Grubbies on the Fly

 Grubby, or little sculpins, are a fairly abundant species throughout New England Coastal waters. They are a small sculpin species that inhabits rocky inshore and even inter-tidal habitats. Nobody really fishes for grubbies. They're too small to eat, for the most part, and aren't big enough to be called a game fish by much of anyone. I think they're pretty cool though, and every once in a while I try to catch some. 

Grubbies are very aggressive by nature and will eat just about anything that fits in their little mouths (actually pretty big mouths compared to their body). This included small nymphs dangled and bounced around the rocky crevices grubbies occupy. 

On a recent quick jaunt in Southern RI, I spent a little time fishing for these charismatic, little goobers. There were as many around as I'd ever seen, literally hundreds, though their exceptional camouflage made them difficult to see until a fly was introduced into the environment and they all came running to try to eat it. Young of the year winter flounder were also present but too small to catch on a size 16 hook. I've begun carrying tanago hooks again at all times so I stop having possible lifers like that slip away. Next time I'll use those. But the grubbies could sometimes get enough of my nymph in their mouth that I could hook them. Not often enough, but sometimes. 

At times, as many as 7 or 8 of the little buggers would be after the fly. They'd materialize seemingly out of nowhere, but in reality they were so well hidden that hundreds could hide within the rocks and vegetation. It was nice to have the opportunity to see a whole lot of them, because their color varied hugely. It's very cool to have not only a diversity of species around, but diversity within one of those species.

Being a life lister, there are loads of species I will only target once, and grubbies could have been one of those species. I do think, however, that catching just one of a species doesn't quite tell their story well enough. Sometimes going out and catching a bunch is warranted. Even if they're just tiny grubbies.

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, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah 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

Fish Fighting Crash Course

 Having mentioned the importance of properly fighting fish caught on light fly tackle in the previous post, I find it pertinent to elaborate a little bit on that. Though there's plenty of discussion about fish fighting tactics, I still see many errors. To be clear, this is more about landing the fish safely than getting more fish in the net, but the too are not at all exclusive- if you land fish more quickly, you'll land more fish. 

So let's break it down.

Go Heavy

Always use the heaviest tippet you can get away with for the situation unless you are going for a specific line class world record. The heavier your tippet the more pressure you can put on it, the more pressure you can put on it the faster you can land fish. I use 30 and 40 pound tippet for my large striped bass fishing most of the time now, and I can whip even a very large fish very quickly on a 10 or 12 wt and 30lb tippet. Furthermore, know the amount of pressure you can put on your tippet. Hint: It's more than you think. Take our rods outside, put hooks in immovable objects, and see how much pressure you can put on your tippet before it breaks. Hint: its probably more than you think. Do understand that with really huge, far running fish like tuna, billfish, and sharks; and with salmon on lighter tippets, line drag will change how much pressure you can put on a fish. But for the most part if you are using the right tippet for the job you can pull really hard.

Ian Devlin quickly wrestles a striped bass into the boat.

The Bends

Practice lifting weight with your fly rod. Either setup a little pulley system or drape your leader over a smooth dowel, with the leader tied off to a ten pound weight. You will find that a high rod does not allow for much pulling power at all, whereas a low rod put all that force where it matter: in the rod butt. Don't fight nice fish from the tip of your rod, that is for casting. This changes relative to the direction the fish is going. What that means is, when a false albacore or bluefin tuna sounds and you need to pull it up from deep water, holding the rod perpendicular to the water is roughly equivalent to holding the rod straight up in the air were the fish close to the surface. Point your rod down, put the top half in the water even, and you'll gain more ground.

The Angles

The rod angle must also be changed when the fish changes direction. Pull against the fish, not with it. If the fish goes left, pull right and vice versa. There are some occasions when helping the fish get where it is going anyway is fine, as when a fish is heading away from a snag, or going up current in a river, but in general pulling the fish in the direction it wants to go prolongs the fight. 

As I just lightly alluded to, in a river a fish down stream from you is a fish with advantage. In this case don't change the angle of the rod, change where you're standing. Make sure you are downstream from a fish as often as possible. 

Drag

I routinely find that fly anglers set their drag much too light. There are situations that warrant light drag, but they are fewer than the situations that warrant much, much more drag than I see many anglers use. As you test what it takes to break tippets and how you can lift heavy weight with the fly rod, test how much drag it takes to break off as well. Be sure that it is the tippet that will fail though, not the rod. 

Don't Dilly Dally

We all enjoy fighting fish! It's so much of the fun of fly fishing. But don't fight a fish beyond its own strength. Don't let fish get so tired they're about to go belly up, land it with energy to spare. It's the ethical thing to do with any fish you plan to release. Don't let a fish run any farther, dive any deeper, or battle any longer than you can possibly land it. That's just not necessary. 

 

Hopefully some of this information will be useful to you! Successful catch and release hinges on properly fighting fish. Enjoy, tight lines, and respect the fish!

