Striperflats
06-16-2009, 12:45 PM
As promised here is another post on a flats trip taken two weekends ago. Along for the trip were two veteran east end anglers, Alex Powers and Ken "Hawk" Hawkins. It was a clear yet rather hazy day. Our first spot was at the back end of a bay on high tide, where we started seeing fish right off the bat. The water and sand looked like the Bahamas as we encountered two or three schools of medium size stripers and hooked one. The tide slowed and the amount of fish seen began to slow. We cast to more fish at the mouth of this bay, but there just weren't enough to justify staying. We moved to another flat and immediately began seeing fish. At this point we each would catch one and switch, each of us having a turn at the platform and alternating poling duties. We each caught several schoolie stripers. The neatest thing on this stretch was we encountered several sand sharks on the flats. Similar to bonefishing, we would mistake the sharks for very large stripers. Once or twice we saw stripers following the shark, similar to bonefish following a sting ray. This was all really cool to see. In addition to the stripers, we hooked one small and one large sized blue fish. The large bluefish with its large silver size caused Alex to mutter, "What is that a permit?" when he first saw it from the platform. Though I've heard of Tarpon sightings out east, a permit would be a first. Alas it was jnot a permit but a large blue.
The highlight of the day took place at the end of the day when we were in on a flat with beautiful white sand. I was poling and said to myself how great would it be to see a school of stripers come down this stretch. At that moment I saw a small school of large stripers high and happy in the water colum heading down the flat. Alex had a shot that landed a bit short. I told him to leave it, hoping to one of the fish would continue along the line of his fly which was now beautifully positioned lying in on the sand bottom. The fish stayed on course and when Alex finally twitched the fly, it looked just like a critter coming out of the sand. Classic. Fish pounced on it. The was a nice keeper size fish you see in the photos. The fly by the way was a critter creation tied by Hawk. I subsequently have asked Hawk if he could tie some for me.
The highlight of the day took place at the end of the day when we were in on a flat with beautiful white sand. I was poling and said to myself how great would it be to see a school of stripers come down this stretch. At that moment I saw a small school of large stripers high and happy in the water colum heading down the flat. Alex had a shot that landed a bit short. I told him to leave it, hoping to one of the fish would continue along the line of his fly which was now beautifully positioned lying in on the sand bottom. The fish stayed on course and when Alex finally twitched the fly, it looked just like a critter coming out of the sand. Classic. Fish pounced on it. The was a nice keeper size fish you see in the photos. The fly by the way was a critter creation tied by Hawk. I subsequently have asked Hawk if he could tie some for me.