Blue fish showed up and feed hard on the large pogies, then we would find them schooled up on flats near the edges of eel grass beds and warmer mud. Blues being blues are always willing to eat a fly if there not spooked, Tim did a great job keeping his body and cast low and droping the line light in some skinny water to get the eat.
This Fish Was caught by Jerry Gibbs who is also taking the Photo in Late June of 2008, Bigger fish had moved in the bay feeding hard on pogies then drifting around the warmer flats to digest. This fish ate the fly in about 18 inches of water about 200 ft from deep water, Jerry had fun with that fight!!!!
Flats fishing report for Striped Bass: Capt Eric Wallace
From Maine to Cape Cod Bay there are both big flats and small shoreline pockets that offer good skinny water fishing, and big tides that average 8 to 10 feet. The coast from Chatham, Massachusetts to Long Island, New York offers the same type of water but smaller tides, only 2 to 4 feet or so. Only Long Island has tide ranges up to 7 feet.
The bigger the tides the faster fishing conditions will change. In locations with a 2-foot tide a flat might be fishable for the entire day; a flat with a 10-foot tide will be most stable around low tide, sometimes for several hours. Once the strong flow begins be prepared to move with the flow so as not to get trapped by the rising water when wading.
An early incoming tide will be the most productive in many locations. Stripers feel more at ease and as the flats cover there is food like dead sand eels, clams and crabs that are easy targets for stripers. This is especially true where tides are biggest. However, a falling tide in places that trap baitfish along edges and inside basins and drainage gullies can be excellent, too. Small creekmouths attract fish on a falling tide and they move upstream into the creek in search of food as the tide rises. Some small creeks are crystal clear and will remind the trout angler of Western spring creeks. Generally, big-tides mean a short fishing window.
Sand eels are the best baitfish for northern flats because they burrow and remain in the sand on dry flats through low tide. As water returns, some baitfish die and lay on the bottom. A flat where you see dead sand eels at low tide could be a hotspot, so stick around. Crabs are numerous on all flats and both crabs and shrimp are abundant inside creeks and estuaries. I do very well with a sparse, white Deceiver, and an epoxy sand eel fly made with purple Fluorofibre over cream Fluorofibre with some flash. Tie these flies 3 to 5 inches long. The lady crab, or calico, is a very important food source in the shallows; a reddish Del Brown Crab Fly is a good match for these. Any light tan bonefish fly 1 1/2 to 2 inches long will match both the common shore and sand shrimp that live on the flats inside most estuaries. And lightly weighted 3- to 4-inch Clouser Minnows in tan-and-white or olive-and-white are also very popular.
Top times for sight fishing are from mid May through early July. Then you can depend on good sunlight and the lower water temperature brings hungry fish onto the flats and into the creeks to feed. Some of the colder water locations from northern Massachusetts to Maine can have good sight fishing into August. In September and early October big flats might hold fish at times but the light is not as good as in summer. The key to good daytime fishing is cool water and abundant food sources.
In the spring there are places when you can sight cast and catch large numbers of smaller stripers, but the real fun begins when casting to big stripers. You will earn each fish, and you will remember each one long after the memory of a 20-fish day has faded.
Copyright Coastal Fly Angler Maine Saltwater Fly fishing Guides and Reports With Capt Eric Wallace.
5 comments:
Sweet Fish!
Any luck in Broad Cove? I saw a ton of Pogey's schooling with only a few large splashes. Tide was on it's way out and the sun was setting. water was 57 degrees. No love
Tough few days this week. I've been chops to the mouth on K'bec. Sasanoa and Hockamock. Sm Pt, New Meadows, Ragged, Quahog. Harraseeket and Royal mouth. Like everyone's saying, big schools of pogies, which are very cool to see, but no one underneath. Plenty of mackerel everywhere.
Water temps 61 at Ragged, 68 upriver of Bath, 64ish generally in normal spots.
Very few stripers. No sign of blues.
This is weird. What is up?
Guys are you fishing like like a normal June or Early July - Chasing or looking for birds and surface feeds good luck, I'm not seeing them either. But the deal is there are a lot of nice fish around showing them selfs at low tide and early AM, The brit herring is hanging in the grass on the mudflats and the stripers are having there way with them when needed, In the last 6 day we have boated 16 fish over 25 and the largest 37 I'm not going into detail on where on a public form as many guides from other areas are showing up in Casco Bay running around and I rather not discuss where I fish you can always call me if you what more details, but my biggest suggestion is to start fishing like it's August try the stops you fish in late season slow down look into the water not at the surface and you will find fish in lower Casco Bay, to the North still very very slow I'm told by some very good anglers.
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