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NY, NJ, CT, RI Edition
July 02, 2008
Volume 19 • Number 13
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Salt on the Fly
by Anthony Alessi
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Spring has turned into summer and the fishing has started to reflect that in most ways. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means things will be a little bit different. Different in the sense that there will be more of some things and less of others. For instance, one thing that there will be more of is bluefish. I can tell you with certainty that the Long Island Sound is seeing that change already. Just as they did last season, bluefish are taking up residence in every nook and cranny along the North Shore and, just like last season, it is the abundance of bait that is holding them there.
The difference this year is that the bait is sand eels. Not that there weren’t sand eels last year or that there isn’t plenty of other bait species around this year, it’s just that we are seeing an incredible amount of sand eels in the Sound right now and every predator is keying in on them at the moment. As a fly-angler, this makes me very happy. There is no doubt that the sand eel’s presence really makes fly-fishing come into its own.
One thing that we are seeing less of as the season changes from spring to summer is the striped bass during the daytime as they are becoming a nighttime game. That’s right folks, we are now into that part of the season when, if you want to catch bass regularly, you have to become a bit more nocturnal. If that is not possible for you then there is nothing wrong with tying on a bit of wire and catching bluefish. They are super easy right now and fish from 3 to 6 pounds are lazily smacking sand eels on the surface everywhere. Don’t be one of those anglers that turns their nose up at bluefish, they are great sport on any tackle, much more so on the fly rod.
The other thing you should realize as we get into summer is that there really is no such thing as the summer doldrums or, if there is, its definition is not the disappearance of game fish from the Long Island Sound. It is just the signal of change. Sure, it’s true that you will have a hard time finding bass feeding on the surface under a hot sun, but heck, who wants to be out fishing under a sweltering hot sun anyway? Do what the bass does, wait until the pleasing comfort of a summer night comes and then go out and cast a fly along a rocky stretch of beach where you are likely to find some healthy, fat summertime bass waiting to jump on your fly.
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Let’s take a look at this past week’s fishing...
I had the pleasure of speaking
with Paul from Campsite Sport Shop in Hunt-ington Station and he said that there are bluefish and large bass tearing up the bunker schools inside Cold Spring Harbor right now. Find the bunker schools and then get a big fly on a fast sinking line into the mix. There have been school size bass on sand eels at many of the local beaches at first light but the bluefish take over pretty quickly after that. Caumsett, Sunken Meadow and Crab Meadow are all worth a shot. Use your second string flies as the bluefish will shred them.
Captain Vinny Catalano of Joey C Charters out of Stony Brook called to tell me that while the bass fishing has slowed during the day, night tides have been red hot for large fish. Captain Vinny noted he has been expecting the day bite on the sand flats to start but, while the flats have been loaded with sand eels, there have been no fish on them so far. You can keep up with Captain Vinny’s fishing adventures by checking out his blog at www.JoeyCCharters.BlogSpot.com.
Captain Don Kaye of Shinnecock Guiding got in touch and had this to say: “Lots of surface-busting bluefish awaited fly fisherman, Chris Mori, as we set out on Shinnecock Bay. The seas were calm and you could spot surface-feeding blues all over the place. This time the fish were attacking pods of sand eels with an occasional mix of small bunker. We cruised around to set up drifts up current of feeding fish and, with the help of wire tippet, captured and released many hard fighting choppers. Then, a few hundred yards away, I spotted a fairly large object on the water’s surface. Closer inspection revealed that it was a young buck deer hundreds of yards from Dune Road swimming in the direction of the far hills almost two miles away. Something must have panicked him on land to cause this behavior. He looked pretty tired and we were concerned that he would never
make it across. We decided that we would use the boat to herd him back to shore.
It was slow going but we were successful and the buck, after glancing back at us from shore, bounded away no worse
for wear.” You never know exactly what kind of fishing adventure you might end up on when you book with Captain Don. I wonder if he has a tree stand installed on his boat?
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