Little Neck Bay 2013

I have just started the new saltwater season in Little Neck Bay this weekend.
I didn't have any luck.
I guess it was still a bit cold.  However, I enjoyed casting the flies and swinging the rod after a couple months of hibernation.

I didn't see any fisherman except a lure fisherman passing by me when I was walking to the parking lot while he was heading to the back of the Bay.
He said to me, "They are here!!"
I am not sure of it. But I am sure the striper season will be in full swing next week.

 Somebody  left a curious piece of art work by the Bay. 

Steve Farrar's Flash Blend Fly

 The top fly is last year's 8-inch yak hair  bunker  with EZ body head which weighs 5g.  The new ones (middle and bottom) weigh only 3g.

My new saltwater season will be coming in a week or two.      
I have prepared some new flies.
Since I am a budget fly fisherman, I don't use many kinds of material for tying.
But when I saw the video of the mullet fly tying with the SF flash blend in YouTube, I was very
impressed by this material forming the bulky body fly so quickly and easily.

I ordered several different colors of SF Flash Blend online to add to my few lists of the saltwater fly material.

This material is so light and voluminous that one can make bulky flies easily with less material.
These qualities are what I have been looking for.
In the YouTube video, eyes were glued to the body directly.
But I am not sure whether this way of attaching the eyes is durable enough or not.  So I use pieces of clear plastic as the eye bases and tied them on the hook shank.

Last year's early spring, I saw a lot of  bunker activities in the Little Neck Bay and it will be my early season striper fishing spot.
If bunkers appear again like last year, I will use this new fly.
Let's see.

Install Sic Rod Guides

Last season I found the stripping guide of my 10-weight 15-foot two-handed rod had a crack on the ceramic ring.
As a off-season project, I decide to replace all the guides.  I have used this rod in the saltwater for several years, so it is about time to get new guides.
After I had bought a 13-weight 16-foot rod two years ago, I intended to use the 15-foot one as a backup.  But I use the 15-foot quite often because the 16-foot is inconvenient in certain fishing area.

Sic guides are used on the tip top and stripping guides of the 16-foot rod, so I know Sic guides are strong and good.
During my research on rod guides in the internet, I come across some interesting conversations among surf casting fishermen who want to cast farther distance.
In one of the forums, a fisherman says he prefers Sic guides because he won't hear any noise when the line is running through the guides.  If other guides are used , he can hear noises.
I am kind of fascinated by how much these fishermen care about guides and the research they do to find better guides.     

I would say most fly fishermen are not so serious about their rod guides, myself included,
until I come across this site:
http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/forum/index.php?threads/single-foot-sic-guides.10225/
Of course some fly fishermen do know how rod guides can make a difference.

I want to have the experience of  a rod with all Sic guides because I do care a lot about the casting distance in surf fishing.

I have just finished replacing the guides of my 15-foot rod with all Sic guides.

 

Little Neck Bay (III)

I fished at the Bay again early this morning and caught several schoolies.
They were all small.
I felt I had gotten enough of them.

I usually don't reel the line when a fish is hooked.
I continue stripping the line and land the fish, especially a small one.
I cannot reel in the fish because when the fish is hooked, usually at that time the long running line has already piled up in the stripping basket.
If the hooked fish is big and strong enough to pull all the running line from the stripping basket, then I can use the reel.  But it seldom happens.
Most of the time I strip the line to bring the fish in as if the fish and I were playing the "tug of war".


            

  

                                                                                  

Little Neck Bay (II)

This afternoon I fished the Little Neck Bay again till dark and had another productive day.
I caught several schoolies but also missed several.
Many times the strike came when I had striped all the running line and was raising the rod to pick up the shooting line.
It seemed like the fish was waiting for my fly just right in front of me.

I probably can enjoy more fishing in the Bay before the end of the season finally comes.
How nice!

Little Neck Bay

I want to fish the south shore of Long Island before the striper season ends.
The West End of Jones Beach is one of the few public areas open for fishing after Hurricane Sandy.
So yesterday I went there, but I was skunked.
I felt that was it, the end of my striper fishing season.

Today was warm and nice.
So I went to the closest fishing spot from my home,  Little Neck Bay, without much expectation.
The bay is a famous fishing spot for early spring striper, but not for other season.
I figured that I would be happy just to practice spey casting, overhead casting, etc with my long spey rod.
As it turned out, today was quite a productive fishing day.
I landed two schoolies.

Oh boy!  The season has not yet ended.

Central North Shore, Long Island

Because of Hurricane Sandy,  my usual fishing spots in Gateway National Recreation Area: Jamaica Bay area, NY and Sandy Hook, NJ are closed.

