The Fish that Have Been

 I've not been doing well at all on the false albacore front this year. It's nothing, nothing like last year. But (and that is a big but) I have been catching a ton of striped bass from 22-32 inches, and encountering some much larger. That makes me quite happy, because if I'm completely honest striped bass are my favorite species to fish for. I add "to fish for" because I have no favorite fish species overall. I care about everything. But I care about striped bass a little more. And it's no wonder why, just look at one. They are such handsome fish. At a distance they may not seem especially colorful. But take a closer look and you'll see that they're extremely colorful. Blue, green, purple, silver, gold, black... brook trout they are not, but striped bass are undeniably beautiful. More importantly they have taken me to some of the most beautiful places I've ever been because there is very little that will stop a hungry striped bass from chasing baitfish up super shallow flats, way up rivers, and right into the battered algae covered rocks of the Northeast coast. It hurts me to say this but I have to be very careful about sharing photos of the places that striped bass have taken me. There are too many people out there that want instant gratification, and striped bass demand the opposite of that. I've put in a lot of time to find the places, times, weather, and tides in which catch my bass. I'm not here to tell you where and when the bass are biting. I don't know who all of you are. I do know that I don't trust everybody with the security of this extremely damaged fishery. Unfortunately the beautiful photos of some of the places I fish are too revealing, I can't share them.

 The one thing I can tell you all right now is that the bass are everywhere and nowhere right now. One day they're at this beach, the next day they aren't. Ten minutes ago there was a blitz on this point, now it's dead quiet. These fish are moving, you actually will have to work to find them. They may not be showing at all either. The other day Mark Alpert and I fished the rip side of and island and it was completely dead. We slid over to the calm dead water on the backside of the island. There were no birds, no bait around. But the bass were there, and they were all bigger schoolie fish, 24-30 inches. Later in the day we got on a bite where the fish were occasionally breaking but not enough that they could be seen in the distance, or even all the time. But the herring gulls and cormorants were seriously worked up. A few casts with a 9 inch bone white Musky Doc (with no hooks on it) got a blow up from a serious fish. Mark and I both got our butts kicked in there. He had a smaller fish bury in the weeds that broke off while I was trying to extract it, I hooked a large bass that took me down and dirty. Sure enough I could feel the line grinding on the rocks right before that painful slack sensation.





Noah and I got into a spectacular evening backwater blitz last week. Peanut bunker had gathered near a choke point and schoolies and blues found them and pinned them in there. The blitz was ongoing when we got there and ended just before dark. It was a fantastic show. Frantic menhaden jumping and spraying out of the water, bass and blues frothing right behind them. I love the fall run. It is incredible.

Bass aren't the only thing I've been catching out there. Mark and I got into some blue runners on Wednesday. There were so many around this can it was unbelievable. They were actually blitzing... what on I have no idea because there didn't seem to be any baitfish in the water. Blue runner, Caranx crysos, is #94 on my fly tackle life list. Six. Six. Six. Six species or hybrids to go before I hit that totally arbitrary but some how impressive triple digit number.

 The sight fishing was actually pretty good on some flats areas before this weather moved in. It could very well remain good, I don't know, but if there are fish blitzing out front I may not play that game again. I got one beauty sight fishing this week, and I laid out casts in front of numerous others. Including a few real cows. Fish that made my forehead sweat and my knees shake. Huge bass. 20 pounders. 30 pounders. Even one that I'm sure would have broken 40. She was belly dragging on the bottom fat. Just a super giant.

The weather just turned a corner here. The wet wading days are over. The calm, warm days are going to be the exception to the rule. And I for one am extremely excited about it. There are, realistically, about 36 days left of the fall run here in Connecticut, maybe longer. Then another 36 after that for those willing to chase the bass south. It's panic time for me. I need to break 40 inches. I've been working so hard, and this is the time when all that hard work really could come to fruition.