Midsummer Hickories

 Hickory shad are typically a species I wait until late fall to target. That's when they're often most abundant locally, and often the are the most fast paced game in town in November. There seems to have been either a pattern shift or a significant increase in their total numbers. Last year I was occasionally catching them in odd places and at odd times and seeing far more than I'd typically expect. Nothing, though, compared to what I saw this week. 

I was looking for mackerel, frigates and chub mackerel specifically. When I got to the long jetty I intended to fish, there was about three acres of tiny young of the year bunker being eaten by what I though was probably some schoolies and small bluefish. I took a couple photos then just moved along. That sort of setup usually isn't very productive anyway, the "triple-p" (peanut to predator proportion) as Noah and I coined it is usually off- too much bait, too few predator fish. The fly gets lost in the fray and you don't catch much. 

The mackerel were rude, though. Basically as soon as I got there, everything left. I spent a couple hours hopelessly working the water column with just one small black sea bass to show for it. 

When the tide eventually turned, I decided to head somewhere else. As I walked out though, the peanut blitz was still going on. I stopped to make a few casts and see if I could pick up a fluke or something else picking up scraps from the bottom under the chaos. Instead, I discovered that it was actually hickories enacting violence on those little peanuts, and that the were perfectly willing to slam a small Clouser. There were a bunch of guys there fishing already, but aside from the one guy next to me targeting fluke I didn't see anyone catch a thing. They were all fishing presentations that were much too large, and they likely didn't know what was really going on. I on the other hand was catching goofy acrobatic shad every cast and very much enjoying it. Eventually I was trying to photograph the jumps of each fish I hooked. What would have been much easier was having someone else hook and fight the fish while I photographed, but this had to be a one man operation. This is what resulted:

A couple came out kind of cool but none were particularly spectacular. I'm hoping I get another chance at some point soon, and given how many I've now seen this summer I expect I will. I've already caught as many as I did on the two best days last year!

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.