Hard Tails Are Back

They’re back! For those of you eagerly anticipating the arrival of false albacore, the long wait is over. While there have been some concentrations of fish around the Island for a few week, the albies seem to have engaged in an all out invasion this past week, on both shores of the Island and to the west and east. They are strong in Montauk, around Fishers, in the Sound and around Shinnecock. They are still active in the west end and J-Bay has a solid concentration of them. Some of the numbers of fish landed have been impressive. The “Alberts” are tending to run smaller than previous years, 6-8 pounds but they still are full of all the energy any light tackle or fly angler could ask for. I know two anglers whose catches last week would make an entire hard tail season for some. While the albies are gaining in strength, the bonito are the exception in local waters. There weren’t many reports of bones this past week. They still seem to be their strongest along the Rhode Island coastline. Big bluefish are still chomping they way through local bait. I hit upon some nice sized blues cruising right up along the edge of surf and beach. They had that early fall-run behavior about them and didn’t appreciate my flies intersecting their paths! My flies paid the price! In some quadrants of the Island bass are still responding well to flies and artificials and should only get better in the coming weeks. Montauk is just being Montauk and for those of you who throw flies, an entire season can be made out of the blitz days that are happening right now and will hopefully continue right through October.

Where Art Thou Atlantic Bonito

There is slightly better news to report on the “bones” front for this week. Some of the bonito and Spanish mackerel that were tight along the near-New Jersey beaches are reported to have moved into Jamaica Bay. While the formerly steady Rhode Island fish have been an on-again, off-again proposition, and with some good catches one day and spotty action the next, a few pods of “bones” have been encountered in the extreme eastern reaches of Long Island Sound, and even fewer pods more further west. A friend of mine who fishes under the radar managed two fish this week out in areas of the eastern Sound. Reports of bonito in the western reaches of the south shore have been slim to non-existent. It will be interesting to see if those N.J. and J-Bay fish move east along the coast or up into the Sound. There’s plenty of bait around so the fish have options. There have also been bonito and abundant skipjack offshore traveling with the larger tuna so it remains to be seen if those fish choose to move inshore or stay out in blue water. Some of you also asked if I might suggest a rationale for this year’s pattern of local bonito behavior. The short answer is that fish do what fish do, not what we always expect based on prior seasons. A lot of variables affect fish species’ movements: water temperature, weather and winds, availability of preferred bait, water quality, spawning instincts and the element of serendipity…and do they ultimately take a left turn or a right turn in their wanderings. Many of the “bones” in our area seem to be traveling with their other tuna cousins and are mixed in with bluefin, yellowfin, skippies and ablies, all of whom have found good water. You can also find bonito mixed in with bluefish, usually hanging on the fringes, picking off the easy meals. Bonito are also affected by another key element, as are other fish, birds, mammals and anything else that migrates…angle and available amount of sunlight and length of day. That latter element has triggered mass migrations for millennia and presents a bit of a modern day dilemma for local bonito anglers. My best year for bones in the 33 that I have been fishing for them involved a great September run that ran into the first three weeks of October. But there were early fish around that year in August as well. That year also witnessed incredibly large schools of exceptionally large spearing, and from my personal experience and observation that is a preferred baitfish – big bonito love them. But as the days of this season shorten and fish begin to instinctively sense the pending migration, the big question involves timing and whether or not they will still head east only to then head back west. I’ve caught bonito well into November so the game in the central parts of Long Island is still a wide-open one. While all that remains to be seen, my humble guess is that we will still see a reasonable semblance of a run for both bonito and albies in those areas.

Fall in Alaska

Some of the best Alaska fly-fishing can be enjoyed during the early fall months. September and October can spectacular for silver salmon and rainbow trout. And in some locations the latter part of October can be magical with steelhead. The remote tidal creeks of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island can be teeming with late arriving cohos, some of the finest you will find in the state, and some of the best fly fishing you will ever experience. The Lost Coast anchored by the town of Cordova not only yields some of the largest silvers of the Northland but also has a wonderful steelhead fishery. If rainbows are your cup of tea the Iliamna region of Bristol Bay can be magnificent. Byt the Katmai region is a personal favorite.

