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Date: July 22, 2008 at 09:15:40
From: Nick, [156.174.128.131.dhcp.uri.edu]
Subject: Swinging needles


Had some fun the other night in crappy fishing conditions with a needlefish. I used a skill that we all know and applied it a bit differently

The wind was blowing, at a sandy beach, head on to a slight angle. A flag on the beach was actually angled up so it was a fairly strong wind. This wind created a very strong longshore current going from right to left.

The water looked very fishy and I didn't want to feel like a namby pamby getting chased off the beach by poor conditions, so I set my mind to making it work.

I could see the waves breaking on the sand bars just off the beack so I decided to try and fish the area between them and the beach break.

With my first attempt I wanted to try a drifted bomber but with those winds my attempts were pretty pathetic. I noticed the current though cause my plug would beach itself 20 feet down shore to me.

I switched over to a needle to try and reach the bars and was able to do so. I could not keep up with the plug though.

I decided to try something with this plug that I have done with flies and plugs in tidal rivers but I have never thought to try in the surf. I set my self up to swing the longshore current. Once I figured it out it worked slick.

I would cast out and reel to get tight with the plug. Once I was tight I discontinued to reel. I would twitch the rod tip as the plug swung. I could feel the needle swinging and tumbling in the waves as it worked its way down shore. It worked its way over the sandbar and across the beach break. Not once did the sinking plug touch bottom until it beached itself 40-60 feet down shore from me.

I worked my way down the entire beach and found the conditions quite easy to work with in this circumstance. The fishing was okay, nothing great but I was able to bring dinner home for a friend.

Once I cleaned the fish I found a belly full of small blue crabs. The same ones that I see swimming around, not on the bottom. Something else for me to think about.


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