Head East Young Man

The temptation to head “east” was building within me since the week before last, reaching a zenith when I spoke with my good friend, Captain Adrian of Alpha Fishing Adventures about getting together to toss some flies around. We decided to head out to Montauk on Thursday, with the primary objective of exploring for hard tails…albies. As it turned out, Montauk didn’t disappoint and the rips delivered. The bluefish were easy, the bass required some coaxing and the false albacore made quite a showing, yet displayed a very high sense of feeding selectivity. At first, Captain Adrian and I cast various flies to busting little tunny and had many follows, swirls and subsequent rejections. We tried big flies and small flies and all of our personal favorites without so much as a touch. At one point I had tied on every one of my productive bonito and albie flies, to no avail - not one solid hook-up. There was plenty of interest in our patterns but no takers. We were getting quite frustrated by these fish. It was then that my angling partner reached into his fly box and pulled out a very diminutive pattern that he had yet to try. As it turned out, that fly reinforced the old adage that when fishing for albies, a fly’s size and color often does matter. While I have caught albies in the past on large silversides patterns and even large plugs, on this day they wanted none of that. They were keyed in on flies that precisely matched the size, profile and coloration of the real bait they were eating – bay anchovies.
The first retrieve of that newfound fly brought a solid strike and following a few superb runs, we tailed the icebreaker, a solid albie of about 7 or 8-pounds. I continued using a mid-sized hair fly until Adrian’s second cast brought another strong take. Several runs later we tailed the second consecutive albie on that fly. It was then that I decided to grub one of those flies from my buddy and give it a try. Adrian handed over his only other remaining fly of that design and I tied it on. Coming upon a fresh pod of fish my first cast with the day’s magic pattern resulted in an instantaneous hook-up. Adrian hooked up again as well. We were now onto something. We caught quite a few more albies using that fly and kept praying some errant bluefish wouldn’t hit it - the 20-pound fluorocarbon certainly would not withstand their teeth. Fortunately, for the balance of the day, we encountered only bass and albies.
The albies were present in very solid numbers. At times, there were so many sizeable pods of fish around us we didn’t know which ones to approach first. That is a nice fly fishing problem to have! I am just going to have to head back out there again soon to try for the ones we missed. The albies are sure to hang around for quite a while longer. If you’d like to know more about the specific pattern we used, just email me and I will respond.
I called Adrian (Alphafishing.com) on Saturday morning since he was back out at Montauk with a charter. As soon as he answered his cell phone, it was, “Hi Ang, Its AMAZING today! We have been surrounded by acres of busting striped bass and albies all morning. Gotta go, call you later. By the way, my arms are killing me!” Now how do you think I felt about that report sitting at home at my PC writing this blog entry? I was wishing I were there instead of typing at the keyboard. But the good news is this is only the beginning of some great fly-fishing at “The End”! Montauk should see a terrific fall run for fly anglers.

Alaska Silver

Late summer and early fall are two of the best times of the year to fly-fish the great state of Alaska. The months of August through October are a splendid season to chase magnificent silver salmon (coho), large rainbow trout and the elusive steelhead. For me, there is no better time to venture north to the Greatland in search of bright, ocean-fresh fish that ride the last tides into their natal streams. These fish are very receptive to an angler’s flies. Large, wild rainbows fatten up on omni-present and protein-rich salmon eggs. Steelhead begin a period of activity that typically peaks on many rivers in October. And if that isn’t enough, big dolly varden, arctic char and grayling all willingly eat most any egg pattern that drifts their way. The fly-fishing can often be non-stop.
Silver salmon are truly one of this planet’s great game fish. Coho are my favorite Alaska species, since they are very fly- fishing friendly and embody all the traits of a first-class game fish. Any number of brightly colored patterns can be effective for fresh silvers but one of the very best ways to catch these aggressive fish is on top water flies. The once odd but now accepted method for accomplishing this is through the use of hair-bug Wogs. These are typically tied in hot colors such as pink, fuchsia, chartreuse or cerise and orange. The Wogs are tied in a fashion similar to deer hair bass bugs and typically include a tail, some flash and a big tapered head and body. To witness the gaping maw of a huge hook-jawed male silver track a topwater fly is enough to test any fly anglers mettle.
My first exposure to this form of fly-rodder occurred many years back in Western Alaska on the the Kanektok River. This body of water is part of the Kuskokwim draingage that flows into the Bering Sea. It is an exquisitely remote location renowned for its unique strain of leopard rainbow trout, but the area is also well known for its prolific runs of silvers. It was here that I got my first taste of topwater silvers and I’ve never looked back. Since that time I’ve caught cohos in similar fashion from a number of other Alaska rivers. When conditions allow, there is no more fun to be had than catching silvers on top.

B&B...Bonito and Blues

Sometimes you just have to thank the fish gods for bluefish, especially when it gets tough chasing after the local inshore pelagics. The only guy who is happy to see the bonito disperse is my local gas station attendant! The ratio of gas dollars to fish spotted was astronomical. I did find some very scattered fish early last week in a most non-typical area well away from the crowds but they were there for only one day and gone the next. That is why it pays to explore every once in a while. You just never know where the concentrations of “bones” will show up. I am of the opinion that is how it will be until we get another strong push of fish through our area, which could be in a matter of hours, days or weeks. Or it just might be the next tide. While they do show marked preferences for certain areas around Long Island, these aquatic sprinters can cover long distances in short amounts of time as they search for optimal conditions and bait. If you like pursuing bonito with the fly rod my advice would be to keep at it, be persistent and embark upon a journey of discovery! I guess I’ve just been spoiled with a few of the remarkable past seasons but I will still keep looking and casting. Each and every bonito on the fly is a worthy accomplishment!
Despite the relative scarcity of bonito there are the bluefish - lots of them, with many big fish in the mix. As is typical for this time of year the blue bruisers hit everything thrown at them. They put a substantial dent in my large-fly wallet as their huge maws sliced through 40, 50 and even 60-pound fluorocarbon leaders as if they were 6/0 tying thread. But the ones that were brought to submission were well worth the price I had to pay. One double-digit fish jumped so close to the boat that it brushed against the top of the gunwale, and I could swear by the look in its eyes, it had designs on some “vital” areas of my anatomy. That put me on instant alert! These big fish seem to be everywhere right now: western north shore harbors, south shore inlets and bays, offshore, the central Sound and at both forks of the east end. Striped bass are still falling to flies fished in and around structure, mostly in the very early morning hours or well into the night. Moderately –sized to larger flies seems to work best on often reluctant bass. During the daytime, varied size, color and retrieves and at night give those darker-colored flies a try.
The offshore fly-fishing crowd is enjoying some fine big-game fly-fishing with SBFT, mahi and bonito. That action remains solid from New Jersey up through New England.
Now that there is a tinge of fall in the early morning temperatures I eagerly await those cooler days and evenings that will motivate the bass to more regularly visit the beaches within casting distance of the fly rod. Still no meaningful reports of Little tunny (albies) but if that is going to happen in a substantive way, we should see some fish soon enough.