many more bass than you will if you fish weighted crab flies on the bottom day in and day out.

Sand eels like water twelve feet deep and once the inshore water warms up that is where they can be found. Sand eels are the main forage fish for striped bass along the whole coast.
They are deep however and are not seen at the surface and this has been studied and proven by many studies over the years.

The next thing is the swarms of crustaceans that swarm and mate throughout the summer and winter and are so thick that even whales feed on them.
Stripers do too and they do it on a regular basis.


The next thing is to fish current not spots.
Chase the current and fish it as it moves and sets up at different stages of the tide along a beach.
It is a movable feast and you have to keep up with it if you want to be consistently successful.

Spots are only good when the current makes them prime. Take away the current and they die.

Current!

Change of structure on a beach tells you that the currents are changing velocity and are creating edges that are important to fish even if they are not outcroppings or ledge rock.
They are changes and fish travel along visible change lines. Where the bottom goes from dark to light or from sand to pebbles.
Those lines are paths to a fish and he will move along them from one place to another.

Current seams along a beach that are in close are as important as current lines way outside.

They are formed by depth changes called break lines and fish move along them.

Over the years I have fished where the current has told me to fish. I have often been asked why am I fishing a certain place because no one fishes there. I just smile and keep fishing. The current lines never lie.

People only fish where they expect to catch because they have been given spots to fish that is all they know.
Do not listen to them at all.

Find the places where fish are yourself.
It is an adventure without end not a set of spots to try.


So; find out the natural bait for your areas and learn about it and how it lives and acts.
The stripers know all about it and you should too if you want to catch them.
Find out about the non-migratory constant bait and about the seasonal resident bait.
Find where it lives and what it does day in and day out.

When schools of transient bait move through you will be able to understand what is happening much better than those who only fish when that bait is moving through.

You have to connect to your local fishing world to have intimacy with it and that starts at the bottom of the food chain not at the top.


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