40 Fish
Crazy shoreline blitz this evening along the bay! Lt. Col. Comstock and I tried to get on the water this am for fly fishing, but the NE winds were just too much. We tried a shoreline spot instead and winds were still howling and the mud was thick as peanut butter at low tide.
This evening, I was walking Big Dog on the beach when a classic shoreline blitz erupted. The dog and I jumped in the truck and flew back to the house. I grabbed my fly rods and some flies and tippet, changed from sneakers to boots, and made a phone to Lt. Col. Comstock who is in town. I told him where to meet me and ran out door and back to the bay.
The fish were still tight to shore on big schools of fall peanut bunker the size of a fifty cent piece. I tied on a Holy Baymen onto 20lb tippet on my Aubut 8 wt and it was game on. Fish after fish slammed my fly and put up great fights as they ran for deep water. As I was stripping in my fourth fish, Lt. Col. Comstock arrived and began to hook up immediately. He landed his first three fish on a Baymen Clouser, then switched up to a Baymen No Eyes, and it was game on, non-stop until the sun had set and it was too dark to see.
As a sliver of moon followed the sunset, the blitz ended and the bay went quiet other than a splash here and there. We landed a total of 40 fish in about an hour of non-stop blitz action. A third fly rodder who we did not recognize, had joined in the blitz. It was the second time this fall I have been in the right place at the right time on the shore – with my fly rod! Note to self: ALWAYS keep a fly rod and some flies in the truck when you walk your dog.
NOTES: These fish were all very small schoolies, averaging 16″ – 18″ inches. I landed two fish that were both 25″ inches and round as torpedoes. All my fish were landed on a Holy Baymen, a white bucktail streamer fly on a 2./0 hook. I trimmed the fly on the spot to reduce the material so it was less bulky. I also stripped off the peacock herl that was the top dressing because it fished better. My leader was a straight 20lb 6 1/2 foot Berkley Big Game mono. My fly rod was a 4 piece Aubut 8 wt rigged with an ORVIS Intermediate fly line. My reel was an ORVIS Hydros IV. The fish were in inches of water so close the shoreline, that we did not cast out to the fish, but instead casted parallel to the shore a few feet off the bank and stripped right away with no delay. The fish came down the shoreline in waves, non-stop for an hour, and drove the peanut bunker right into our feet. Many bass were right in our feet as well.