False Albacore Fly Woes: Bigeye Scad

 

Time for yet another day with tunny around and me not catching. Yeah, this was day six. My sixth day with tunny around and no tunny to show for it. This time the conditions felt a bit better and there was at least bait present, though no he ideal bait. Peanut bunker are only the ideal bait if the tunny actually eat them, and I've only seen it happen a handful of times. It seems to be far more common on the south side of the Cape and around the Elizabeth Islands. Maybe the size of the peanuts varies as one go up the coast and the Connecticut and Rhode Island peanuts are bigger and less appealing to the tunny when they get here. What was strange though was how willing the chub mackerel seemed to be to pick of a peanut. I dragged flies below the bait and picked off the first chub mackerel of the year- very late compared to the last four. I was using a 12 weight though and the fights were subpar. 

It's a bit regrettable that I'd still yet to get even a bonito, Spanish mackerel, or frigate before I got those chubs, but at least a scombrid had found it's way to my fly. 2021 had shaped up to be an odd year. 

As the morning progressed so did my frustration as I watched a couple of casters pick off tunny on epoxy jigs. There just wasn't anything for it, I could get my fly to the lane the fish were running but I could pull it through it and that's what really matters. Confounded by some of the same line twist and tangling issues that had already plagued me this season, I started to consider giving up. Then I caught something interesting. 

Bigeye scad are most numerous in tropical regions around the world. There are a lot of species of scad, including yellowstripe scad, mackerel scad, and torpedo scad, but I'm primarily familiar with bigeye due to their presence on the East Coast. In Florida they're a commonly used bait species and called goggle-eye. It isn't unusual for some bigeye scad to wander up the Gulf Stream and end up in parts north. This year I'd seen a few examples from New Jersey. Now, I was holding one from Southern Rhode Island. It had latched onto the Surf Candy I was fishing, a fly not much shorter than it's own body length. Unknowingly it had put me just 15 fish away from #200 on my lifelist. Yup, another wandering tropical species proved that my tunny obsession was worthwhile despite the fact that I couldn't seem to catch a little tunny.

Lifelist Fish #185, Bigeye scad, Selar crumenophthalmus. 

With my first scad ever on the books, I was satisfied enough to stop torturing myself and walk back to the car. Well, it was really only a temporary cessation in torture. I'd be back in fruitless action soon. 

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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