Happened upon this report from Roy Swartz at the Needham Sportsman Club site (http://www.troutpond.com). This was January 1998. Thank god for winter over fish. I hope it keeps up for this year.
"Until this year (1998), I've pretty much retired the tackle each November, when my
line-sided friends migrated to warmer waters. Yes, I had read and heard stories of
winter-over stripers, but I couldn't muster the energy or justify the time to find out just
how true they might be. Until this winter. What helped me overcome the lethargy and
skepticism was a 10 - fish day in mid-November - the latest I had ever caught stripers.
When Sunday, January 4th, 1998 turned out to be warm and sunny, I decided to return
to the scene of my November success. All I dare say about this location is that it is an
estuary located on the south side of the Cape. Keen observers with some local fishing
experience may get other clues later in my story. Enough buildup!
I arrived just after noon with bankside mud evidencing low tide and a bright sun already
low in the sky. Wading out onto a sand bar, I started fancasting without much conviction
(or technique!). Suddenly, on the 4th retrieve, my line stopped. I was really hooked up to
a striper in January! I landed and happily released a clean, bright 16¨ schoolie, and only
briefly reflected on the joy of life this winter reprieve had inspired. No sooner was my fly
back in the water than I was on to another fish. And on it went for more than an hour,
striper after striper, ranging from 14¨ to 20¨. Then it happened: the ¨icing on the cake.¨ I
hooked a fish that I immediately recognized as different. It jumped; it had SPOTS. I took
my time with this one, gently countering its bulldog surges with low-to-the-water counter
pressure.
Finally, I guided my prize carefully onto the grassy bank. It was a beautifully colored male
sea-run brown, over 22¨ long and about 5 lbs. I admired his rich coloring and hooked
jaws for a few moments, before gingerly reviving and releasing him. Then, I returned to
the sand bar...
With the incoming tide now in the full flow, it took only a few minutes to relocate the
stripers. They were still piled up off one edge of the bar and did not hesitate to resume
attacking my chartreuse clouser. This went on for nearly another hour, when the sun
began to wane and a cold wind helped me decide I had had enough fun for one day.
What a day it had been! In just over two hours in January, I had caught and released 75
striped bass and the biggest brown trout of my life.
Well, that's my fish story, I hope you print it to inspire all my ¨brothers of the angle¨ who
think that winter's just for re-stocking the fly boxes and going to the shows. "
Has anyone here done as well in the winter months?