It's easy to get sucked into blitzing bass or rising trout. Usually there is some sign that the fish we are targeting are chewing. Well, crowds of anglers (above). Birds overhead. Fish blowing up on bait. Subtle rises to insects breaking the surface film or falling on the water. ( Click on the below image, me 2009)
Yes, that's what we see when they are eating, but what about what we can't see. Those hidden morsels may be the largest part of their diet and things we can't see while looking down into their world from the beach or boat. Think of what you eat, everyday, all year round. There's seasonal stuff but then there's your go to.
The beauty of fly fishing, and I guess in other types as well, is that anglers can choose when, where, and how they like to catch their fish. You may like method X, but would catch more fish using Y technique. Some people, like me, prefer the "dry or die" fishing for wild trout rather then pounding riffles with nymphs. And as far as Euro-nymphing, I'm good. Indicators- no thanks. Give me a dry fly and a rising fish and I will cast to it for 8 hours. Give me a dry fly and no rising fish and I'll just hunt or watch and wait and be good if they never pop up. I'd rather do that then catch 20 fish subsurface. Just my jam. People do what makes them happy. It's fishing, we're supposed to have fun.
But the thing to that is, yes, while I may be waiting for a Hendrickson hatch or spinner fall the trout may be busy eating things other than what I am prepared to offer them. So while I watch, they eat. The same can be said for striped bass. Yes, it's easy to get caught up when they are following a school of bait fish down the beach or around the boat, and it may even be easy pickens to catch one, but do you really know what they are eating when they aren't in the frenzy of the moment. And don't think there's not peer pressure when fish chew like that, just like anglers get caught up in the moment on the beach, and do stupid shit, the bass are like that as well, in the mood or not, or even hungry or not. It's just go time.
I am always fascinated by images of stomach contents of fish. I remember years ago Mike McAuliffe and John Collins used to do trout stomach content samples for their presentation Fly Fishing 12 Months in New Jersey. What was cool about it was you could see what the main staple of the trouts diet was year round, knowing that could help an angler raise their chances of catching by presenting something a trout is used to eating. Humans in N.J. may eat more soup in winter then during the summer.
In the heat of the fall run here in New Jersey the game is all about movement. The tides move, the moon moves, the weather moves, the wind moves, the bait moves, and the striped bass move. What we hope for is the intersection of fly rodder, bait, and bass. That leads us doing a lot of hunting, well driving, looking, and phone calling, and phone answering. We are all looking for that river, bay, or beach where it is going or might happen. And when it does it's great, and usually very visual.
But there's something else about a run if you will that I forget. I too get caught up in the fray of the hunt during the fall run, but I would say I do a pretty good job staying away from the crowds, unless they build around me, and laying off the cell phone, which is probably more a testament of not having any friends. But the other thing I'm talking about is possibly missing what else striped bass may be eating below where the birds fly and our eyes scan.
On December 4th Jose Lopez made this post on the B & N Facebook page. I thought it was great. So December was kind of, well the start of, things being over. It was a strong fall and in between the weather and swells the bait moved and the bass, and occasional bluefish, chewed. But as that bait slowed down, or moved off with a change in the wind, the bass that didn't follow the bunker oil in the currents stayed put and hunkered down eating what they like to eat most of the time.
Remember when you were a kid and every single day you would open your lunchbox and there was the aluminum foil wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich lying the bottom of that brown bag? That was your staple. So when the cafeteria had "Fry Friday" (let's imagine they're sand eels) you would jump on the opportunity to have some of those treats. But the next day when the fries were being eaten by the gulls in the dumpster behind the school, or say moved off due to the wind, you went back to your staple, a PB & J, or for a striped bass, sand fleas.
So in the waning days of the peanut, mid sized, and adult bunker running the beach, and before the alleged sand eel bite arrived, those bass, well the one above, spent their time wisely just patrolling the bars or troughs looking for an easy meal. Low energy with a high protein return.
