Dredging For Catfish & Carp on the Fly

 Most fly fishing for carp and catfish is done by sight. These species don't have the prey drive that other fish species do, so getting them to move a distance is usually a hard ask. That's often what necessitates sight fishing. If you can see the fish, or at least see where a fish is, you can put your fly on its dinner plate. There are, however, scenarios that both allow and necessitate blind casting. Narrow river channels often offer opportunities to dredge bottom and pick up large fish completely blind. This is something I like to do both on my own and with clients when conditions aren't good for spotting fish, as it can often produce some larger carp and catfish than sight fishing does. 

Fairly recent'y I took advantage of some decent post frontal conditions to get on the blind bite. The strategy was to post up on channel edges, anchoring the canoe in place with the push-pole, and slowly pull heavy flies through the channel itself. I fished a short two piece leader, 20lb-15lb, and Drew Price's Mr. Bow-regard on a clear intermediate, 8wt. The retrieve was just as slow craw. Takes weren't necessarily frequent, but if we'd been sight fishing that day we'd have been SOL. The fish just weren't shallow, though they were feeding.

 These were typical conditions to get carp and cats feeding in the channels, low-ish light, high pressure, and stained water. That first fish was a brutish near-20 pounder that took the fly quite subtly just off the bottom then but up an impressive fight.The next one hit pretty hard and began to fight very much like a cat. Instead, it was just quite a small carp. 

Effective flies for this strategy are generally 1.5-3" long, dull in color, and heavy. I fish buggers, slump busters, the Mr. Bow-regard, and a few of my own patterns to good effect. Patience is key, as you need two thing to meet in close proximity without too much control over where the fish actually are in relation to your fly. All you can do is get your fly near bottom and fish it slow until it finds a fish. It's easier to explain and demonstrate the principles and intricacies of this tactic as well as where it is best employed on the water, from my canoe. These are fisheries and strategies I don't really see anyone else utilizing with fly gear, or artificials at all for that matter. And yet they're incredibly productive and fun. 

After those two carp, I was really hoping to get a good channel to eat the fly. I slid the canoe quietly back up to the top of a deep cut and anchored again. Maybe 10 minutes later I got a light grab and set into a powerful fish. This time I was much more sure it was a channel cat, though the previous small carp still made me second guess it. Sure enough it was a cat, and one of the better ones I've caught this year. With only two exceptions, every time I've set out, either just myself, with a friend, or with clients to get a channel cat on an artificial or fly we've put one in the boat. I don't think there's a single other guide in southern New England that could offer such a consistent and reliable opportunity at catfish on fly, and they're often pretty big. I just need to find the sort of weird client that is actually into that sort of thing. 

Interestingly, though I can just about guarantee catching both carp and catfish virtually every trip, the catfish fishing quality varies year to year. Last year, likely due to the numerous high water events, the channel catfish were going crazy. There were days I caught more than 20, all on fly. This years severe drought hasn't seemed amenable to them. I think most have remained in the deep shelter of the larger river instead of wandering into the tributaries en-masse to feed. 

It's very interesting seeing large yearly pattern shifts of this nature. Sometimes it very literally drives fish abundance. Though that can result in inconsistency and years that just aren't going to fish as well no matter what you do, that's a big part of the intrigue. There's always more to learn. 

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

Getting in The Crap

 I have a habit of not linking to lose fish. I really don't like it, if it can be avoided. I also don't like to let seemingly impossible situations prevent me from taking a shot. I will cast at carp tailing within fallen trees, brown trout rising tight to grass tussocks, or bowfin deep in the weeds. I love to fish for stripers right in boulder fields, pike in narrow creek channels, and brook trout under low canopy. My natural inclination when I see something difficult or seemingly impenetrable is to take it as a challenge. It gets me to more productive spots and catches me fish others mat not even cast at.

Last week I had my client Jim on the canoe for a multispecies trip with some emphasis on bowfin. I finally spotted one in a spot I'd highlighted prior as a likely consistent producer. This fish was sitting nearly stationary in a messy tangle of roots and branches. I knew this fish would eat and I knew we could get her in the net if we played everything right. I nosed the canoe into the crap and Jim dropped Drew Price's Mr. Bow-regard on the fish. It actually backed up to eat the fly, then dove straight down into the sticks. Not to be deterred, I made sure the canoe was securely placed and entered the water to assure I could put the fish in the net. She was buried under a few logs but I was able to finagle her out, and Jim got to hold his first ever bowfin!

