On August 8th, Noah, New Noah, and I went out seeking fish. Nothing out of the ordinary here, this is just what we do. This was one of those hot humid, near windless summer days that could most adequately be described simply as "sticky". This would be a typical doldrum day, were it not for two things. One, bottom fish will almost always eat.
And it was already micro bait season.
It was quite the show. Hundreds of bass churning up the water, gulls going crazy, all under a bright blue sky... it was a fishing photographer's dream scenario. And I spent a lot of time with camera in hand, but not so much that I didn't catch a couple of my favorite fish to fish for.
A tide change ended the blitz, but also brought around some chub mackerel. We attempted to intercept them for a short time, but weren't successful. Back to bottom fishing it was. More scup, some fluke, and the typical amount of striped sea robins found their way into the boat. We kept some of the scup.
Noah then started to feel the need to make a move. The fishing wasn't crazy and he and I both had interest in another spot for better fluke potential. We pulled the boat and found ourselves launching it in an out-of-the-way small launch after our first choice proved to be full. Our ride to the grounds we were headed to was now longer, but not without worth. As we went I spotted the first banded rudderfish I'd seen this season under a buoy. It was a solitary individual, and I'd found these tricky in the pass, but Noah gave it a shot. This was, at the time, as species he'd not yet caught. Unfortunately this one was too spooky.
Once on our intended bottom fishing grounds, we discovered that it was indeed more productive than the cove we'd started the day in. Scup came in one after another, they were definitely the predominant fish. Fluke were there, but not in the abundance we'd hoped for. I spent most of the time fishing jig flies on a mono rig, which was effective but not as much as I would have liked.
Eventually I picked up the 450 grain sink tip, and instead of fishing vertically, casted and retrieved a Clouser along the bottom. It took a very short time for me to realize that this was wildly more effective. All these years I've been messing around with different methods to try to replicate the bottom fishing success my friends using spinning and conventional gear were having. I made specialized saltwater mono rigs, toyed with long braid leaders, drop shot rigs and egg sinkers... and the answer was actually something that can much more appropriately still be called fly fishing.
As the evening progressed, more fish made it into the boat. New Noah caught a northern puffer on a blade bait, much to Noah's and my annoyance (a species that has given us an extremely hard time). One chub mackerel also came home, I myself hooked and lost one as well. We killed that chub and a bunch of scup, but released more. It was a healthy take of meat, one of the rewards for our efforts. It's largely true that the world's fisheries simply cannot sustain the human population's demands, but there are fortunately species that, at least locally, can sustain selective harvest. Release the bass, even the fluke. Keep a few sea robins and scup, maybe a few black sea bass if you find them big enough. And, done right, I hear chub mackerel are delicious. The problem is the freezer stuffing mentality is often not spread out enough, and now fish like striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, and fluke genuinely cannot handle any increase in take. We shouldn't be killing these species at the present time, if it is possible to avoid doing so. Be smart. Diversify your take, and harvest selectively.
Until next time,
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.
And stay safe and healthy.
That was a good day on the salt. Bottom or not the fly rod can handle it. Love your photos of the feed.
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There are without a doubt some things a fly rod just cannot do.
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