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.