New York Metro &
New Jersey

June 11th, 2004

Purists and "Funists"

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Yea man, I love to flyfish…  Of course there’s no more enjoyable way to hook fast into a big fat striper.  And sight fishing for them is an absolute blast.  I’m even a fan of feeding out heavy shooting heads away from the drift, and that intense anticipation that on that next strip there could be a violent pull back.  And those long mean and nasty bluefish…  No better way than to roll a perfect cast to a cruising fin and then the breathtaking boil and strike -- the ensuing jumps and tail-walks.  And albies – forget-about-it…  That line dance and the screaming real…  Nothing could be more unique, exciting and just plain cool.   Yea, before anything else I consider myself a hardcore saltwater flyfisherman.  But there’s something to be said for just plain unadulterated fun… 

Those of you who have ever live-lined bunker know what I’m talking about.  Sure it’s barbaric…  But that’s part of its charm for sure.  Sticking a hook through the nose of one of these vegetarian fish and letting it swim on the surface and watching it get chopped in half by a bluefish, then an enormous striper snatches the other half and starts peeling line off the real.  If you think that’s not fun, or maybe below you, than you’ve obviously never tried it.  In the same respect, if you’re a purist, you might be saying that any dummy can catch fish that way.  Well, that’s absolutely true, and part of the reason we all prefer flyfishing is the unique challenge involved.  If you have the impression livelining gut-hooks and kills a lot of big fish.   You’re right about that as well.  But those with the foresight to use circle-hooks very rarely gut-hook a fish. 

So now I’m going to confess…  I did a little live-lineing today…  A few of my old non-flyfishing friends were in town and we had a great time nailing some pretty large fish swimming 12-inch bunker on the surface.  Does it compare to the grace and beauty, or what some might call art, of flyfishing?  Not even close…  Eating at McDonalds can be fun, but it’s not Peter Lugar’s Steak House for sure.  I guess what I’m saying is that it never hurts to slum every once in a while.  In fact it can be quite refreshing and downright enjoyable.

Yea, I’m not so much of a purist,  I’m a “funist.”  It’s all about fun for me…  Flyfishing is the ultimate, but live-lineing bunker is just fun every now and then.  Fluking is fun as well.  Just like surfing a 10-foot board on 2-foot waves is fun, but hey, it ain’t like surfing 20-foot Wiamaia…  So all you purists out there, I’m recommending deviating from the course for a day or two…  When you go back to flyfishing you’ll most certainly appreciate it more, and you’ll know the size and quantity of the fish that are actually down there.  Be a funist, not a purist…  Because this thing we do is really all about fun…  Let’s all try to never loose sight of that. 

I’m back to flyfishing tomorrow and for the weekend…  And the weather and fishing reports sound promising…  So let’s get on with it!

Southern New Jersey has been offering some excellent sight fishing opportunities and Central and Northern New Jersey have been on fire with some very, very, very large fishing taking flies off the coast (Check out Gene Quigley’s report!).  The New York Bight and Raritan Bay have been fishing fair to good, but the bite has become mostly a morning one as we move into summer patterns.   Plenty of schoolies in the flats in Jamaica Bay and some big bluefish, but certainly not as many as last week.  Some big bass under the bunker schools as well, but as the weather gets warmer, they become tougher and tougher to catch.  The North Shore of Western Long Island seems to be holding mostly schoolies at this point while there have been quite a few bigger fish on the South Shore.  Eastern Long Island blew up this week!  The site-fishing in East Hampton has been just awesome and the South Side has been producing some real monsters. 

Weather this weekend looks pretty darn good…  Go fish!

And don’t forget to email me your own reports. Tight lines all.

Tight Lines!