Last weekend I went to find fishing spots in Central North Shore, LI and got a schoolie in one of the bays. I even missed a big one which broke my tippet. I must say I had an unexpected lucky day.

I wish those people who were devastated by Hurricane Sandy recover really soon, so do my fishing spots.

Salmon Fishing - Pulaski, NY

We went salmon fishing in Salmon River of upstate New York last Saturday and Sunday.

There were not many salmons in the River.
One of  the two fly fishing only sections where we always fish, was closed.
As a result, fishing became very tough.

My wife got a few bites and hooked one, but failed to land it.
I also got a few bites and barely landed one.  I would admit it was pure luck.
What happened was someone upstream hooked a nice size salmon. He fought with the fish for several minutes, but the fish was finally off-hooked. It swam to the spot where I was fishing.
I hooked it in just a few casts and landed it.

We go to Salmon River in Pulaski every fall.
We always have fun and exciting moments in the whole salmon fishing experience.

However, this year was the least fun we have ever had.  In Sunday morning, we even felt miserable fishing in the non-stop pouring rain.
Let's hope for the better next year.

    

Breezy Point

My trout fishing season is over at the West Branch of the Delaware.
I have been to Breezy Point a few times and haven't got any decent fish yet.
Yesterday I was at Breezy Point jetty, a fisherman told me there was "a bunch of albee" around earlier.
But I only caught some sea robins.

The October insanity of Montauk seems slowing down.
The stripers have begun heading west.
I am looking forward to the arrival of the fall run here.  

Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River (No.2)

The East Branch of the Delaware River

The West Branch of the "D" is considered to be the best trout fishing river in the east coast.
One of the reasons is that there is quite a bit of possibility for fishermen catching 20+ inches trout with dry-flies.
Even though I didn't catch such a "big shot" last week, I have to say fishing here has better days than some good days in other rivers.

I'd like to talk about a funny experience I had fishing in the East Branch of the "D" with my wife several years ago.         

We were drawn by an article on Fly Fishermen magazine which said we could fish large trouts with dry-flies when a lot of Green Drake hatched during the two weeks period in spring time, and these large trouts would surface to eat them.

Green Drake Fly (tied several years ago) 

To prepare for the trip, I spent a lot of time tying fancy Green Drake flies.  

When my wife and I arrived at one of the pools of the East Branch of the "D", many fishermen (even from Canada) had already lined up from the head of the pool to the end - they probably read the same article. We had no choice but to squeeze ourselves to the end of the line.  All of us were waiting motionlessly for the Green Drake hatches and spinner falls till dark, but Nothing Happened!  Everyone was very disappointed. We were in the water for about two hours.  

I remembered hearing a guy said, "What the hell are we doing here?" while he was leaving.  We also left, so did other fishermen.

After this trip to the East Branch, I returned there a couple of times without much luck either.
On the other hand, fishing the West Branch is challenging, but I have great fun.

I have made one more video of last week's trip. Please enjoy.

      

                             

Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River

I fished the West Branch of the Delaware River for five days last week.
The weather was good most of the days except the first day which had some scatter shower.
But it turned out to be the best day for fishing as fish was the most active.
As the days went, fish became less and less active, so did the insects.
I had to spend the whole day wandering around the River and searching for rising fish, and yet not much luck.

In the evening of the second day, by chance I found a spot in the middle of a huge pool where decent size fish came up every evening after other fishermen had left, and I was the only one staying behind.
This spot saved my days. I could catch 2 or 3 around 15-inch fish there in the last half to one hour before dark.
I caught most of the fish in this spot than any other places.

The largest fish I caught there was a 17-inch brown with my iso dun, and it was also the last fish of this trip.

 My extended foam body Isonychia Dun and Spinner Fly:

 I especially tied these large flies for this fishing trip.
 Iso is supposed to be in season now in the Upper
 Delaware River.
 It took me a lot of time to tie each of them. Imagine
 I had to tie several.
 The point of these files are:  they are unsinkable
 because of their foam bodies.
 I must say my effort was paid off by catching the        
17-inch brown, the largest fish of this trip.

 Delaware Isonychia Mayfly

End of Trico Season - the East Branch of the Croton River

                                                                                             Phoebe Hole                                                                                                                                   

It was the third time we fished the Trico hatch in Phoebe Hole last Saturday morning.

Though the presence of Trico and other bugs had become less,

we could catch some fish.

Obviously the Trico hatch season will be over soon.

We didn't experienced any exciting fishing these three times.

I wonder we might have more interesting fishing if we had come earlier for Trico dun.

Trestle Pool used to be a popular place for fishing Trico hatch, and I experienced such good fishing long ago, but we didn't see any Trico in Trestle Pool these three times.