Though I was prepared to dive under if I had to for that bowfin, it was nice not to need to. While carp fishing in Rhode Island last week though, I was forced to take somewhat drastic action. I found some fish feeding in an area around multiple deadfalls. There really wasn't any gap between the deadfalls and open water. The space the carp were feeding in was very finite. If hooked a fish was most certainly going to leave that area through the deadfalls. I was willing to take that risk. The fish I presented to ate with confidence and when the hook was set she promptly exited under a large mostly submerged log. I removed my sling pack and entered the water, plunging under to feed my rod under the log without jamming the tip against anything. I emerged and the fish was still on. I finished the battle and netted the carp in muddy, belly deep water. Was it necessary? No. Was it fun? Heck yes. Did it save me from skunking? Indeed it did. That lake didn't produce another fish. 

Now it must be said, none of this is necessary. You don't need to dive under logs to catch  fish, you don't even need to land every fish you hook. You probably don't even want to do this stuff. But I kinda do. I'm at a point in my fishing career where I'm more interested in the fish I don't think I'll have any easy shot at landing than the ones I can almost guarantee. I want to be the best angler I can be and to me, the best angler I can be is being capable of catching every fish possible, and knowing what fish I aren't possible. Is that even remotely attainable? 

Nope.  

But getting in the crap, diving into the water, and plowing through prickers gets me a little bit closer. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, and Jake 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.

Big Fish Strategies: The Importance of "The Fall" for Carp on the Fly

Big Fish Strategies is a new series covering simple tactics that help catch large fish on the fly. This series covers a broad range of species and water types, but focuses on larger species and larger specimens of a species. Enjoy!

In certain parts of the country, angler seem to have quite good success retrieving flies in front of carp. At Beaver Island and other parts of the Great Lakes, Midwestern rivers, even just other parts of the Northeast, carp seem to be fairly receptive to a moved fly. In my waters, however, a retrieved fly is almost always rejected. I'm not quite sure why this is, but it is proven over and over any time I try to strip or twitch a fly in front of a carp. 9 times out of 10 it either ignores it, or even spooks. Since the fly invariably needs to stand out to the fish visibly, that leaves pretty much one option. The fish needs to see the fly while it is actively falling through the water column. 

There are three important considerations to make when you want a fish to see the fly on the fly: How quickly the fly sinks, where you are showing it to the fish, and what that fish is doing. Let's break each of those down one at a time.

The importance of fall rate should be fairly obvious: if you want a fish to see a fly while its falling, that fly should fall for a good little while. I always try to get away with the slowest fall rate I can. The deeper the water, the faster the fall rate of the fly I'm using. In 1-1/1.5' of water I fish unweighted flies or flies with light bead chain eyes. In 2-3 feet of water I fish flies with bead or small cone-heads and smaller lead eyes. In 3-5 feet of water I fish flies with heavy cone-heads and large lead eyes. The material and profile of the fly does matter as well. Slim profiles sink faster, broad profiles sink slower. Things like deer hair or bushy, thick hackle collars can also slow a sink rate. Generally though, look at how the carp flies in your box sink and familiarize yourself with their sink rates, then stick to the slower ones in shallower water and the faster ones in deeper water. 

This common fell to a slowly sinking unweighted mop in 16" of water.

Where you are showing the fish the fly is often overlooked by the average angler, it's something I don't think gets remotely enough focus. Carp don't just see everything in their surrounding area, so a fly falling in a certain area may go unnoticed. One spot that is a little bit blind to them, and the place I was so inclined to cats at when i first started as well as a place I routinely have clients cast at, is right on their nose. Now, in deep enough water, they'll see the fly initially before it falls into a blind spot. At that point they may want it but have a hard time finding it. In very shallow water they may not see it at all. I think of the zones I want the fly to fall through as being roughly dinner plate sized circles around either eye. In clear water that window does expand out, occasionally as much as two feet. Put simply, put your fly either to the right or left of the carp. Also consider which side is closer to you and try not to cross the fish and show the fly to its far side: that can result in lining the fish and spooking it. 

