Spring is here in full force in New York.
The birds are singing, the grass is growing and the striped
bass are back to New York.
After a long period of fly fishing in fresh water in the
Catskills and New Jersey, I decided to try my luck on our beloved striped bass.
Because I have tied quite a bunch of flies over the Winter I was excited to try
them out at Jamaica Bay where I have heard and read some good reports these
past two weeks.
Had the chance to arrive right on time for the high tide and
fished just the beginning of the outgoing tide. I was fishing from shore and
was patiently waiting to make my first cast when the rip will start flowing.
The great thing of being able to fish for trout and in salt
water is that especially in fly fishing your skills are consistently improving.
What you gain in trout fishing is:
- Presentation
- Stealth
- Positioning
- Reading the water
- Locate fish under different arrays of conditions and light
- Reflex - trout fishing really improve them especially if like
me, like to fish dry fly, sight fishing and wet flies...
All of these are transferable in the salt water world (no
matter what other people say). A good example of this is Lefty Kreh, an amazing
humble fly fisherman as sharp as one can be when targeting a tarpon in the Keys
or a small mouth bass on the Potomac river.
Coming back to my story... So as the tides started to move
out I notice a great current close from
shore forming a great spot for a striped to hunt its preys. I was almost sure
that if a fish was in the area it will be just in front of a big rock under
water so I casted my clouser minnow about 8 yards in front of it, in a similar
fashion as when I fish for trouts with slow sinking nymph. After two mendings,
making sure my fly was not dragging and at the right depth, I did one twitch on
my line and I saw the Striped Bass following very closely the fly. At this
point and instead of striping faster, I just did a micro-twitch on the line
follow by a pause and the striped bass literally engulfed the fly. WOW!
The fight was quite epic because the fish was large enough
to use its mass in the now ripping current and after a great battle I managed
to land it, took a quick picture and released it.
It is not a monster fish by any standard but it is certainly
a fine catch from shore.
See you all on the water.
PAC
