A Blitz Before Christmas

 December isn't really a blitz month in Connecticut. There were times when it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect substantial striper blitzes in these parts but in recent years they've been present but exceptionally rare. Not non-existent but not at all easily found. So when Noah and I pulled up to a spot to fish for holdover bass moving into their winter holes and saw fish busting and birds diving in the backwater... on December 10th... we got excited. 

Though the blitz itself was unreachable since we were on foot, we quickly found ourselves a pile of fish in a key bottleneck. Noah and I were using typical winter striper strategies, a jig and plastic for him, a pair of Clousers for me. Hits came just about every cast, and after I doubled the second time and broke off one fish, I opted to shed one fly. Catching them two at a time was just overkill. 

One of the fish I caught was a rather unique individual. The left flank had the typical array of stripes but the right side was a muddled mess. On occasion, I've had people try to tell me that these are hybrids because the presence of broken lines is often used to distinguish wiper or sunshine bass -striped bass/white bass hybrids- from landlocked stripers in the same lakes. This makes no sense as white bass don't exist in these waters for stripers to hybridize with. We do have white perch, but the only documented cases of hybridization between stripers and white perch were under controlled lab and hatchery conditions. They likely have never occurred in the wild. These muddled up striper patterns on East Coast fish are instead indicative of healed injuries or genetic anomalies. 

Side A

Side B

At some point, Noah had to head back to the van to grab something and I stayed in place continuing to catch fish. Suddenly a school of silversides rolled off the flat into the bottleneck and the water in front of me filled up with boiling stripers. Frantically I changed to a gurgler, thinking this was surely my best chance at a December topwater striped bass. The blitz came and went without a hookup. I had several swirls but nothing more committed. I wish, as I sometimes do, that I'd spent more time with camera in hand. 

Though I didn't get what I'd have liked out of the December 10th blitz photographically, it was an exciting thing to be present for. It makes me yearn for the days of big Atlantic herring runs, rainbow smelt, and whiting, when winter saltwater fishing was actually good. December 10th isn't even winter, but it isn't far from it. I experimented a bit with winter saltwater fishing last year, and I intend to again this year. Not just stripers -white perch, tomcod, hake, and cod too. I know there's more out there to be found, I just need to be really diligent and persistent. 

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.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, and Geof for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien