So the tides at one of my favorite spots was just perfect after lunch. Me and the kids did good work all morning and with a huge exam for them tomorrow it was fitting to give them a little slack and an early quitting time today. Of course besides nursing this morning I had striped bass on my mind.
I made my way through the thicket and while walking I heard something bouncing in my stripping basket. A look down and I thought for sure it was a good sign. It was one of Jim's Pulse Discs and
I tied that on to one of his flies and hoped for the best. I was confident, even though I'm a little early for this spot, which tends to be an early spring and early winter spot. But I was good. Beautiful day, great tide, I just needed the bait and fish to be there.
I had the current running right to left and the Pulse Disc just grabbed onto it and gave that fly a sweet ride. It fluttered nicely and with a stop and start retrieve it should have gotten bit, if there were fish there. I stayed for an hour before moving down a bit and had one flash from either s small bass or perch.
I looked into my fly wallet and found something that I thought might just do the trick. It was a Bob's Schoolie Fly that I had tied up for just this spot when the spearing are around. Since they didn't commit to the bigger fly I thought sizing down a bit, without the disc, might work. It didn't. I wasn't bummed because even though I didn't catch, because I'm confident no one was home, my recent trips there have me dialed in for later in a month or two when the bait drops and the fish come up and settle in.
I gave Richie and Leif a call on the way home to see if anyone was going tomorrow. You know, it's just one of those things, you don't know if you don't go, and, you just have to be lucky if the bass push the bait onto the beach. Most days while making 1,000 casts you just looking out watching bunker flipping, bass blowing up, and boats in the mix. To be honest, fly fishing from the beach, sucks this time of year, unless there is a sustained bight you learn about or that magical moment we all dream of happens.
After I hung up with them I started to devise a plan. I give the two-hander a go. I'll go early, perch myself as far out on a groin as I can get, and throw big meat looking for that 25 pound bass patrolling the groin tips. I made a stop on the Delaware, still in my scrubs, and loaded up a line to see if it would load the two hander. I liked how it felt, and although I can't throw 100 feet of line, yet, I can make a
farther cast with this set-up and my favorite popper/dropper which I'll be sticking with come hell or high tide. I just hope I have a shot, that's what fall fly fishing from the beach is, shots at fish, rather than fishing structure and tides. If you do you may catch a small bass, but this time of year is go time for the big bass from the beach.
My dropper will be a big Squimpish fly that I tied onto a 6/0 hook. It was one of the nicer ones that I had tied last winter getting ready for the herring run. This one looks meaty, and it's big, like big, and should get some attention trailing behind the popper in the front which should get some attention. I just hope that a bluefish doesn't see it and take a chomp. We'll see. Good luck to me trying to get a good nights sleep. I'm hoping to find a Blitz-O-Ween kind of day out there.
And then before bed I thought I might need another fly in the quiver because surely a 35 pound bass is going to wreck the above fly. So I sat down at the vice and tied up a 10" bunker fly with bucktail, hackle, and a Squimpish brush up front. There's some flash inside and Devlin's Bunker Blend along the back.
It's tied on an Ahrex SA210 Bob Clouser Signature 5/0 which appears to me to be more sized around 6/0. The fly is keeled so it runs true in the water. As I laid out my clothes and keys and stuff I ran it under the hot water to straighten it out a touch. It should do if I'm in the zone.
