Got out early this morning in Deal. Fished along the jetty and had two fish on, one of them good. Talked with the regulars who had one keeper that was released between them. They did say that they fished at night the night before and had fish. Talked with my "mentor" and he gave me good advice on this striper fishery, "Fish the edges.." the edges of the rocks, the edges of the cut, the edges of the tides and the edges of the light. After that I stoppd down to Asbury around 8 am, low water bright light. I have to change up.
So after work and dad duty throughout the day I headed down to Deal before my Trout Unlimited meeting. I worked good water, but with no results, I was all alone. So after my meeting I went back down, around 830 pm. It was dark and only the light from the stars and ships lite up the surf. My eyes soon adjusted to the dark and I made out the images of fish crashing bait in the wash. This is what I was waiting for. The only bad part of it all was that I was stuck fishing with this stupid 12-1/2 foot spey rod, armed with yarn as line. So I startd casting like I had a 9 ft 9 wt. And soon I was into a big fish that took me into the backing. Eventually it got off. Several of the last fish I had on have got off, the reason is, I fish with barbless hooks! For the next three hous I had plenty of targets to cast to. I hooked up and landed a nice 24 inch fish. No pictures as I left all my "stuff" in the truck so I could just walk and fish and not have to worry about it.
When I looked up at dead low tide around 1130- there were at least 10 guys around, one who caught five and had two in the cooler. Needless to say, I will be back at it tonight! Yes, these fish can see at night!
Dispatches from fly fishing for striped bass and more along the Jersey Shore and the Delaware River theaverageangler.com 732.261.7291 colin@theaverageangler.com