To continue Larry’s Nobska report, after Larry and Mike took off, I drove down to the
parking lot at the bike path. I had brought my spinning gear and was hoping
to catch a few blues for the smoker. I was given a smoker a couple of years
ago and somehow my catching blues has never coincided with having time to use
it. I hoped the blues would come in close enough for a shot with a
surf rod, since they were out of fly range earlier.
As I surveyed things I could see birds wheeling and fish breaking right close
to the nearest stone jetty. With the binoculars I could see a fly fisherman on one
of the jetties further away. I quickly rigged up the fly rod and briskly
walked towards the first jetty. As I got closer I could see the fish were
breaking right at the tip of the jetty. Breaking into a trot I headed out on
the jetty and spooked a nice sized fish that was right against its’ east side.
I backed up and cast right along the jetty, had a take but missed and
several casts later was fast to a striper of about 18”. After I released him,
the fish seem to move to the east, away from the jetty so I headed out to the
tip. I cast fruitlessly for a few minutes when the other fly rodder walked
past me and started casting from off the beach. He was immediately into
fish. Turns out it was the same guy we watched earlier in the morning catch fish after fish. He
turned out to be quite nice. DCC has identified him as Steve Shiraka, a pal of the
Cape Fishwire correspondent Dave Peros. As I flailed away without result at the end at
the jetty, he was catching stripers on every other cast. Some of the fish were
24”, most smaller. Finally I struck up a conversation with him. He said:
· He had been there since 4:00 am and been in to fish almost the whole time.
The fish had been there all week and he had been chasing them up and down the
beach from jetty to jetty. The biggest fish that morning had been in the
rocks towards Nobska. He had a 36” follow one of his micro bass in.
· He said the fish were feeding on sand eels and was using a 4-4 1/2”
chart/white Hi-Tie. When we watched him catch fish earlier
that morning, he was fan casting to several rock structures. A long cast was
needed and he was using a 8 wt rod and 10 wt shooting head. It may have been
a sinking head but I am not sure. He was using a very fast hand over hand
retrieve. I think he had a long leader also.
By this time I had gotten off the jetty on his recommendation and was fishing
right next to him. I did manage to hook a few fish, but then the school ran
back up the beach towards Nobska and they stopped biting. He eventually said
good luck and disappeared into the dunes. It was over by 8:00 am. I
prospected some more but even though birds were still working the bite was
off.
So looks like Nobska itself may be a wash from shore, but the morning was not
a total loss in finding good fishing spots.
Got the following email from fellow Reel-Timer Jared Tausig:
Calypso Lafleur Tausig (or "Callie" to her friends)
was born at 10:35pm on June 25th...8lbs 11oz's, both
she and Heather are fine...anyone know how to survive
on an hour's sleep a night????
jared & heather
Congratulations Jared!! Summer fishing is good practice for surviving on one hours sleep. 8lbs 11 oz is bigger than any striper I have caught this season. Nice catch!
CTC