John McMurray

New Jersey

From the Southern New Jersey Area – Atlantic and Ocean Cities - Captain Bryan DiLeo, fresh from the Keys checks in with this report:

Well, Coming off the Florida keys Tarpon high I must say it was certainly nice to be back on the water again here in SNJ. We had great action all week as we came off the full moon. Throughout the week we had good moving water with big temperature ranges. Water temps. ranged between 73 and 61 and the Bass were on the move in the cooler water and not at all in the warmer as is always the case especially in the spring. Contained with in the cooler water was all the bait you could ask for especially with the newest arrival of the tinker mackerel which is at the top of the menu for Bass in the spring, find the Tinkers and you found the Bass. Each day last week we had a good mix of bluefish in the 3-6. LB range willing to take mostly any artificial or fly worked just below the surface or on top water. As far as the Bass scene goes they too were on the feed in a big way. Good size groups of bass tracking well and could be seen right on the heels of the tinkers allowing us to pole into position offering clients throughout the week good head on shots at incoming Bass. Along with the bass on the flats we also had them tailing several times this week up in the grass foraging on smaller bait due to the higher spring moon tides always a sight to see. All Bass this week were taken on top water for both my fly clients as well as my light tackle anglers alike. It looks like things have finally kicked into gear and with good tides upcoming in combination with the approach of the new moon things should remain on the fast track. 

If you had any doubts about fishing the Jersey Coast this weekend then Capt. Gene Quigley from Shore Catch Guide Service’s report will clear that up for you right away:

John,
 
It is ABSOLUTELY INSANE DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!!! The outer beaches have lit up with Bass and Bunker and it is tilting off BIG Time!! Today I have out Doc John Yavorsky and we had 30 to 50 LB bass busting through bunker all morning. The bait is really thick and there are football field pods of em stretched from Sandy Hook to LBI. We have had some good days with the fly like today with Doc John letting really big bunker flies sink to the bottom and twitching ever so slightly. Fishing the live bait is simply a joke -- guys are catching 40 LB bass on every drop early and late in the day. We are finding that the best time to fly rod these fish are really early in the morning or just before dark when the fish are the most active.
 
Capt. Jim had out Gary Heger in the afternoon and Gary hooked two HOGS that both broke off at the boat. I have yet to see a fish under 25 lbs being taken out of these schools!! What a week of Bass fishing....

Wow!!!

Captain Joe Mattioli from On the Bite Charters reports a Mixed bag in Raritan Bay with Stripers Blues and Weakfish on hand.  Joe has been having success flyfishing with clousers and bunker patterns and spin fishing with bucktail jigs and popping plugs and mentioned that he has dates available.

On the outside, it’s been mostly small bluefish with an occasional bass in the mix.  In Jamaica Bay, we’re still getting a good number of schoolie bass in the flats with the occasional bigger bluefish taking a popper.  Still some big fish are around under the bunker, but they are defiantly tough to get on a fly. 

Captain Brendan McCarthy from Urban Fly Guides checks in from both sides of the Island:

Have been fishing both Jamaica Bay and Gardiners this week, and have been fortunate to have good weather (Not Sunday) and have seen thousands of Bass in the shallows. Fished the last 2 days with Dave Skok in Gardiners and Peconic and as he would say "Slayed" them. first day we fished with Paul Dixon and jsut us yesterday. boated almost double digits for all of us the first day and a bunch yesterday including fed (yet blew) some 20+ pounders. some were real picky but with the Skok fly arsenal we got them to eat everywhere we went. really fun guy and killer angler. not easy fishin for sure but with lots of practice, the coolest (in my opinion) of all fly-casting. had some good days in Jamaica Bay with big blues and Bass in real skinny water. couldn't feed any of the Hawgs yet but with a boxfull of new flies, they don't have a chance.Had Sam Sites a few days from Colorado ( a trout guide and first time salty) had a blast when we didn't raise the rod to strike the fish.Dr. Andy Aig got a nice mix of fish one day. thank got the full moon is over as that current kills you to get on the fish quick enough!! Tim Lord found that out the hard way this week, and had a tough day. the only thing worse than catching Bluefish....Is NOT catching Bluefish.

Permanent snowbird Captain Dino Torino checks in with a report of some great action in Florida:

Hi John
 
  The weather down here has just been awesome. The Albie's are here thick. The biggest on the boat so far is 15 #'s. Most fish have been 8 - 12 #'s. There's been alot of Rainbow & Bluerunner's mixing in. We lost 3 Albie's to Shark's this week. Picked up the new Action Craft on tuesday & ran the beach for 8 mile's to the north & 12 mile's to the south today ( Wed. ) looking for Tarpon. Was realy not the day to be running a flat's boat. We did see 1 bust on some bait.

