I think I did good today. Between the plumbing project success and mowing the grass I think Mommy is happy. Good enough to leave before midnight, maybe, and head east. Why? Well the other day when I was writing I had seen something from a party boats fishing report across the pond. "All jumbos on diamond jigs". Mmmmmmmm. When I think of diamond jigs, although I've never thrown one, I think of a sand eel bite. Could it be?
And today a little bird wispered in my ear of normal sized fish here in New Jersey one sand eels. Like the big sand eels I love. Some pics were floating around of those 5 inch fat and lovely sand lances with a hook straight through them caught on the lures retrieve.
I have always found Brad Buzzi's sand eel to be my go fly. That bass above fell to one of his ties back in 2011 so I've been using them going on over 10 years. With the possibility of sand eels around, and Theresa off to NYC with friends tomorrow, my original plan was to get out early and spend the day along the beach, or beaches, or driving from Sandy Hook down to IBSP. You know, the usual circuit.
But, now that their might be a sand eel bight somewhere, and I've been praying for them, and high tide is around 1-2 am depending, I'm planning on heading out for some third shift, 11- 7 am, fishing. I'm just digging the night tide and a west wind. Good plan? Who knows. What that shift pretty much ensures is I won't have any company on the beach and groins and I won't have the distraction of a fleet of boats ahead of me.
So I tied up a few large bucktail and Jim Matson yak hair blend sand eels. I used cone heads to get them down a bit on the bigger tide which will also allow me to jig them around a bit. I added a little weight near the hook bend so they ride up. Of course I'll have a swimmy fly in front of it just in case some other bait is swimming around.
I finished them with Plasti-Dip. Just a brush through to stiffen them up a bit. This is a tehnique I learned from Steve Farrar who did this with his SF Blend tied flies. It'll hopefully prevent less fouling on the back end.
I'll have Brad's flies if these don't get any love. I'm looking forward to pulling a night shift. I'll just have to plan it right so I'm near Bagel Talk which will be just as I'll be dead tired and starving.