Inshore "Bones"

It’s time to make your bones? Atlantic “bones” that is. For some savvy anglers this is time to give chase to pelagic speedsters that grace our inshore waters. The first of those species to arrive is Sarda sarda, the Atlantic bonito. As of this writing the bulk of those annual visitors are slightly to our north on the south shore of Rhode Island, on the Vineyard, and south of us along the New Jersey beaches. There are plenty of fish in those locations because there is also substantial bait. Some very in-the-know Long Island anglers have been fortunate to find the first few fish and have also been very closed-mouth about exact locations. But I can tell you from personal experience, they are not yet in all the “usual places”. The best advice that I can offer those willing to search and find bonito is to fill up your gas tank and be prepared to run it dry. Bonito are cruising deeper water in the Sound and off the south shore and have yet to cycle into their more predictable inshore haunts. Since my boat is high and dry at the moment I hitched a ride with a friend and we ran almost an hour before bumping some fish! They were in a place I haven’t found them in years. There are a lot of reasons for that change of behavior but we don’t have room to go into that in this report. I’ll save that for another time. If you’d like to chat about bonito feel free to send along an email.
I took a break from the brine to join my brother-in-law, Ed on a trip to one of Long Island’s hidden freshwater ponds. Despite sweltering heat we managed a number of feisty largemouth and pickerel, and we were treated to a dragonfly mating ritual that just turned the bass on!

The table is set as we await the arrival of some eagerly anticipated special houseguests. Peanut bunker, bay anchovies, rafts of sand eels as well as spearing are in the neighborhood. Now all we need is the first solid showing of inshore pelagics. But this year they just might be delayed just a bit. Reports of one or two fish popping up here or there do not a major run make, but with all this varied bait buffet, it is only a matter of time before the arrival of strange “bluefish” that can’t be caught. Those tough-to-catch- mini tunas will most likely be Atlantic bonito. They too have a preferred water temperature comfort zone and with this year’s cooler H2O my bet is that there will be about a two-week lag from previous years’ full swing run of the early hard tails. In all the years I have been fishing for Atlantic bonito – and that goes back 1975- fish have already hit the decks! So, we need to keep our fingers crossed that they will still make a solid showing. But if all goes according to nature’s grand plan in an odd season we should see some bones, Spanish macks, albies and perhaps even some skipjack move in the area to cash in on all the bait that is in our area. Some fish have already passed us by and are up in the Cape and the Vineyard; to those fish we bid a fond adieu and hope their cousins stop by the Island for a visit. Both sides of the Island receive their annual share of these most coveted of inshore gamesters. That said, there are already fish in the neighborhood so this is the time of year to start prospecting so get out those light spinning outfits and fly rods and hit the water. Small tins, plugs and thin plastics work well on pelagics as do slim Deceivers, Clousers, and any assortment of epoxy baitfish, hair flies, and marabou or rabbit strip flies.

Hosted Alaska Fly Fishing Trips

Alaska is one of the finest fly-fishing destinations on earth. I took my first trip in 1989 and have been on many annual trips since, fishing for king salmon, silver salmon, chums, sockeye and pinks, as well an indigenous species - char, graying, dollies and magnificent rainbow trout. I have a unique opportunity to host a small groups of fly anglers at several remote lodges during the 2010 season. Good fishing in Alaska requires advance preparation to ensure prime weeks for the targeted species. You would be surprised at how many anglers make the mistake of selecting the wrong times for the species they would like to catch and end up verky disapponted. My experiences can help you avoid those costly mistakes that can ruin the trip of a lifetime. If you are interested please reposnd to me at apdotcominfo@aol.com for further details. Thank you. AP

Just One of Those Days

It was a fly-fisherman’s dream day. And what better way to enjoy it than being in the water, wading with feeding fish. While I thoroughly enjoy fishing from my boat or kakay, nothing quite beats catching fish in the surf with a fly rod while immersed in the fish’s element.
I thought about what exclamation might best describe my last few outings with the fly rod. I could simply just say, “WOW”! Or perhaps, “Extraordinary or even “Sensational.” But I think rather than one word the following sentence may do the fishing justice: “Two days of great bass fishing, out of what is some of the best spring striper fishing I have experienced in more than a decade.” And that might be an understatement!
Rewind to the other morning on the Sound. After playing around with some hickory shad and a few small bass I put on the hiking shoes and took a long walk – fly rod in hand. As I crested a high point of land all that came to mind was “Holy Striped bass, Batman!” As far as I could see east and west, bass were slapping on sand eels. Many of the fish were a fly rod cast away off the beach and my pace quickened to meet those rises. The first cast with my favorite sand eel pattern brought a hard strike after three short strips of line. I ended the ensuing tussle with the first of many bass - a solid 35-inch linesides. Time to get serious. I followed those fish up and down the beach for eight solid hours, and they were in a mood to play. I am not sure of the final tally, but it was a lot, including stripers up to 37-inches, and many fish 28-inches or better - all taken on flies. But the best part of the day was releasing them back to rejoin the fracas. The few times the bass got a bit finicky all it took to get them back on the bite was to downsize the pattern slightly and changeup the hackle color combinations. I just alternated between light and dark colors and flies of between three and five inches in length. It was a magic day. I can nly hope that I will be blessed with many more!