Well, Trico season will be about end for us.    

      

Trico, Black Caddis and tiny BWO - the East Branch of the Croton River

We went to the East Branch again last Sunday morning to fish the Trico hatches.
In this morning there were more other bugs, besides Trico, than last week.
Especially a lot of Black Caddis were flying just above the water.
We were able to use similar flies to catch some fish.  It is fun to catch fish with Caddis flies because for the past few weeks we have been using tiny flies (midge and BWO).
When Black Caddis had gone, we fished with Trico Spinner flies.

In the afternoon we fished under the bridge at the junction of Brewster's East Main Street and Route 22.
Fish was eating really small BWO mayfly. My smallest imitation was #26.
These trouts couldn't be easily fooled by #26 and 7X.
We were kind of frustrated.  
I think I will try to tie the #26 BWO with less material to make it low profile instead of tying with smaller hook.

Trico Spinner

Blue Wing Olive Dun

Trico and Ant - the East Branch of the Croton River

Phoebe Hole in the morning.

We started earlier than usual last Saturday to fish the Trico hatch and its spinner fall in Trestle Pool of the East Branch of the Croton River.
Trico hatch and its spinner fall were something special I was looking forward to because this tiny mayfly can bring up large fish to the surface of the water.  Many years ago I enjoyed such a feeding frenzy experience.

But when we got to Trestle Pool,  there was nothing
going on, no bugs or rising fish.
So we moved on to the bridge near the dam of the East Branch.

She always has a good time in Bathtub Pool.

My wife fished in Bathtub Pool upstream of the bridge.  

I went to Phoebe Hole - about 200 yards downstream from the bridge - to search for Trico.
On the way I saw some Trico flying back and forth over the river.
It seemed to be enough Trico to make a good spinner fall although it had no comparison to the one like powder snowfall which I witnessed many years ago.

In Phoebe Hole a lot of fish was rising and that was what I was looking forward to.
So I rushed back to the bridge to tell my wife.

We finally fished with the Trico.

Trico spinner in Phoebe Hole

 

I caught a brown with a Trico spinner fly right away.  But that was it with the Trico fly.

Nevertheless, my wife struggled with the Trico fly.

I wandered if my Trico fly imitations were good enough for these picky trouts in the Hole.
We managed to catch some with other flies.

We went back to Trestle Pool before lunch.
This time some tiny BWO mayflies were on the water.
We caught a few fish by matching flies with the BWOs.
But one particular fish didn't take any of my flies no matter what.
So my wife said, "how about ants."
I also came up with using an ant fly because I saw an ant on the water.
After changing to an ant fly, I immediately caught this finicky brown.

What a good fighter it was!!  I enjoyed a lot.

After lunch and some rest, we fished in Trestle Pool again.
Then towards early evening, we went to the bridge near the dam.
My wife fished around the bridge and
I went to Phoebe Hole again.
Fish was eating tiny BWOs and something else.
I got a couple of fish.
As evening approaching, bugs and rising fish became less and less, so I was getting ready to leave.
But before leaving, I hit on the idea of why not trying an ant fly.
With a few castings, I hooked a 16+ inches  fat  
                                                                                       rainbow. It snatched the ant fly with a splash.
                                                                                      This rainbow was the biggest I ever caught in
                                                                                       Phoebe Hole.

                                                                                       Ants seemed to be the special favorite food for the
                                                                                       trouts today.  Or anytime?

Fishing the Blue Wing Olive Hatches - East Branch of the Croton River

The Resident Heron

Last Saturday we fished under the bridge at the junction of Route 22 and East Main Street in Brewster.
There were a good number of Blue Wing Olive Mayfly Duns drifting in the pool under the bridge and many fishes were rising for them.
I caught two rainbows and one brown.

A Groundhog ??

My wife tried nymphing in the rapid water upstream of the bridge,
but she didn't even get one bite, unlike two weeks ago.
I guess every fish in the rapid went down to the pool to feed on  BWO Duns.  I wonder if such a thing can happen.

We fished in the Trestle Pool in the early evening.
We saw a lot of BWO Duns on the water and fishes were rising quietly on the other side of the stream under some hanging trees.
I continued using the hackle flies, but it didn't work well here.
So we changed to a CDC dun pattern.  It fooled more fishes.

So far we caught only browns in the Trestle pool.  Though they were not large, they were a joy to catch as they were healthy and energetic.

On our way to Brewster, we stopped by The Bedford Sportsman fly shop to buy a few things.
I asked about how were Trico hatches.
Many years ago I had such a great fun fishing in the Trestle Pool during the Trico spinner fall.
The store owner told me that Trico hatches were going on at this time but they had become less in volume in recent years than they used to be.  Let me find out.