August-September Guiding Updates

 

I love the latter half of summer, I just do. I know some people fret over the days getting shorter and things getting a bit dry and low, I don't really. I love August and September. They provide a kick butt variety. particularly, though, I'm growing more and more fond of late summer smallmouth floats on big water. It's visual, the fish can be fickle enough to provide a challenge but also so absurdly aggressive at times they make it impossible to screw up. I just love them, they have such attitude and aggression but not so much so as to make it too easy. And there's always a chance to put one in the air that's over 22 inches. 

Stephen from Kismet Outfitters with a good one that hammered a Sid at the surface.

Right now, the water is still a little on the warm side for pike, but nights are gradually getting cooler and longer again. That'll change things, the pike will eat better and I'll feel better about hooking and fighting the as temperatures drop well below 80 again. The smaller ones are moving now, most days one or two will show themselves, often leaving us with a fly-less leader and couple of muttered cusses. A few even make it to hand. 

Ed with a 20 incher

Some days, I've taken to beaching the boat, getting out and wading, With the river very low now, this makes for a nice break to cool off a bit on the hot days. It has also provided some shots at some carp and schools of roving, shad fry feeding bass.

And of course there's the salt. Stripers, though? forget it it. Terrible, miserable, no good, bad. If you ask for them, I'm sorry, unless something changes dramatically I just can't. They aren't here like they were just a few years ago. BUT... some things are that weren't, and it's a great time to just go rack up species. Weakfish, scup, fluke, spot, maybe even a cownose ray? It's a good time out there in the marshes and coves, and my canoe is the perfect craft to cover the shallows. Sure, you could go book a guide on a trout stream and slug it out in tough, low water conditions for a few trout... or you could use some of the same tackle and tactics and catch a plethora of weird and wonderful salty characters. 

So that's the short of the long of it. This has been a good summer so far, with a lot of great clients. So far this August, and it'll take something pretty special to give it a run so attempt to de-throne him at your own peril, fish of the month goes to Collin Steadman with this ripper 27.3lb common carp. What a monster! Thanks as always to everyone who has made it out with me so far this year, it keeps the good times rolling. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan and Dar 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. 

Photo Essay: Lavender Tidal Marsh Fish

 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, and Sammy 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.

Evening Scupfest

 More and more often, porgies are switching from a frequent plan B to a regular plan A when I go to the salt. If not the primary target themselves, at least one of them. Catching porgies is fun, and even more fun is catching porgies on the fly. I love figuring out how to consistently get a species on the fly, especially one that isn't as regularly targeted with flies. That said it really shouldn't have taken me as long as it did to learn how to best get scup. It's really very simple. I'm still honing things in though, as converting take too hookups and hookups to boated fish is proving the most difficult.

A warm day last week presented a good opportunity. I found some time, loaded up the kayak, and made my way to the sound. My paddle out put me right past a school of schoolie stripers breaking on very tiny peanut bunker. I took a couple casts at them, but left hurriedly. I was after a different fish. I would be fishing 12 to 18 feet of water with a sink tip and size 6 Clousers for something a bit less popular.

Of course there's more to scup than just dropping a fly to the bottom. Fish don't hold just everywhere and anywhere. Sometimes it almost seems like that, but it isn't true. Certain contours and structure hold fish, more fish, or bigger fish. I'll leave it up to you to figure out the complexities of that if you decide to fly fish for porgies. That's the fun part. The presentation is simple, almost a cross between nymphing and swinging a wet fly. The takes feel like little thump, often rapid fire. They usually come thick and fast when I'm fishing the right water.

It was a beautiful evening to be out on the water, though the smoke blowing in from the west was a part of that and quite unfortunate. The sunset reflecting off of the iridescent flanks of the porgies was gorgeous though. They really are a very pretty fish. 

With very few inshore blues in recent years and generally sporadic striper fishing, it's definitely worth looking to other fish species. Hopefully they won't ever need to be everyone's plan A, but for now I'm having blast with porgies. 

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, 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.