Last but certainly not least, you've got to pay attention to what the fish is doing when you make your cast. It may not see your fly because of its own behavior. If the fish is kicking up a heavy mud cloud, it will likely have a difficult time seeing a fly falling through the water column more than a couple inches from its face. Sometimes, in heavy mats of life litter on the bottom, the carp will even have there head burring in the bottom while the feed. In these cases, watch for the fish to pick up and move from one spot to the next. While it is doing so is the time to present your fly to the fish. At times, the fish may also favor one side, so regardless of its feeding strategy, if you don't get a positive or negative reaction on one side of the fish try presenting it to the other if it is possible to do so without crossing the fish with your leader.

Mastering the intricacies of the fall is transferable to other species as well, from brook trout to bonito. If you'd like to learn more about strategies, book a trip with me or join Patreon, where I'll be delving into technical aspects of fly fishing on a regular basis. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, and Jake 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.

Why You Should Tie & Fish Hair or Feather Jigs

Hair and feather jigs are some of the most utilitarian lures in the fishing world. Cheap, simple, and easily fished, small jigs bridge the gap between fly fishing and gear fishing. I was generally reluctant to start fishing jigs with a fly rod under the misconceived idea that they'd be too heavy. Then, in a fly swap, I received some flies tied on simple dart jigs by shad guru Sonny Yu. I eventually got around to trying them, but not for shad. The first time I used jigs on a fly rod was while targeting trophy sized yellow perch. They quickly proved their utility. 

Before I started using jigs, I didn't have a particularly good understanding of how specific weights fished. I'd tie nymphs and streamers with brass or tungsten beads or cones, copper wire, lead wire, non-lead wire, dumbbell eyes, and other materials to add weight but I didn't pay much attention to specific weights. When I started to tie jigs that was suddenly the foremost factor. I was buying weights as much as I was sizes: 1/64oz, 1/32oz, 1/16oz, so on and so forth. I knew pretty much exactly how heavy a fly I was tying, minus added material. It turns out that's a huge game changer for a fly tier and angler. I now could correspond how a fly fished in different scenarios directly with its weight. I could also see how different materiel and fly sizes impacted the sink rate and action of  jigs of the same weight. For example, a long and bushy bucktail in 1/16th oz sinks quit a bit slower than a short, sparse one. The part of the tail I tied with had an impact too, of course. I could then make a pattern of the same size and material on different weight heads to fish different depths and different current speeds. That's huge. Jigs made learning it easy and lead to me paying a whole lot more attention to the weight of the other flies I tie. 

Jigs also just seem to work really really well, often when other offering won't. Two people's catch rates in particular heavily influenced my interest in tying and fishing jigs: Tim Galati (www.youtube.com) and Josh Rayner (www.ctfishnerd.com). Tim's success regularly catching trophy sized fish of a variety of species on bucktail jigs piqued my interest, and Josh's regular success with his own hand tied jigs at times I'd previously had a hard time catching similar numbers and sizes. Noah caught on a bit quicker, resulting in a few really big early season smallmouth bass, at which time we proposed building a shrine to Tim Galati. The bucktail jig is magic, it really is. And at sizes under 1/8oz they can be fished to exceptional effect on a fly rod. I found that using such jigs on a floating line allowed me to very effectively fish 5 to 10 feet of water early and late in the season for less aggressive bass and walleye in my local lake. It opened up new spots where I'd previously felt I was fishing dead water. I could now feel bottom contours and regularly catch fish where I wasn't previously. As soon as I knew how to fish a spot with jigs, I could easily switch over to other flies and lines and find success that way as well. But the jigs just flat-out worked, so I only occasionally bothered to switch it up.

Jigs also present extraordinarily well under a float. The number of impressive fish I've caught on a 1/64oz chartreuse marabou jigs under a Thingamabobber is ever-growing. Last spring I got walleye, crappie, carp, and a huge smallmouth on that rig. When the water is cold and the fish are sluggish, particularly either with slow current or light wave action, this has been exceedingly deadly. Sometimes fish want very little horizontal movement, and retrieving the jig through the zone won't result in many hookups. A float allows you to hang a jig at an exact depth. This can be huge when it comes to suspending fish like crappies, especially when shore bound and fishing to schools that are further away than the tip of your rod. It's just vertical jigging at a distance. Wave action adds action to your jig, so wind is often helpful with this strategy. 

