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Back From Jersey And Back on the Sound

3K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  juro 
#1 ·
I returned to the Northwest Sunday night. I have never been so wet as I was last thursday in Philadelphia. What a dumper! I had to duck into the Reading Terminal Market and eat until I dried.

Yesterday, I fished Lincoln Park during the morning ebb with only one follow.

This morning, I hit Point No Point at 8am. Five buzzbombers had fish lying on the beach and three had fish on when I stepped into the water. The bite ended before I found my rhythm. The water was full of herring. You could hear them "popping" as they were transported along a ribbon of current. Oddly, I didn't see any sprays or surface slashes. It must have been a pre-dawn bite.

At the slack, I moved on to another beach. A mistake. I made a long walk out to the point for nothing. I should have known when I saw that there were no cars parked at the pullout. Anyway, I moved on to a third beach at the flood and ran into two other flyfishers. Herring were everywhere, except this time, you could almost "feel" their anxiety. They scattered at my passing line, at the shadows of birds, and at the persistent gnawing of their undersides by unseen coho. It was a tough fishery because there was more bait than fish. Any decent coho would have to swim through the schools of bait to find my popper. I finally got one by stripping very very slowly with an occassional "pop." I thought that if I acted as if I were mortally wounded and barely moving, a lazy coho would take advantage of me. Sure enough, a fish of between 8-10 pounds simply glombed onto my popper. He definitely didn't want to work very hard for his meal.

Leland.
 
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#3 ·
Leland - that's good news for the point. Fish counts have made it look pretty lousy. Had a very large king try to inhale a pooper there 2 weekends ago (100 fishermen, 10 fish), and had a nice silver swallow it but choke it back up at Flagler the next day as I tried to set the hook, transfer my rod out from under my armpit and stay standing all in one move.....I love those poppers!

FYI Lincoln park has been producing very well the past 2 weeks.

Jim W
 
#4 ·
I did Lincoln Park on the monday morning after my sunday night return (jet lag got me up at 5am). It was very slow. There were three other flyfishers and an equal number of gearmen –all with no takes, although I had one follow.

On the hookset while stripping with two hands: If you're using a heavy enough tippet like 1x or 0x, keeping pulling on the fish with both hands until you are certain it's hooked well. Then transfer hands and strip before you begin winding slack onto the reel. Oftentimes, you can force the fish to run which takes care of the slack line at your feet. I love playing tug-of-war with big coho on the set (it's kind of modified strip-set).

Leland.
 
#5 ·
Here in striper land, I use the mnemonic "tighten-up" to describe how to handle a grab... tight to the fish first, stripping if necessary before the rod goes up. This applies to one-hand retrieves as well as two-hand.

(Not saying that's what you did, just thought I'd throw that in to the discussion)

Related note - have you guys gotten into stripping baskets yet? When I fished Bush Pt, Fort Casey and the Straits almost a decade ago there were no baskets to be seen - in fact it was rare to see another flyfisher.
 
#6 ·
thanks for the advice Leland and Juro.....I typcially don't fumble as much - it was the second cast of the day so I was totally unprepared....

I've used a basket ever since starting to fly fish a few years back. Based on the fishers I see on the beach it's probaly 50/50 mix - plus or minus depending on the day. I get frustrated with the weeds ruining a perfectly good cast (since they are often rare for me)

I have been collecting those paper tube plastic inserts you found Juro....need a few more ot finalize my basket #2. Right now I have mono loops aqua-sealed into my dish pan basket #1.

Flyfishers have taken a definite hold in the salt here - it seems on work days I see more ff'ers than on busy weekends at the beach! Might point to desire for a quality experience when fishing. I also think we pay more attention to tides and time of day - optimizing time on the water with fish activity. I can't do that as much with my schedule though.

What I love is people watching a 2 handed retrieve with a surface fly - get many people just standing behind me watching for minutes at a time.

Jim
 
#8 ·
It seems stripping baskets are slowly starting to catch on around here.

This year I plan to switch over to them. Mainly because of switching to overhead casting with the arrival of the meiser switch and the CND two handed rods.

Figure I am going to go to a 35' shooting head system and if these rods cast like Juro and Bob have been telling me I will need some kind of line management system. 70' feet of running line will cause a mess on the beach.

So where can I get some of those cones you are using in your stripping basket?

-sean
 
#10 ·
"Tighten-Up," eh? Good term. It's exactly what I do.

I'm too old a dog to use a stripping basket.

As a consequence, I've developed some wonderfully bad habits to compensate for my line drifting away from me. I have an extremely violent double haul that pulls line off the water as well as loading the rod. I also judo chop the slack line off the water and uptide of me as it shoots out the guides. Lastly, I raise the rod high into the wind to get as much distance as possible (this also serves to simultaneously whip seaweed off the loop).

Young children should never be permitted to see me cast.

Leland.
 
#11 ·
How much sleep are you willing to sacrifice? I think we can get you into some fish, but it will involve at least an hour drive to get quality fishing unless things have begun to pop in the hahbah (harbor).

Surf_Candy said:
on another note - will be in Boston in 2 weeks - are there access points that one could fish that are a taxi ride away from downtown? Won't have a rental car, and most fishing opportunities will be early am or evening.

Thanks!

Jim
 
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