June Scup on the Fly

 I've become very interested in catching saltwater bottom fish on the fly in recent years. Scup, fluke, black seabass, tautog... they're not frequently targeted by fly anglers but most of the time they're perfectly willing to take a well presented artificial fly. My methodology has evolved, or rather simplified, withing about the last year to using simple sinking and sink tip lines with a pair of flies and fishing on slow drifts. I'd spent a lot of time trying to use all sorts of drop shot rigs and other such things, most of which proved to be effective at times. They were mostly unnecessary though. What I do now is akin to a typical Great Lakes steelhead and salmon "nymphing" swing, but with a far heavier line and in much deeper water. It works well though. 

Not long ago Noah and I went out for some of the first scup and fluke of the season. He'd already been out a couple times, but this was my first run of the year. He fished primarily with a cheb rig, which is something knew to us and a methodology I intend to apply to tautog in the fall. I was using my 400 grain sink tip, 12 foot leader to 12lb tippet, and a Clouser and worm fly, one tipped with a thing called "fish bites". Fish bites are an artificial attractant Noah had been experimenting with, and being artificial I didn't particularly think it was cheating. Nor do I really care if you do. It wasn't necessary but I did catch more fish because of it.

The fish were averaging pretty large, and most were extremely hefty. We're pretty sure many were gravid females. Though fought pretty well, even on a 10wt. Both Noah and I were having a lot of brief fights though, and having a pretty hard time keeping fish pinned. Had we landed even half of the fish we dropped it would have been a really stellar day, and it wasn't bad to start with. We even tripled up at one point. 

We also got a few other species out there, including a couple sizable sea robins and one small fluke. It was a fun outing and a good start to a season of dredging flies for underrated fish. Most will go back to the depths but a few will end up in the pan.

 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, 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. 

Blitzes and Bottom Fish: Summer "Doldrums"

 On August 8th, Noah, New Noah, and I went out seeking fish. Nothing out of the ordinary here, this is just what we do. This was one of those hot humid, near windless summer days that could most adequately be described simply as "sticky". This would be a typical doldrum day, were it not for two things. One, bottom fish will almost always eat.

And it was already micro bait season.

We started out in our favorite "everything" spot, bottom fishing. It was a steady pick made a little slower by an utter lack of wind for a drift. But we picked at sea robins and scup for a while before we saw chaos unfolding and made a bee-line for it. Upon arrival, we found schoolies chowing on tiny bait, and it was party time for all. Well, not the bait. 

It was quite the show. Hundreds of bass churning up the water, gulls going crazy, all under a bright blue sky... it was a fishing photographer's dream scenario. And I spent a lot of time with camera in hand, but not so much that I didn't catch a couple of my favorite fish to fish for.

A tide change ended the blitz, but also brought around some chub mackerel. We attempted to intercept them for a short time, but weren't successful. Back to bottom fishing it was. More scup, some fluke, and the typical amount of striped sea robins found their way into the boat. We kept some of the scup. 

Noah then started to feel the need to make a move. The fishing wasn't crazy and he and I both had interest in another spot for better fluke potential. We pulled the boat and found ourselves launching it in an out-of-the-way small launch after our first choice proved to be full. Our ride to the grounds we were headed to was now longer, but not without worth. As we went I spotted the first banded rudderfish I'd seen this season under a buoy. It was a solitary individual, and I'd found these tricky in the pass, but Noah gave it a shot. This was, at the time, as species he'd not yet caught. Unfortunately this one was too spooky.

Once on our intended bottom fishing grounds, we discovered that it was indeed more productive than the cove we'd started the day in. Scup came in one after another, they were definitely the predominant fish. Fluke were there, but not in the abundance we'd hoped for. I spent most of the time fishing jig flies on a mono rig, which was effective but not as much as I would have liked.

Eventually I picked up the 450 grain sink tip, and instead of fishing vertically, casted and retrieved a Clouser along the bottom. It took a very short time for me to realize that this was wildly more effective. All these years I've been messing around with different methods to try to replicate the bottom fishing success my friends using spinning and conventional gear were having. I made specialized saltwater mono rigs, toyed with long braid leaders, drop shot rigs and egg sinkers... and the answer was actually something that can much more appropriately still be called fly fishing. 