Another huge benefit of these simple jigs is their affordability. I tie my own, of course, which gives me creative control over size and color combinations. Mine are either all marabou, marabou with a chenille body, woolly buggers, or bucktail jigs. Getting jigheads on the cheap is exceedingly easy, and oftentimes scrap materials left over after tying nicer, fancier flies and perfectly suitable for simple little jigs. You can get more out of what you were probably already buying anyway. Of course if you don't tie, you can get get marabou jigs exceedingly cheap at just about any walmart. Or, if you want something specific, you can send me an email and I can put together a custom order. If you're using them as flies it definitely doesn't feel as much like a travesty if you have a bit of creative control. 

That brings up a fun question... are these jigs flies? You'll have to answer that yourself, but I'll leave you with two facts: I've cast a Clouser Minnow about 45 feet with a medium light spinning rod, and I've fished an inline spinner very effectively on a 9' 5wt fly rod. The gap was bridged years ago, it's all in what you chose to make of it. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, and Mark 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.

Night Fishing Seminar (In Person)

 I'll be presenting one of my night fishing seminars starting at 6:00pm on April 10th, at the Middle Haddam Public Library (2 Knowles Rd, Middle Haddam, CT 06456). This will be the first in person presentation I've done since the pandemic! Admission is free.

This seminar will cover the necessities for anyone looking to start or expand their skill-set night fishing trout streams. It covers gear, safety, flies, reading water, and other strategies. It'll run about an hour long. I hope to see some of you there!

Using A Thermometer to Catch More Fish

 Do you carry a thermometer when you're fishing? I do. I thought it was silly, back when I was younger and thought the excessive amount of gear fly anglers like to carry was just absurd. And, well, it is. There's plenty of superfluous or completely unnecessary gear being purchased- a thermometer, however, is not one of those things. A small thermometer is a key piece of equipment to help an angler catch more fish. Buy one. Seriously.

 More important than just carrying one and sticking it in the water is really properly using it. 

Not every part of the water is the same temperature, and to get a good understanding of what is going on an angler needs to think about where they're taking a temperature. The slack, shallow pool off the main current of a river will invariably be warmer than the riffle just 20 feet away, unless there's a spring seep there. The surface of a pond will be warmer in the spring and early summer than the bottom, but may in fact be notably colder after the first frost in the fall. To get a really thorough idea what's going on, I take a couple of different readings at different depths and in different locations. If there's a striking difference in temperature between one spot on a pond and another, it is certainly going to impact the behavior of the fish.  

Equally important is keeping record of the temperatures you take. Unless you have an extraordinary memory, write it down. Keep logs. Make not of the weather when you took the data, what the weather was in the prior days, and what time it was. And of course log how the fishing was. Water temperature and fishing quality are very much correlated, and if you've got a substantial back-log of reports and associated water temperatures, you'll be all the more prepared to repeat successes and rule out bad conditions as well. The unfortunate reality is that it will take time to get a solid, predictive pattern. I've been logging consistently for the better part of 4 years and still don't always hit the nail on the head. I've got a much better idea of how things work though. I know what temperature gets carp up on certain mud flats, and I know what temperature gets the walleye moving into the areas I target them early in the season. I also know what temperatures really kill the action in different places for different species. This means I can catch fish much more consistently, or at least waste less time fishing unproductive water and times. 

Monitoring water temperature has been key for catching trophy black crappie.

Aside from helping you catch more fish a thermometer can tell you when you should be fishing as well. After all, none of us want our released fish to keel over and die shortly after we've caught them, right? Carrying a thermometer when trout fishing in the summer is imperative. Be sure that you aren't fishing water that exceeds 67 degrees Fahrenheit. If you find a cold pocket, be mindful that trout use small spring seeps and the mouths of tributaries as thermal refuges, and that even though localized temperatures might be cold enough, the trout using these areas are under significant stress and should not be targeted. 

