Black Seabass on the Fly

 As my tunny season continued to be a grind, I started seeking other species to fill in my time on the rocks. I generally don't enjoy the process of catching tunny and bonito from shore. I do get to see some cool things, but it's a lot of standing around on the same rock all day waiting for something to happen. It helps to be able to catch some sort of fish from that rock, and early in the tunny season one of the most readily available species is black seabass. Black seabass, Centropristis striata, belong to the family Serranidae. This family includes groupers and anthias, and black seabass are certainly the most grouper like fish present in New England aside from the occasional visiting actual black grouper that swirls in on an eddy of the Gulf Stream. The genus includes four other species that are generally smaller and rarely encountered by anglers. Black seabass are considered by many anglers in the Northeast to be a very delicious fish, and I have to agree. They're also a fun fish to catch on a fly rod, something people don't intentionally do very often. When I'm standing on a jetty waiting for tunny that probably won't eat my fly anyway, It's a fantastic relief to have some seabass around that are willing to chew on a fly.

One morning there were seabass and chub mackerel feeding on peanut bunker at the surface along one stretch of the jetty. Generally I need a sink tip line to get flies down to the seabass, but I've encountered a handful of surface feeds over the years and this one provided some of the largest fish. Other fly anglers were catching big back seabass even on intermediate lines with a fast two hand retrieve. It was an impressive show of what can happen when the conditions line up right. I've encountered a number of "bottom fish" not being bottom fish at all when enough bait is present. Seabass and different scombrids feeding near-surface are actually a pretty common theme. On the Cape I've seen seabass breaking alongside king mackerel, in Connecticut I've found them right in tunny feeds. Now in Rhode Island I was finding them alongside chub mackerel. 

The next time around there were no surface antics, but there were still loads of seabass. I utilized a sink tip, small flies, and count-down tactics to catch the fish. When fishing a jetty with a fly rod for fluke, scup, seabass, or tautog, knowing how to run a fly deep without hanging up constantly is key. The angler should know the sink rate of their line and the depth of the water. It is also important to know the contour of the jetty, which depends heavily on it's age, location, and construction. Old jetties break up in big storms, and the jumble of rocks create a sloping contour, while some well maintained and carefully built jetties drop off more steeply. The inside edge of  the Rockland Breakwater in Maine is almost vertical compared to the Scusset Beach Jetty at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal. That determines how what line you need to use and how you fish these places. 

I find that erring on the lighter side with your line is often a good idea, and if you are struggling to find bottom simply add split shot. I know this isn't something people think about in salt water fly fishing, but I like breaking new ground. Strategically targeting scup, fluke, tautog, and seabass on the fly isn't exactly the most well trodden topic. Retrieving should be fast enough to keep the fly and line from hanging up but slow enough to keep it within a foot or two of the bottom.

Getting keeper size black seabass from the shore seems to be a very tricky thing to do. I've only gotten a handful of legal sized fish from the rocks and only in one location. That said, I haven't put too much effort into patterning them... yet. It is something I intend to do. It is certainly fun to catch them when I'm waiting around for unwilling tunny but the way to really catch a fish is to focus on it. Of course it could be said that my being distracted from tunny by black seabass prevented me from catching my target, but when there simply aren't any of your target fish in casting range what's the point of standing around without a line in the water when different perfectly willing fish are right in front of you?

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.

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