Montauk Tackle Company Fishing "T"

Two pieces of fishing apparel that I consider essential for rounding out my fishing arsenal are a lucky hat (aren’t all fisherman superstitious?) and a great long sleeve tee-shirt; a technical “T” as those anglers in the know refer to them. I have a clothing dresser full of those shirts. That all started with my days fishing in Alaska where my wife would comment that all the fish in the photos looked the same and I always had that same dumb (she meant lucky) hat on. All of my Long Island-based exploits were always met with the same reaction, so I needed to differentiate from among the fish in the photos. My solution to the dilemma: different fishing T-shirts. But now I have acquired a shirt by the folks from Montauk Tackle that is so good all I want to do is wear it on all my trips. You can well image the confusion that will once again create with my fish photos. I can hear it now, “How do I know that isn’t the same fish in all those photos. You are always wearing that same green tee-shirt.” Yes, I am guilty! Truth be told I’ve worn the Montauk Tackle “T”on fifteen consecutive fly-fishing trips this spring. That shirt, my lucky hat and some terrific sand eel flies did a number on early season stripers, and I simply refused break up the outfit. I was afraid not to wear the shirt for fear of also breaking the good spell that I was under. Actually, I was wearing the tee so much my wife had to remind me to… “take it off and wash it before it stands up on its own." She was right but so was I since the shirt even in its unwashed state was the most comfortable, durable and functional fishing tee I’ve worn. The Montauk Tackle “T” shirt wears well, does an excellent job of wicking away perspiration and washes nicely (I eventually gave in) with virtually no shrinkage or color fade. I will be inclined to wear it throughout the entire spring months, cool summer mornings and in the fall. All in all it is a very fine product, competitively priced, starting at $24.00. For further information you can check out the tee shirts and the entire line of outstanding Montauk Tackle products at MontaukTackle.com

Oh, one final thing, my solution to the inevitable, “That’s the same shirt in all the photos, so how do I know it isn’t the same fish?” is to buy one “T” in all the colors they offer. That should do it!

Productive Spring Stripers

This spring’s productive fly and light tackle fishing continues at a strong pace. Solid reports filtered in throughout the entire week with no signs of the action letting up. If anything, the way the bait is shaping up should signal even better fishing days ahead.
This week alone bass were found sipping sand eels, chasing spearing, chewing on bunker and herding massive schools of porgies to the surface. The porgie-fest occurred in the Sound and anglers lucky enough to be there when it came off were treated to hours of aggressive bass to twenty pounds smashing top water plugs. Now if that action doesn’t set the stage for some fast paced fly and light tackle fishing nothing will. Most of my time on the water this past week was around evening and early morning tides with some decent results with bass and blues. The highlight of those outings was during the weekend while I was roaming around a north shore beach during an early afternoon tide. With fly rod in hand I was picking away at bass on a sand eel pattern. On the way back to my truck I stopped at one last spot and tied on my hybrid ‘Creature Fly. My fly must have landed at precisely the right spot and at the right time since four fish ate it on four consecutive casts. Two of the bass were over 35-inches. On the Boga, one was 18 pounds, the other 16 1/2 pounds! The last of the four hit like a freight train and after more than fifteen minutes of tug-of-war, I got to see it. It was a bit more than the size one hook cold handle. The fish rolled on the leader and it was bye-bye. Best bass of the day! But at least I got the best of it. Sometimes it just pays to try one more spot! And I am definitely tying up a few more of that pattern! Stay tuned.