Thinking back, it's funny how reluctant I was to both start logging and start carrying a thermometer. It upped my game hugely, really taking things to another level. Of course, there's many things we all did as beginners that we can laugh at now. But if you aren't already, I certainly recommend getting a cheap little thermometer to carry with you on each and every fishing trip.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, and Mark 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.

Late Season River Multi-species Fishing

 As water temperatures plummet in November, fish are both on the move and slowing down. They are on the move because the need to be in very different water for the winter than they were just in all summer, and slowing down because as cold blooded animals their metabolism slows when it gets cold. This results in some interesting challenges for an angler trying to catch these fish. It can also create some great fishing, because the fish's feeding drive may be just a bit slower but they often pile up in staging areas and then in their wintering holes. 

The fish species I'm really talking about here are fallfish, bass, sunfish, and perch. The late fall and early spring transitional period are, quite honestly, some of the best time windows I've found for loading up large numbers of these fish and often some trophy sized specimens. This year I was presented with the challenge of finding these fish in staging areas on new water, the same general area I've fished all summer in Rhode Island for carp. Because I'd been so focused on carp, I let a lot slide and missed chances to better figure out bites with some other species. Come November, catching would be more difficult simply because fish would be in fewer places and actively feeding less often. 

I knew the sorts of spots that should be holding fish though from past experience on other watersheds. I used google maps and pinned every spot that looked like it had potential, from in-flowing creeks and canals to backwaters and large eddies. Some would clearly be difficult to access, so I started out with the one closest to home that I knew would be publicly accessible. I fished it first in low pressure during a big storm, with a simple "float n' fly" tactic. My leader was 8 feet long, tapered to 0x, with a small Thingamabobber and a micro streamer. Often, when water temperatures are falling, any retrieve is too much retrieve. Think effective ice fishing tactics: you want a fly to be basically in place, maybe with a little bit of jigging action, but barely moving horizontally at all. 

I hit it right with the first spot, which was excellent. It wasn't crazy. The fish were neither huge nor especially numerous, but they were there and I could catch them; that's half the battle. 

Over the next week or two I poked around new spots and revisited the first with mixed results. For a while, that first place seemed incredibly consistent until in one 24 window it went from fantastic, with a three perch and ten bluegill outing being followed the very next afternoon by a complete skunking. All that changed in that time frame was a three inch river drop and a 2 degree temperature drop. That's often all it takes for fish to move on from a staging area to a wintering hole.

Some of the other spots that produced fish were more typical fallfish or sucker late fall holes, though I squeaked the odd yellow perch out of them too. That was cool, as I'm not especially used to catching yellow perch out of anything other than near-still or still water this late in the year. Pulling them up on an indicator rig from the sort of water that would be holding brown trout in a cold-water fishery was actually pretty cool. There were fallfish in all the right spots too. No monsters, but lovely specimens with typical late fall coloration. 

Inevitably these spots started to falter to as the temperature dropped even further. I've now shifted focus to other fisheries anyway, but when I get back to this river I'll need to learn another set of conditions entirely. It'll continue to be an interesting challenge. 

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.

Freestone Wild Brown Trout Redemption Day

 It had been a good long while since I last poked around some new freestones to look for wild trout. A preoccupation with bigger fish had held my attention for a while, but it was inevitable that I'd need to get back out on some boulder strewn creeks to make sure I could, in fact, still catch trout. Sometimes it feels like I've lost a lot of my muscle memory when it comes to trout fishing. I certainly do it far less than I used to. Of course it doesn't help at all that a lot of the small streams I used to fish are a mere shadow of what they used to be like, with far fewer and much smaller fish on average. CT wild trout has seemed to be in the downswing over the last 5 years especially, with some historically productive wild brown trout streams that produced very large fish being almost wiped out. I watched the collapse of my favorite brown trout river, and my home water as well. Fewer fish certainly makes it feel like I've gotten worse at fishing. Thankfully when I actually do fish areas that remain strongholds, I'm reminded that I've still got the touch. 

Such was the case where I went one day last week. I dropped Cheyenne off at work and headed to a stream I'd fished before but to a stretch I'd not been on. The flow was moderate, the water lightly stained. The stream was structurally very similar to my home water. It was a classic New England freestone. The gradient was steep and the substrate was mostly boulders with some cobble and gravel. 