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, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah 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.

Summer Striper Blitzes

 August- the tiny bait season -presses on. The bait is growing in number as well as size by the week. Before we know it tiny bait season will be over. But while it lasts, August and September can be some of the most interesting saltwater fly fishing of the year here in southern New England. It's a great setup for lighter gear and for out fishing everyone else using tiny baitfish patterns. 

For thw last four years there have been fantastic mid and late summer striper blitzes throughout the Northeast. They've been so consistent I've had plenty of time to really hone my tactics one them. The fish are the perfect sized stripers for 5 and 6wt rods, but only if you actually no how to properly fight a good sized fish. I've seen many a 16 inch trout get played much too lightly on a 5wt, so I don't trust just anyone to do the best job on a 25 inch bass on the same tackle. I can beat these fish in less than 3 minutes every time with my 5wt and 10 or 12lb tippet, so that's what I use mostly now. 

Far and away the best fly for the rafting fish feeding on bay anchovies; as well as the loosely dispersed blitzes on tiny 1 inch peanuts; is the EP Micro Minnow. Ian Devlin introduced me to that fly when I was really trying to make tiny epoxy patterns for these purposes. He hypothesized that a lot of the time those little surf candies and epoxy minnows would bounce off the mouths of feeding fish. This proved particularly true of froth feeding scombrids, but also true of rafting bass. The EP Micro Minnow is easily sucked in and the fibers compress. I get far more hookups.

Of course these summer blitzes have also become so common that I spend more time doing photography than I do actually fishing. They are a spectacle to behold on many levels. The melee hits more than one sense. Of course it is visually impressive seeing hundreds of predator fish churning the surface, eyes above the water and mouths open, with baitfish frantically running for their lives. But the sound is also notable. One foggy morning Ian and I had good luck finding bass using their auditory signal rather than visually seeing birds or breaking fish. There's also a smell. Those who've spent enough time striper fishing now that blitzes have a smell to them. It's a sweet, vaguely fishy smell... meaning it's fishy but not what laymen think of when they think of a fishy smell. You have to experience it to get it.

As micro bait season continues into September we'll see more and more species feeding on the young of the year fish.  Frigate and chub mackerel are already here. Bonito have shown sporadically. Tunny have already made their season debut in Fallmouth, which is similar to thr last 3 years. The last three years have been absolutely shitty tunny years in CT so please don't hold your breath or believe the hype. We might get them, we might not. Regardless, it will be a good fall as Long Island and Block Island Sound as well as Narragansett Bay are all full of bait right now. Enjoy responsibly. 

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, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah 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.

Jetty Cunners

 Bergalls or cunners are a very common wrasse along the New England coastline. I've heard them called a number of inaccurate names. They are sometimes misidentified as baby tautog. On Cape Cod I once heard them called rock bass, by a tourist using crickets in the Cape Cod Canal... I kid you not. So, as wide spread as bergalls are they aren't the most well known fish in the world. They're generally small and uninteresting to most anglers.

I, of course, am not most anglers. Bergalls don't obsess me or anything like that, but I definitely enjoy catching wrasse and bergalls are often the most available wrasse species in the Northeast. It also seems that the further north you go the bigger they get, with Main and Massachusetts producing some of the largest I've seen. Somehow that's usually not what I encounter, but I still find some big enough to eat a fly. 

On our way back towards home on the Maine trip, Cheyenne and I briefly stopped in Rockland. My hope was to perhaps catch a handful of mackerel there, but the water seemed a bit too warm and the tide too low. There were, of course, plenty of bergalls around. 

Sometimes bergalls are pretty unwilling to eat an artificial fly. Their moods aren't predictable either, there's no sure fire way I've found to know if you'll be able convince them to take. You just have to find some, put flies in front of them, and hope they're interested. Small nymphs are my primary fl for these little guys and the 1wt glass rod is the perfect delivery system. This was the first time I'd gotten to use the one weight on bergalls and it was pretty darn fun!

This was a situation where sight fishing was necessary. I couldn't feel the takes at all, so being able to pick out my fly six or more feet down through a background of irregularly colored aquatic plants and rocks was imperative. It was not easy at all, but I managed to make it work. Of course the result was just tiny little wrasse, but if your tackle is well chosen there's no reason fish like this can't be fun. And some days you just have to accept that you are probably catching jetty cunners or nothing at all. 

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, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah 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.

Hammering Channel Catfish on the Fly (And a Few Quality Carp)

 Channel catfish are a species I've caught only sporadically over the years. My first on the fly was tiny, under a bridge just down the street from my house. It was less impressive than bullheads I've caught in the same stream, and a fairly underwhelming lifer- though I wasn't life-listing at the time yet, really. The next channel catfish I caught on the long rod was far more impressive, but also very close to home. I was kayak fishing my local lake. It was late in the day, and I was meandering back towards where the kayak was being stowed at that time, trolling for perch as I went. I'd just caught a white perch and cast back out, but fiddled around a bit before starting to paddle again. When I did and I came tight, I really came tight. There was a serious fish on, what I thought was probably a pretty typical carp. It ended up being a roughly ten pound channel catfish. 

