Eldredge

I just saw that my last report was back in early September. It seems impossible to me that it was that long ago. As I sit here trying to recall all of the fishing that I’ve done since then, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am a very fortunate person. I’m feeling blessed to have done so much fishing in the last month that I am having difficulty remembering it all. The memory failure could be the result of a well worn 50 year old brain, but I like to think it is the result of too much fishing, as if that is possible. I’ve looked back through my pictures to help with my recall only to realize I haven’t been taking enough pictures. What I do know is that all of the fishing I’ve done in the past month has been for striped bass and most of the days that I’ve spent on the water have been taking friends who rarely get a chance to fish. Many of them are novice fishers and all get as excited about fishing as any old salt I’ve fished with. On those trips I rarely ever throw a cast. It’s so enjoyable to watch them catch fish that I find myself working harder to get them a bite than I do when I fish alone.
I’ve also had a few experienced fly fishers on my skiff this past month. Three weeks ago I had Jax McKay and his dad Kevin out for two days. This is Jax birthday striper trip and he is the only one who fishes because that is his birthday gift. At nines years old, Jax is one of the most intensely focused fishermen that I’ve shared a day on the water with. When he’s not wielding his bubble wand or using a critter catcher to scoop up any sort of life form that floats past, he is all business with the fly rod in his hands. While site fishing, Kevin and I were straining our eyes to find a bass for him to cast to when Jax yelled, “Hey, there’s one right there”! Without any prompting from kevin or me, he quickly cast a Crab Pot fly perfectly ahead of the striper, let it sink to bottom, and then started an ever so slow retrieve. That bass scrutinized the fly for several seconds and then sucked it in. Jax hooked and landed it like a pro. It was a beautiful thing to watch. In one day Jax landed 9 stripers and his first bluefish, all on flies that he tied for this special trip. I can’t tell you how many little critters he scooped up but I know he went through a whole bottle of bubble juice.
This past Wednesday I fished from “can’t see to can’t see” with my friend Bryant. We had a great day of striper fishing. We were into stripers right from the get go and after landing a bunch of small to slot size bass we left breaking fish to hunt for cows. Four bass from 32” to 35” were landed and Bryant lost one striper, that might have been 40” long, after a lengthy battle.

Local striper reports have been very good for the past two weeks. We actually have some small schools of baby bunker around too. Old Tom’s been driving the coast on his way to work each morning and he’s seeing surface activity almost every day . Most of the stripers being caught are from small schoolies to slot size with the occasional 30”+. Some fishermen are reporting that they are catching 30 to 50 stripers or more on each outing.

I have one more week of striper fishing to do before I head north to celebrate Eldredge Bros. Fly Shop’s 20th Anniversary with five days of trout fishing. Hopefully, I will have something worthwhile to report.

Jim

I first met James about twenty years ago when his father Matt brought James and his brother Ian into the shop.  James was nine years old at the time. I knew Matt had a reputation as a phenomenal fisherman and years later when I had a chance to fish with him I witnessed something I had never seen. He fished with an effortless nonchalance. It was as if he knew he would catch fish yet he genuinely didn’t really care if he did or not. As the years went on I would often hear stories from Matt about the fishing exploits of James and Ian. The stories seemed fantastic but I knew that they were true. James is now 29 years old and reminds me a lot of his father. When everyone else is crying the blues about how bad the fishing has been, he’ll stop by the shop and in his cheerful mannered way tell us about the fish he’s caught and the flies that have been working for him. It’s been going on for years and has become a great source of amusement for us. A few weeks ago I realized that I had never invited him fishing and decided to do so. We went out on Wednesday and had a great day of fishing! We were into some nice stripers almost from the get go and even had a 4/0 tarpon hook straightened by a fish we never saw. I was fishing my Pollock fly and James was fishing his Lil’ Mule fly.  When I first saw the Lil’ Mule I didn’t expect James to have much luck with it but I was wrong. Stripers love that fly. Late morning the conditions were good for sight fishing so I asked James if he wanted to give it a try. He said that he was up for anything so I told him, “prepare yourself to be frustrated”.  After about 15 minutes on the flats two small schoolies came swimming by and James threw to them. I was thinking to myself “I hope this kid takes rejection well” when one of the bass swam right over and ate the Mule. I couldn’t believe it! A few minutes later the same scenario played out with a bigger bass that ate the Mule. After that James decided to try out a new crab that he tied and almost every bass he presented it to ate it. He landed 7 stripers on his crab fly, the biggest was 30”. Towards the end of the tide he had a shot at a legitimate 45” cow in two feet of water that calmly left the flat after a slow inspection of the crab. Not five minutes later two bass close to 40” did the same thing. James took the rejections with a smile and a laugh, much like his father would do.    

