5/26-28 Shelter Island and Sag Harbor

[Tuna]

(Meant to post earlier but Internet connection at work, which I glom for this stuff, kept timing me out of logon).

The flats around Shelter Island and Sag Harbor had more bait on them (mostly very small sand eels, but some larger spearing as well) and with it some more bass. They weren't real active yet, but their numbers led to enough hits lead to some fine days of fishing.

Friday was the best, with a lot of fish showing around Sag Harbor/North Haven shores. I saw lots of 8 to 10 pound fish but could not get any to hit (did get some maddening turns, follows and even open mouth/immediate spit out). But the 4 to 6 pound bass were hitting now and then on small clousers (chartreuse and light brown). Near the end of the day I switched larger (2/0 chartreuse half and half) and got better action. Picked up 3 early at Nichols Point, Shelter Island that day also.

Saturday and Sunday there was less sun and less bass visible on the flats when there was sun, but continued to get reasonable shots at fish and some hookups. Sunday provided just 2 hours of sun, but I did manage to get 2 of the larger bass to hit the half and half. One hit in about a foot of water and, instead of the usual head "wag" a good size bass often provides when first hooked in shallow water, this fish jumped and then took off fast. Only ever had one other bass jump when hooked - probably watching too many blues in its youth.

As more bait gets onto the flats, looks like June will provide some nice fishing around the area.

Gonna try Westport Ct, guided with my younger brother, Saturday morning. Looking forward to seeing what the flats look like there, even if the bass aren't on them in force yet up there. I saw the area visiting my brother over the winter, and it looks great. Stopped off at the Orvis shop and saw a map and couldn't believe the number of spots which looked like would make good flats areas.

[CaptRalph]

Tuna (peter),
Your making me get weak in the knees, I want to hear more.
Ralph

[Tuna]

Captain Ralph:

I got your email about your brushes with the flats. You referenced sharing poling duties with a friend, or anchoring at the edge of a flat, but that one or the other is not always possible, so you don't get to do it that often. I can relate to that as...

It can be like watching a comedy seeing me flats fish, as I have a 22 foot whaler (not exactly what you call a classic flats boat, although its great for rough weather during the fall run) and often fish alone, as I did over the Memorial Day weekend. This generally results in (all of which occurred over the weekend):

1) Watching me have to get out of my boat because I have drifted onto such shallow water that it won't budge until I am out of the boat (happened once on the sag harbor shore Saturday).
2) Watching me try to scramble to put the poling pole down to grab the fly road having seen a large bass while I was poling (happened at least 10 times over the weekend), leading to...
3) Hearing me swear repeatedly because, of course, that fish is now out of range.
4) Watching me try to power off the flat while I have a fish on and am about to drift on top of a mean rock structure six inches from the surface of the water (although last year's version of this, trying to pole off while I have a fish on, was funnier... but it never worked - I'll now only use this approach if I am sharing the flat with another fisherman and don't want to spook the fish);

This list, of course, does not include the obvious things that happen on a flat to anyone, which includes:
1) No, stupid, it wasn't a big rock - look, now that you have drifted near it, that big rock is moving fast and looks remarkably like a 10 pound bass.
2) Great, you pulled your fly out of the water for a second cast just as the da%^ fish started to lunge for the fly and now, with the fly out of the water, the fish keeps speeding towards the boat until, of course, it spooks at the last second.
3) Great cast to the fish you saw... too bad you lined the 4 other fish closer to you and spooked all 5 of them.
4) I can't believe the shadow from my fly line made that fish spook, and...
5) The bass is following, its got its mouth open, better strip strike before it spits it out... too late.

Anyway, despite often looking funny trying to do it on my own, and getting a high refusal rate, I try to flats fish as much as I can before the fall season because I love the visuals. There's nothing more exciting than seeing a bass turn to the fly and open its mouth and take it.

There were lots of visuals last weekend, although Friday gave me the most sun and best shots. Got lucky before 9 am (which is too early for good sun angle) at Nichols Point because the bass I saw were over totally plain sand between rocks and weed bottom. There weren't a lot of fish, and its a very small flats area, so after 3 lucky hookups I headed to the Sag Harbor area.

There I saw many more fish, and more of the 8 to 10 pound class fish. It can be a bit frustrating to have a lot of refusals, and I had at least 10 good size fish turn to the fly and then decide against it. But there were a number of pods of 3-5 fish (always a better chance than a single as long as you don't line the ones you don't see) and a few deeper gulleys in the flats that held really big pods (some 10, one pod at least 20) where even if you do spook the fish, at least one is likely to turn and hit. I also got some success at singles with lucky casts.

In retrospect, only thing that would have made Friday better is if I had brought my wading boots or had been willing to wade without them. I really wasn't expecting as good action, so I kept clowning around on the boat instead of getting in the water with the fish. Although wading reduces the angle of visibility considerably, there were a lot fish on real shallow water and they definitely don't spook as easily from wading fishermen than one in a boat.

Saturday had sun and clouds, so I saw and caught fewer fish.

But I had two fun experiences.

One was, under clouds, seeing a bass swim by a foot in front of my boat and getting lucky casting where it was heading and hooking up. It was only about 4 pounds, but it fought like crazy. The fun part was hearing five people clap from their lawn chairs when I landed it (I haven't seen another fly fisherman in the area yet, and it seems to shock the folks who watch from shore that bass can be taken in 2 feet of water 5 feet from their front lawn).

The other was one of my few try sight casting opportunities and listening to a father on the beach trying to explain to his son that, yes, he guessed there were some fish in shallow water near where they swim.

Sunday only had 2 hours of sun, but it was the only day I took larger fish. The original report references the jumper - weird and really funny, as the fish landed funny on its side, and was into backing seconds later, almost like it scared itself with its funny side flop landing.

The other big one was a stationary rock which, due to its size, and presence on a part of the flat I didn't remember seeing a rock on, I cast to half heartedly. It was only about 4 feet in front of the boat, on the edge of a drop off into deeper water, so I felt lucky when I saw it slowly raise its head and take the fly in one motion. This one acted a bit more like I expect bigger bass on the flats to act. First, it just shook its head back and forth. Then it real slowly started to run, like it wasn't sure it was even hooked. Wasn't until the 3rd run that it woke up, took off fast and went into backing.

I had a big silly grin on my face after that one.