I picked Joe up at 0345 and we headed south. We were in the water as the tide start to flood and the ocean came over the bar. I had one blow/swirl on a black Snake Fly early and then nothing worked the beach and the pipe. I switched over to the crab fly and went to work on the flat ones landing half a dozen sundials and one fluke.
If you have never fished a crab fly in the ocean then put it on your to-do list. There's more then just throwing it out there and retrieving. You need to find good moving water, need to get it down, and need to retrieve it in a way that looks like a dislodged crab. The bass and fluke love them.
It's summertime and those annoying beachgoers (kidding) love to walk on the beach. If they don't know the you're fly fishing, and what it entails, and you don't know their walking tight to the water you will not get skunked that day! Watch your time and your backcast.
While it's no spot burn, the beaches south of Jetty Country had been replenished and groins notched a few years ago. If you want to see what a true notched jetty looks like, with plenty of moving water on the beach end then take a ride south and give it a look. It looks different and fishes differently.
And lastly, I developed a fly that I'll be going live with soon, maybe tomorrow. While crab flies, especially Joe's, that I've caught probably over 30 fish on, is great, it doesn't match all the crab hatches that are out there.
I was truing to come up with materials that would work and I looked no further than my dog and her bushy tail so something to work with. I couldn't wait to get in front of the vice and tie up a few prototypes to field test before sharing it with you. Just a preview, the name is going to be- "Archer's Mole Crab". Stay tuned.
