There is such an incredible amount and variety of bait in Long Island Sound this year. An absurd amount. If you are a fly angler fishing saltwater, this is a year to take advantage of of it. Not because of the fish that will eat them this year, which of course will be wild, but to catch the baits themselves.
Okay, you might have raised an eyebrow at that. But whether you find catching the baitfish themselves fun or not, it is important to understand what your query eats. Fishing for those baitfish is a fantastic way to gather information about them to better design flies and alter your presentation when striped bass, bluefish, or hardtails are eating those very same fish. This is an aspect to fly fishing that is all too often ignored.
A bit after Henri rolled in I was doing just that. Instead of looking for stripers I was after their food. There wasn't much striper fishing to be done anyway on this day. It was much too hot, the air pressure was high, and the wind and tide weren't good for it. I had with me my 1wt and a handful of small flies. I really hoped to encounter some Northern puffer but that's not what I found. Instead, I encountered hoards of finger mullet. Mullet are not a rare bait species in CT and RI but I don't always encounter them in any notable numbers. This year I'm seeing hundreds upon hundreds of mullet in places I've never seen any before. I just observed them for a while, watching how the school behaved and seeing if anything fed on them. It gave me a very good idea of how I should retrieve a fly when finger mullet are the bait of choice.
To get a better look at the fish themselves I had to catch one. Small mullet are very difficult to catch on hook and line, and all I needed was a reference photo and some quick notes, so I simple snagged one of them.
In the process of catching the mullet I noted the presence of loads of very small snapper bluefish. This is another species that striped bass often feed on. In fact, when striped bass are chasing down juvenile blues that are trying to migrate into the marshes from the open water where they were born, it is a prime opportunity to get some pretty nice bass on the fly. Sometimes the striper get downright reckless when feeding on these guys, but sometimes they get more picky and knowing how best to imitate the little blues will make a huge difference. My favorite flies and lures imitate their darting surface motions more than their profile and color, but sometimes a better mach is warranted.
Fishing for and handling baitfish shows you how the look both in the water and out, how they move, what profile predators see what they are looking at one, and so on. This is stuff you can't learn at the tying desk and sometimes something you can't learn if you're too focused on the predator fish themselves. I highly recommend taking out a light rod and small flies and specifically looking for the species your favorite fish eat.
Until next time,
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