Western Long Island

From the South Shore Captain Barry Kanavy from Natural Anglers checks in with this report:

Hi John
 This last week was a big one. I am always amazed how hard spring fish
can pull. My clients have been well into their backing doing battle
with some tough fish this week. Not sure why but these Striper's are so
aggressive but I do know one thing, if they can see you fly they WILL
eat it. Good friend Sam Talarico found some time to get out with me
this week, we had a few laughs and some huge Stripers. This is gonna be
a great year. Hope to see you out there. Check your backing, you never
know.
Captain Barry Kanavy
Natural Anglers

From the North Shore, Reel-Timer and outdoors artist Bob Giordano checks in with this quick report:

Unfortunately, I was only able to get out to Huntington Harbor
early Sunday morning and it was a mess to say the least. Gusts to 30 out of the E, NE up here which kept me in the harbor for the morning.  Fished a mud flat on the outgoing in the lee and picked up a handful of schoolies up to 26". The largest fish took two nice runs in 2' of skinny water. Also caught a hickory shad that put on some cool acrobatics. All fish took thinly dressed bead head clouser in Chartreuse. Hopefully will get out to the sound this weekend. Good Luck.

Eastern Long Island

Captain Jim Hull from Light Tackle Challenge reports some serious action on the South Side.  Check it out:

Hey John, We had a salty fly version of Who Killed Cock Robin once again this week. Coming up on a favorite piece with accomplished flyrodder Bill Cox in the bow we spotted a crimped sea robin being mugged by several big bass. In position, he made a perfect 10 o'clock cast into the crime scene and was immediately into a fish that was just south of 45". He went on to land another 7 or so fish with other fish going over 42". On a subsequent trip we had another fish of 39 1/2". George Econs had a good day with 6 nice fish landed. Hawk and Lammers tuft out a hard east wind for 3 fish coming boatside of 44",38 1/2" and 26". Flyrodder Richard Connelly and Michael Delverne had a bang em up day with over 20 fish with an airbourne 42" and a 40" topping the catch. These fish were blitzing on herring and big squid. Taking mature gentleman Neil Conner out tonite on a fatboy trip. Always a pleasure to fish with that fine ol'timer. I'll tune you in with our results next week. Gotta run. Will be spending more time looking down for birds(searobins) than up. Jim                               

Again…  Wow!!!

On the other side Captain David Blinken from North Flats Guiding has been hammering them on the flats and so has Captain Amanda Switzer from Guidelines. 

Peter Chan is also fishing in their neck of the woods and had this to say about the week’s action:

Hi John. I've completed the first 3 trips in the Gardiner's Bay and Montauk areas. The flats had small spearing and sand eels and a steady pick of stripers and blues early on. A bunch of new bass came into the shallows of Gardiner's on Friday. Lawrence picked up a 40 incher. Richard, a 39 incher. Charles found quite a few keepers. These are purplish deep water fish that are part of the migration along the south shore and that turned the corner at Montauk. I think. Water temperatures are still good for big bass, though warm days are coming. This is an incredible season!!!

Salty Flyrodder Joel Filner reports another great Conclave weekend.  Check it out:

The Salty Flyrodders weekend conclave was a blast. Over 140 fish
caught and released, plus five from a boat for a first striper on the
fly attendee. The weather was okay for Thursday and Friday, but by
Friday night the fronts and moon came in with wind to hamper the
flyfishers. Lefty Kreh, the featured guest held court on Friday night
and treated everyone on the lawn, over a hundred and ten attendees,
for most of Saturday. There was a large collection of flyfishers from
Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland as well as a contingent from the
Southern Catskill Anglers to work the water and learn form the
master. We started early on Saturday to avoid the storms, but they
never showed until Sunday morning. Catching was a result of much time
on the water from the bay side to lands end at Orient point. The
winds on Saturday night and Sunday morning out of the east southeast
at 20 to 30 knots were no fun, and actually drove the bait off the
shoreline as well as the bass. Flies that worked were chartreuse and
white clousers, squid flies, red and black, and some medium bunker
patterns. Tons of small shrimp in the water on the bay side and a bit
on the sound with small spearing as well. The expected cinder worm
hatch did not go off as the water was on the cool side. The sound was
at 50 degrees, and peconic bay water was about 55. Wait till next year.

That’s all for this week…  See you on the water…