I knew wild brown and brook trout were present here though I wasn't sure of their abundance. I was very quickly catching fish though... so evidently they were pretty numerous. They were mostly small wild browns with some stocked fish mixed in. There was a fish everywhere there should have been one, too. If I dropped my Ausable Ugly into a prime lie, it got eaten. 

I took a mental note of where I got takes, looking back upstream (I was working down) as I went and memorizing each spot I'd missed or hooked a trout. This is something I do a lot, I think its every bit as important as knowing how to present flies well, matching forage, or knowing when the conditions are best. Remembering where you hooked fish allows an angler to draw comparisons: trout don't act any differently anywhere in the world, really. If you see a the same sort of holding or feeding lie you've caught a trout out of before and the conditions and time of year are similar, there will probably be a trout there, whether you're fishing in Argentina, Montana, or Massachusetts. 

Such was the case with this stream. Though I'd never stepped foot there before I wasn't fishing unfamiliar water. I fished pockets, runs, troughs, and plunges I knew and had fished before. I'd seen that back eddy before, and caught that brown trout next to the log- they weren't the same, but they kind of were. Do you know what I mean? 

I picked pockets with a big grin on my face, happy to feel very much at home. Everything was familiar, simple, and wonderful. The fish were gorgeous and the habitat was perfect. I was pulling on trout with regularity and tallying them in my head. By the time I left, I'd caught 38 fish. One was a fallfish, two were substantial holdovers, and the rest were a mix of wild fish and fish stocked as fingerling.

I wasn't done fishing that day, but I'll save that for another post. For now, I'll leave you with a suggestion: fish thoughtfully and thoroughly. Sometimes I find myself rushing along, especially on new water, sure that there must be better water somewhere ahead. Don't assume that. Work what's in front of you first. Analyze it, fish it in a way the has produced fish for you before in a similar spot. then, if that doesn't work, do something new to you. 

I've been very much enjoying the videos put out by Jensen Fly Fishing. They are perhaps the best proponent out there right now of methodical, well thought-out approaches to trout fishing. Watching their videos has made me rethink why I've been successful in the past and what I need to do in the future. There's always more to learn. 

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.

Incredible Ram Induction False Albacore Feeds

 I first heard the term 'ram induction feeding' from my friend Ian Devlin to describe how scombrid species eat small baitfish. Basically, they just slam trough tightly packed schools of bait and it gets funneled into their mouths. This feeding strategy can take on a few different looks, and when the fish are on very tiny "snot" bait it is a particularly remarkable thing to watch. The best example of this is chub mackerel, which routinely organize in compact (though large) schools and coordinate attacks on schools of tiny baitfish. We've had quite a lot of that in these parts over the last few years. Less frequently, little tunny feed in the same manor. A large school of them will bunch tightly together and propel themselves through the bait clouds, taking in the minuscule fish as they move. At times, in rough conditions, it can look like a huge pod of tunny is surfing a swell. Its a wild thing, and something I finally got to see and document this year. 

Catching fish from these types of feeds can be very difficult at times, and there are two strategies that can be employed: One is sniping smaller pods moving along with large impressionistic lures, something I watched one well known angler do on the day these photos were taken. The same can be done with flies, but it's harder to make a quick shot if you aren't prepared. I'll cover this a bit more in a future post. Another strategy is to cast very tiny bay anchovy patterns into the bigger feeds. There's a level of luck to this since the fish are in such a large cloud of bait and aren't actually singling something out then chasing it down and eating it, but if the school is tightly packed enough and up and feeding when you get your fly in them, the odds certainly aren't bad that the fly ends up in one of their mouths.

It was during the days that this was going on that I got some of my only hookups this season, which isn't typically how it works. I usually like it better when there are roving pods, maybe boiling occasionally but mostly not visible. These are hunting fish, and they are often much easier to catch. Of course the fish I did catch on the day I took these photos was roving, I hadn't cast at breaking fish. But it was clear that the bulk of the fish were very keyed on something specific. It was very cool to see but didn't result in the best fishing. The same can't be said for the situation I was met with in the next tunny post. 

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.

Catching Bait

 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, 

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.

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.