Time for every season...

[paumanok]

I had laid my fly rod across the racks on top of my car and was wriggling my wadders down around my knees when this fellow drives up: "You lookin' to take the first striper of the season?"
I always expect to catch fish: I've taken some trout from this river around this time, but no stripers yet.
We talked a bit about how it seemed for a while we might have an early striper season up here on the north shore of Long Island. But after a couple of weeks of tough winds, the water temperature seemed to have stalled in the low to mid 40s. Nothing yet.
There are stripers to be caught, if you're persistent, right through the winter, at the out-flows of power plants, but I've always been reluctant to target such fish. With the stress of fighting off being hooked, that there's so little bait available to them, what's the chance they can reasonably recoup from that? If stripers come into the rivers I fish, it's because they're coming after food. I'd rather wait.
Last time I was out (Monday, the 13th), still no stripers, but... Gulls crowding the sand bars exposed on the ebb. Cormorants flocking in. Egrets and swans working the mud flats at low tide. Ospreys nesting on their platforms. Gentlemen, we are on the verge.
Good fishing to all!

[DarkSkies]

I had laid my fly rod across the racks on top of my car and was wriggling my wadders down around my knees when this fellow drives up: "You lookin' to take the first striper of the season?"

With the stress of fighting off being hooked, that there's so little bait available to them, what's the chance they can reasonably recoup from that? If stripers come into the rivers I fish, it's because they're coming after food. I'd rather wait.
Good fishing to all!

That's a pretty admirable attitude, one of a fisherman and conservationist. A lot of us who fish don't give that a second thought. My take on that is that from my experience, colder water increases the survival rate of released bass as they're better able to re-adjust after being released. I think this might be true if they're bleeding just slightly, though I have no proof.

I do have proof that fish released in warmer water that weren't handled as carefully as they could, a certain % will end up floatiing belly up later. Would be interested in hearing others thoughts on this re: cold water vs warm water release.

I commend you on your consideration for the fish that give us so much enjoyment, paumanok.

[BassBuddah]

ILast time I was out (Monday, the 13th), still no stripers, but... Gulls crowding the sand bars exposed on the ebb. Cormorants flocking in. Egrets and swans working the mud flats at low tide. Ospreys nesting on their platforms. Gentlemen, we are on the verge.
Good fishing to all!

I have not nailed any yet either paumanok. What you described there are some of the things that draw me out there. Soon, gents, soon...

[paumanok]

BassBuddah--I've been filling in the time fly fishing for trout. For the past couple of years I've really concentrated my efforts on the salt. Until a couple of years ago I'd never fished the surf. Had a friend who told me how he and his buddies would load up their trucks with beer and food and head out on the beach; drink and eat till a blitz passed along; make a mad dash to the surf; fish till the blitz passed; then saunter back to the beer and food. Wasn't exactly my cup of tea, so to speak. At that time, mid to late eighties, the only salt water fishing I was mindful of was down on the Keys: bone fish, permit, barracuda. I'd tell my friend of 18" brook trout I was taking in the lower Adirondacks. "Eighteen inches? That's bait!" Then he'd tell me of the forty to fifty pound stripers he was catching out in Montauk. Now, I'd caught my share of hefty fish, cod, salmon, and northern pike; I was impressed, but not sold.
Thing is, I didn't understood the water. It seemed like an interminable expanse of sameness. It was pretty much chuck 'n luck to me. Until the day my brother-in-law invited me out to the bay side of Robert Moses, just east of Democrat Point. He handed me a 10wt Powell fly rod, knowing I was a fly rodder, "Here, use this." Talk about epiphany. All of a sudden I was seeing pockets and rips and currents and seams. There were a dozen guys fishing that stretch catching nothing: tin slingers, pluggers, bait boys. They were all casting out like they were trying to reach across the North Pole. Nada. I cast a yellow 1/0 deceiver across the east to west current to drift into a seam that ran parallel to shore, no more than a hundred feet out. Okay, they were only hickory shad I was catching, but I was the only one catching fish.I would say a bit over ninety percent of my fishing since that day has been fly rodding on the salt. I like to fish. I love to fly fish. Especially in the salt.
On the beaches, flats and back waters on the north shore of Long Island, I mostly use an overloaded nine foot 8wt Loomis with a Konic 4 reel. I've grown very fond of using a floating line. When I'm near an estuary I might switch to an intermediate or sinking tip.
The south shore ocean beaches are another matter all together. Four-, five-, six-foot waves are tough to fly fish. It's not the leisurely fishing of a smooth wave-less flat. On ocean beaches I use an overloaded Albright XX 10wt with an intermediate (sometimes a sinking) line. That's some vigorous workout.
My go to flies are variously dressed deceivers, clousers, half-n-halfs, and snake flies. I like how feathers and hair move in the water, I'm very partial to those materials.
More and more, I'm learning to think 'bait' and not 'flies': 'stunned' spearing, 'burrowing' sand eel, squid 'feeding' among cinder worms or rain bait. I've got to say, though, I do worry sometimes. I think I might be taking it to extremes. I was fishing a sand eel pattern along a seam at the mouth of the Nissequogue, trying to tumble it along, like it was trying to make it over to slower water but was trapped in the current. I found myself muttering--not "Come on, fish!"--but "Don't eat me! Don't eat me!" I don't know, maybe that's going to far. (I did take six stripers off that seam.)
Where do you do most of your salt water fishing, Buddah? What gear do you use? Are you partial to any particular patterns, or materials? Day, or night fishing--any preference? I'd be interested to hear.
Tight lines.

[DarkSkies]

Paumanok, I read that post and felt like I was right there as you were fishing. I wanted to stop working and go out fly fishin!

Your level of experience sounds like you could write for a saltwater fly magazine. If you ever come to NJ, I would be honored to show ya around, and maybe I could give the fly rod a try. Great descriptive writing here!

[DarkSkies]

All of a sudden I was seeing pockets and rips and currents and seams.

There were a dozen guys fishing that stretch catching nothing: tin slingers, pluggers, bait boys.

They were all casting out like they were trying to reach across the North Pole. Nada. I cast a yellow 1/0 deceiver across the east to west current to drift into a seam that ran parallel to shore, no more than a hundred feet out. Okay, they were only hickory shad I was catching, but I was the only one catching fish.I would say a bit over ninety percent of my fishing since that day has been fly rodding on the salt. I like to fish. I love to fly fish. Especially in the salt.

"tin slingers, pluggers, bait boys" Parts of that passage sound like they could have been written into a Mickey Spillane novel.