Below is the stomach of a bass that found a mix of bunker. I think we don't take into consideration how, when and why bass eat. There IS a time to eat, a time when they want to eat, and a time when they are there but won't eat, because the dinner bell hasn't sounded yet or you just missed the massacre that occurred in the water right in front of you. There is ingestion time, then digestion time, and then relaxation time. Just like you. Remember Thanksgiving when you stuffed yourselves to the gills? What if after apps, drinks, dinner, desert and coffee, your server bought out a Wagyu steak with the best looking french fries you have ever seen.....barf. It's not time to eat. The bass are the same.
Now some stomachs just kind of display a scattered mixed bag of yummies the bass found along the way. A mole crab, some sand eels, anything in it's way that smells or looks edible. Not keyed on one thing and probably very vulnerable to fall for a fly, or bait, from you. When bass are "on" a bait, like
sand eels then that's whats in front of them and that's what they want. When they're on peanuts throw a Hollow Fleye not a shrimp pattern. This photo was posted by Salty Dog Charters revealing the stomach contents of a boat caught striped bass. It was definitely on the sand eels and there's a few things about sand eels found out in the ocean, and not on the beach. They swim in schools. There are a lot of them. And they compact nicely into the stomach of a striped bass. Below is that stomach contents shot.
And what that tells me is as a striped bass these are a food they can overeat. They go down nice, they fit nice, and probably exit from their body quickly and easily. Try and overeat steak and potatoes vs just a constant pick of appetizers. There is a difference. And remember, you are chewing, they are not.
And the below image was taken from a Glouster Massachusetts caught striped bass. This bass wasn't blowing up on lobster, but probably patrolling the bottom on moving tides where juvenile lobsters were holding and trying to hide from big predator fish. Yeah, good luck with that.
And that brings me to why I even wrote this post. Do I get caught up in the moment too often and miss the opportunity that exists in front of me? Am I throwing the wrong flies? Usually a beat up one that I caught a fish on one time? Am I truly thinking like a bass? In 2017 I came up with my version of a mole crab fly, HERE. There's a ton out there. There are crabby flies that are fished and catch fish but they might not look like a mole crab, but who cares they catch. But I wanted to come up with a true mole crab pattern that just might fool a bass, and wouldn't take a bass if it were on another type of crab.
They could be fished solo but for me of course they could fished in tandem, and near the bottom. The thing about fishing a true mole crab is they don't swim, they burrow down. If they are in the water column then it's because they got caught up in the trough when the water hits the beach scarp.
I have fished these with some success, but I am really not fishing them correctly. I remember field testing them one day and one caught the fin of a cow-nosed ray and it was off to the races. It took a long while but I finally got it in and back in the water. But watch a spin guy who fishes sand bugs, it's a bunch on a hook, with light weight, pretty much dead sticking them. I always find the need to retrieve them, usually too fast, and too high in the water column. If I truly want to fish a mole crab then it's down low, dead drifted, and maybe slowly retrieved to mimic it trying to find deeper sand once again.
I have found great success with Leif's crab flies both here in New Jersey and in the Vineyard while sight fishing for striped bass. They are just sweet looking and hold up well to the constant dragging through the sand. They, well most crab flies, are super for fluke as well. Below are the stomach contents from a large fluke I caught in 2014. The picture could have been from a bass' stomach that day as well.
Match the hatch, which at times means throughout the entire year, throwing crab and sand flea flies in various shapes, sizes, and colors. I have also fished a crab fly while trying to get the bass on mole crabs. Who cares you say? "They'll grab anything in front of them". Well, those crabs live, swim, and behave differently in the water and should be fish fished true to form, at least I think. If they are on mole crabs, fish the mole crab, if they are on other crabs, fish those types of crabs. Again, different location, different action, maybe with better results.
And thanks to Jose and his picture of that early December bass, remember what the bass are eating 24/7, and maybe give it a go in a season when you normally don't fish that type of fly. I can't remember the last time I was fishing in 30 degree water with frozen fingers dragging crab flies through the trough. Maybe I'll keep that in my mind for next year, especially when the surf is up and the fish or bait aren't showing.
