Flats fishing this Sunday....

[Defeatist]

Going out at first light with a good buddy of mine on his skiff this Sunday. Will report with the damage, and what the deal is. Should be pretty good but you know how fishing goes. Will be down the cape the last week of the month with him again chasing stripers on the flats in his boat again. Maybe we will make a photo album of screaming reels and good times.....more to follow....Looking forward to trying out my new Rio Outbound line, seems really good, I will give some feedback on that as well. ;D

[Troutbum from Griswold]

Good luck Rich. I am making 1-2 day trips in July to Monomoy Island. Will take the Rip Ryder over. I think I am even going to drag Torrey to the salt! Look forward to hearing your report. I will be hitting the salt this week so report will be posted.

[Defeatist]

let me know when you plan on going, I may go there myself. I have a place there in Chatham, and always welcome a fellow pal to stay (schedule permitting). I am going to be down there the last week of the month (june), with the same buddy and his flats boat...only exception is we are going to be fishing some lesser known flats with less traffic.....will report. Like I said, let me know when you are going, I just might be able to meet you there, and better yet offer up some free room and board....

[Defeatist]

Sorry for the late report. The Mouth of the CT was very slow, one 8 lb bluefish and a few manhole cover sized boils and that was it. Hindsight is 20/20, and its easy to monday morning quarterback the deal, and we should have probably gone with our gut and hit our other spot, but oh well its fishing. I will be heading out with Kevin again on Friday for some flats sight fishing, and will give some reports on how we did.

[Dave]

Hey Rich, do you know of any hot spots for blues or stripers out of Hyannis? My family has a house up there, and I've had moderate luck out of Bass River, but nothing astounding. Regarding fly fishing from the shore, where would you recommend?

[Defeatist]

I would take out a map of the area and look up the beaches there, I know that guys have good luck on the Brewster flats, and the mouth of the bass river. But if I wanted to do some sight fishing, I would head over to the Harwich/Chatham area, go to the Monomoy/Morris Island refuge and pay the 8-10$, hop on one of the seal and bird boats like the Rip Ryder and fish monomoy all day. Or if you want to explore more, you could head up into Orleans, Wellfleet and Eastham and hit Coast Gaurd beach, Nauset (which can be awesome, had one of my best hours of nonstop bent rods there once). Or just follow the route 6 all the way up to the end and fish any of the beaches along the way. The Pamet river area can be good also, I believe its in the town of Truro, but I could be wrong, fished that before from the mouth at the beach.

The best piece of advice I can give you is get a road Atlas for Cape cod and spend some time mapping out routes, and locating beaches and public access. The next thing I would do while you were there is make some contacts with the local shops, conduct your business with them and they will usually be very helpful. I would also get yourself a paper and read up on the hot spots while there, and check the tides. Saltwater fishing from the beaches is nothing like trout fishing in a river, you absolutely have to have forage around the area for the stripers and blues to be there. A beach may fish epic one day and the next be void of fish. Do your homework.

[Troutbum from Griswold]

Rich right. The salt is great but can be a funny beast. Stripers and blues have some behavior similarities to trout but the environments are totally different. There has to be food around for the fish to be present. As long as that is occuring, the fish will be there. However, I have encountered times where the fish do move on or the number of fish decreases in an area despite bait being present. But, rule of thumb is, bait present, predatory fish present. But in the salt, there is a lot of factors. Direction of wind, water temps, tides, types of forage, and even moons. When I started out fishing the salt, it was a little frustrating because you go to a spot and expect to get fish. NOT! Takes time to learn the salt and you want to make sure you learn about certain areas like Rich said. Each area is different and unique in their own way. Bottom line, do your research, read up, and seek out others for info. It takes time but once it clicks, you find that your able to find fish pretty much every time you go out. I was once solely a troutbum but once I discovered the salt, it's never been the same. ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! Tight ones ;D

[Dave]

Thanks guys, a lot of information here. I'll definitely do the pre-outing work before I head out. My first fly fishing was actually on salt water going after small blues off the dock. I'm looking forward to going for bigger game if I can get out for a weekend.

Is there a list of "critical" saltwater flies that you would recommend?

[Troutbum from Griswold]

The nice thing about the salt is you don't have to get crazy fancy and have a million different patterns like with trout fishing. I also believe that could be streamlined as well but anyway. Here are my MUST HAVE flies for the salt in reverse order:

6) Decievers (Chartreuse/White, White, Red/Orange, Red/Yellow,Pink/Chartreuse 3/0 tied 6-8 inches long and 2/0 around 3-5 inches long. Could go smaller but doesn't make sense to me with this fly)

5) Mushmouths in different colors. That is a Dave Skok fly. Can check it out on his site

4) Small crab patterns( tan and or green. Tan is a great color for L.I. Sound. Green is too, I just like the tan. Size 2-6. I like the size of a quarter to a little larger than a fifty cent piece.

3) Sand shrimp patterns( tan. Size 2 around 2 inches long)

2) Simple bunny strip flys. Bunny strip tied on Size 2 and 6 hooks. Olive, white, tan, orange, chartreuse, with pearl body braid.

1) CLOUSERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yellow/Red, Red/ Orange, Chart/White, Tan/White, Olvie/White,Gray/White, White, Pink/Chart. Size 2/0 and #2. These two sizes cover a nice size range of bait fish. Let me repeat. CLOUSERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! Also, tie some sparsly with bead chain. That is a great fly for the flats. Doesn't make a big splash and spook fish. Fish it anywhere fish are spooky.

This will do for you in the salt. I also tie BIG half and halfs but I don't use them unless I am on my friends boat or again, when big bait is or could be present. Great searching patterns. Even little schoolies will hit them. You can also tie half and halfs in any size. I just figured if I have clousers and big half and halfs, no real reason for me to have smaller half and halfs. I do have a few but I don't go crazy with that pattern.

Hope this helps man. All these patterns are what I use and have a lot of success on. Go get em!

[Defeatist]

Dave,
I dont know if you tie, but I strongly suggest tying your imitations with synthetic materials for the salt. There is nothing better in my book for durability and castability if you tie them "right". Sparse is the key, and get yourself a dog brush to brush them out after they get beat up a bit, gets them right back into shape. I will agree with salty that those patterns are all must haves, but my biggest bones of contention with clousers and decievers is after about 10-20 fish they are shredded to pieces and worthless. I dont know about you, but saltwater flies when bought range on the low end from 5$-10+ a piece and if you arent tying them thats a pretty good hit to the wallet every time you grenade one. I am very particular about the materials I use also, they have to breathe and move well and stand up to a pounding from fish and sand. Mirror image, slinky fiber are two great materials that a saltwater guru I fish with uses exclusively and I will follow suit and say that no other synthetic out there is on the same page. I have caught hundreds of schoolies and blues on one fly made of these materials in an entire weekend of fishing. When the pattern got banged up, I combed her out and she was like new. Just some food for thought