I decided to give site fishing the flats a rest this past week. Instead I fished for stripers the way I have for years, trying to target larger bass. I fished with my friend Catherine and when I finally convinced her to throw the bananas in her lunch box overboard our luck started to change. We caught many stripers from 12” to 16”, a bunch of slot size bass, and 4 bass over 30”. It was a fantastic day of fly fishing! The next day the big cows were still around but much tougher to feed. I managed to land one cow that ¾” shy of 40”.

Jim

As far as sight fishing for stripers goes, I now suck! It was never this way before. I mean, it was hard sure, and I had refusals yes, but I had some love too, lots of love. Years ago I had little stealth. I pushed my skiff up small flooding channels with an old bent oar and then waited in ambush on my mud splattered bow. But when the bass came, they ate my flies. Then I got my first electric motor and I felt like a fly fishing Ninja. Sure, I was limited to 17 inches or more of water but I had silent speed and maneuverability. No flat was too big to explore and even more bass ate my flies. Five electric motors later or several years ago I switched to poling. I felt like I’d reached the height of flats fishing stealth. I could now maneuver in seven inches of water, silently poling shallow sand and mud flats while ambushing and sneaking up on unsuspecting stripers. Stripers that were much spookier than any Bonefish I’d encountered. And yes, they ate my flies and there was much love. This year my stripers have surpassed Permit intelligence. I don’t know how or why it happened. It’s like they’ve learned to perfect hate. They hate my brand new pole, they hate my clothes, they hate my casts, they hate my retrieves, they hate my stillness, they hate my fly lines, they hate my leaders, they hate my knots, and they certainly hate my flies. Flies that for years were established the “go to flies” are now the “hate to flies”.  To add insult to injury, after their intense scrutiny then hateful refusals, they immediately go on their sides and eat something natural. They don’t stop to study the natural, they just passively eat it. WTF!!! I know that I’m not alone because other sight fishermen have been in the shop to share their stories of feeling the hate. Tiny crabs to big crabs, all shades of olive or green crabs, shrimp patterns, tiny to small to medium size baitfish imitations, land it on their heads, lead them by 20 feet, slow retrieve, fast retrieve, no retrieve, it doesn’t matter. If the water is no deeper than three feet these stripers take on a new persona. There is no shortage of shots. From my bow, on a good day, I can see them coming from a hundred yards away. In our crystal clear water I can count their stripes at thirty-plus yards. On a decent day I might get 20 or more shots at them. Lately, that would mean 20-plus hateful refusals.  Pole off the flats and blind cast into a bit deeper water with the same patterns and I’m hooked up. Blind casting could lead to redeeming my sanity and sight fishing might entice me to hate, but for now this is a puzzle I’m enthralled to solve. I just need a little love. 

Jim

Flats aside, the local striper fishing has been very good lately. Fishermen that have been in the right place at the right time are using the word “epic” several times in the telling of fishing stories. Reports come in every few days of large surface feeds from south and north of our shop. Huge numbers of small to midsize herring are in most of our estuaries and river mouths. The last report I had today was of a hundred yard long blitz of schoolies from 12” to 16” slaughtering small herring. The schoolies were reported to be “fighting over a fast retrieved fly”.  Reports of bluefish have been coming in sporadically for a few weeks. Most of those reports are of big blues as heavy as 16 pounds.  Last week we started getting reports of small blues. Local inshore water tempts as of last Thursday were 62 degrees. No solid reports of menhaden yet. Mackerel are still around and so are the squid. I had an on the water phone report from a buddy today. It was really bad reception and sounded like “you wouldn’t believ..........everywhe…….epic………every cast”! That’s all I heard before I lost the connection. I haven’t gotten back to him so he’s either screwing with me while I work or he was into incredible fishing. Knowing him as I do, I’m leaning toward the latter. Good luck on the water!

Jim