As the evening progressed, more fish made it into the boat. New Noah caught a northern puffer on a blade bait, much to Noah's and my annoyance (a species that has given us an extremely hard time). One chub mackerel also came home, I myself hooked and lost one as well. We killed that chub and a bunch of scup, but released more. It was a healthy take of meat, one of the rewards for our efforts. It's largely true that the world's fisheries simply cannot sustain the human population's demands, but there are fortunately species that, at least locally, can sustain selective harvest. Release the bass, even the fluke. Keep a few sea robins and scup, maybe a few black sea bass if you find them big enough. And, done right, I hear chub mackerel are delicious. The problem is the freezer stuffing mentality is often not spread out enough, and now fish like striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, and fluke genuinely cannot handle any increase in take. We shouldn't be killing these species at the present time, if it is possible to avoid doing so. Be smart. Diversify your take, and harvest selectively. 

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, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon. 

Micro Bait Season

In August, our coastal waters get flushed with young of the year baitfish. Minuscule in size but numbering in the billions, juvenile menhaden, bay anchovies, silversides, and butterfish fuel some of the most visually spectacular surface feeds of the year. The last few years the weather has been awful most of October and November, which would normally be big blitz time here. August and September, the micro bait season, have surpassed the following months for heavy action and visual spectacle in Eastern Long Island Sound, South County Rhode Island, and Narragansett Bay for the last three years. In August this year and last, schoolie bass and chub mackerel have put on some of the greatest shows while feeding on bay anchovies less than an inch long.

My friend Captain Ian Devlin asked if I'd like to make a run east with him on August 1st to partake in the early days of the chaos. Promise of chub mackerel froth feeding and rafting stripers was also accompanied by trustworthy reports of frigate tuna, a small scombrid species only occasionally found in these waters. Of course I was game. So it was that Ian and I readied to launch his Lake & Bay skiff as the sun rose on the first day of August, watching a greater black-backed gull admire his own reflection in the chrome bumped of a parked truck. Soon we were on the water and speeding towards Watch Hill. We didn't get there before finding a couple big schools of chub mackerel froth feeding.

The sound these fish make when a big school surface feeds is really something to behold. From the calm ocean surface arises the sudden roaring of hundreds of fish blasting through the surface in a frenzy to get as many bay anchovies in their mouths as possible. Every once in a while though, one of those little bait fish is a fake.

It's amazing to think that Scomber colias were unheard of inshore just five or six years ago.Now for at least a couple weeks each summer, it's difficult to run a boat along any four mile stretch of shoreline between Niantic and Point Judith between sunrise and sunset and not see at least a small school some where along the way. They're fun, beautiful little fish, and bend a five weight a lot better than any trout of similar size.

We had our fill with those schools, then headed further east. Watch was a zoo in terms of blitzing fish, slowly becoming a zoo in terms of boats as well, but we got some time without too much traffic to photograph and cast to schools of both bass and chub mackerel.

When the crowds descended we continued east and found a third of a mile of chub mackerel working east to west down the beach, literally making waves in their wake. The biomass of fish in these waters at this time of year is quite astounding. We were able to get ahead of the school and get shot after shot as pods came by the boat.

The chub mackerel school led us way back west, right to a school of bass up near the beach.

Eastward bound again, we glimpsed a handful of brief blows that were certainly not bass but didn't seem to be chub mackerel either. They appeared like tiny false albacore slashing through bait balls... these must have been the frigate tuna we'd so hoped to encounter, but they were up and down quickly and we got no shots at them.

The final blitz we encountered was an interesting mixed bag. There were bass and chub mackerel up top, scup just below, and hickory shad on the bottom. I got one each of the scup and hickories, making for a unique mixed bag of scombrid, moronid, sparid, and colubrid species. A wide range of fish were taking advantage of the plethora of micro bait. (I didn't photograph the hickory as it was bleeding heavily)

We ended our day on the flats, expecting very little there but finding loads of bass. In the heat of August stripers typically seek deeper, cooler water, but the micro bait had lead some to the shallows, were fish were inhaling tennis-ball sized schools of tiny menhaden. This fish have proved over the years to be just about impossible to deceive, and we certainly didn't figure it out this time. But just seeing that there was so much going on in all sorts of areas and in different depths was exiting. Stripers in particular are remarkably versatile fish. It never ceases to amaze me how broad their range of comfort is. 

But then again apparently scup are quite versatile too, as I got another up on that flat on a Jiggy. 

A few weeks later, micro bait season continues in these parts... and honestly things have gotten pretty wild. But I still have a lot of catch up to do before we get to that.

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, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.