Since then I've caught the species sporadically, both by accident and intentionally. The closest I came to really successfully targeting channel catfish was a night trip last summer that produced just one quite nice fish. This year it has been something I was especially interested in, as I've drifted away from crowded trout streams and away from schoolie striper fishing as much as I once did. I've fished for white suckers more than ever, had loads of time and success on common carp, and I've been thinking about catfish. I'd seen some in an area I'd targeted them before and I had a handful of casts at some unwilling ones, but I wasn't finding what I wanted. Then, on a before work trip a week ago, I hit the mother load. Fishing for catfish was what I hoped for that morning, but what I expected was some smallmouth and maybe bowfin or pike. I was rolling in the kayak, spending most of my time standing and spotting fish. I flubbed a decent shot at a group of carp in a very unexpected spot, a place I'd never seen any before, then spooked more as I poled my way around. I saw no bowfin and no pike, but eventually I did see rather a lot of channel catfish. They were lining the bottom of a very deep hole with a few commons mixed in. I disturbed everything there a little bit, so I backed off and gave it a moment. I came back with a Polar Bugger tied on and low expectations. The fact that my first cast- completely blind, mind you -produced a very high quality common carp was encouraging.

Given how much more opportunistic catfish tend to be, I figured I was pretty much assured to pull some out of that water if even the carp were willing to suck up that big Bugger. A short time later that proved true, though the fish I got wasn't especially impressive.

I then got a second nice common before the flood gates opened, and the catfish bite of my dreams materialized. I needed but one fly and my trusty TFO 5wt, and nothing more. The presentation was a simple slow crawl. The takes were obvious, the hook set a simple strip and lift, and most of the time the fly was in the very corner of each fish's mouth. They weren't huge catfish, but over the next two hours I caught a whopping 26 and a few were in fact pretty good sized individuals. 

Frankly it seemed nuts, and I began to wonder if I'd just been missing this bite in this spot ever season or if this was atypical. There are always catfish in the general area throughout the summer, I see them and occasionally catch them, but this was clearly different. 

Anyone that has caught enough channel catfish knows they pull pretty hard. They tire out before a carp would, but I do think the dig harder and they do sometimes go for pretty good runs. By fish 15 my arm was already pretty tired, but I could see fish rolling the next hole down and I just couldn't stand to leave, not yet. 

I was already very tired out when far and away the largest of the day at my fly. When I set the hook it put an awful bend in the 5 wt, and for a spell I just couldn't peel this one off bottom. When I got it up I proclaimed "hooaaah yeah, that's the one I've been looking for" in the gravelly tone of a fisherman that fully expected what he'd hooked but was still impressed... perhaps as much with himself as the fish. Some days I feel like a pretty damn good angler and this was one of those days. Other days I just flat out suck. There's fortunately enough of the latter to keep me from being an absolute ego-maniac, but in this moment I was pretty chuffed with what I'd just managed to make happen.

There's really one simple thing that makes catching catfish on the fly possible, and one thing only... being able to get flies in front of catfish. They aren't picky, but they also usually won't move to a fly as far as a bass would. There needs to be a lot of them around to have a good chance at consistently putting flies in front of them, and I'd finally found a whole lot of them in a confined and easily fished location. It was a pretty spectacular discover, and one I intend to turn into a pattern. It would be really nice to be able to have bites like this with relative consistency. It'll certainly be logged, and I'll be back there when time allows to see if they've stuck around. 

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, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah 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.

At The End of the Country

 The easternmost point in the Continental United States is a wind battered, fog draped lump of rock on the Maine coastline called Quoddy Head. At the mouth of the Bay of Fundy- where the largest tides in the world happen -whales seals, and countless fish pass by through turbulent waters. Fishing vessels have been guided safely through by the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse since 1808 (re-built in 1858). 

On our last morning in Maine Cheyenne and I went as far East as we were allowed without passports. It was my good friend Ian Devlin that had suggested we go to Quoddy Head, and I was thankful for the idea. I really would not have gone otherwise, I'd never heard of the place. It turned out to be one of the most spectacular locations I've ever stepped foot. The drive took us through proper small Downeast Maine communities: quirky, slightly depressed, and oozing character. There are a variety of reasons I love this state, and seeing a replica of the blues mobile parked next to someone's barn is one of those reasons. The town of Lubec, where Quoddy Head is, was just as full of character as I wanted it to be. It was also a border town, which makes it even more interesting.

If you're wondering, I did fish a bit over there. But it wasn't the point, and I didn't catch anything. I'd like to at some point but this wasn't the trip for it. There was actually quite a bit we didn't do or see over there though, and we'll have to go back. 

Maine is a cool state. I intend to be spending quite a lot more time there over the next few years. 

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, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah 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.