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secampb1

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Skunked Monday night during the low

to high turn in a north shore MA estuary.

 

Fished a known “hot spot” but new for me - I usually go further downstream but was feeling lazy and no one was there already.

 

I was all geeked up on fishing after dark this weekend so had tied some deceivers in purple and black.

 

Upside down but you get the idea:CA5907CC-B923-42F7-A113-D070C08ECACD.jpeg.195d5d074333985266dad27a6b4b15f5.jpeg

 

Anyway, no fish, no bumps, no nada. I heard maybe 6 splashes during the 2 hours I was fishing but couldn’t get any action.

 

Now the interesting part: when i decided to call it a night and started walking out with my headlamp on, the shallows exploded with bait - sounded like a heavy downpour - pretty sure it was sand eels - small, 0.5-1” - that went nuts when the light hit the water. The light also revealed green crabs everywhere going nuts hunting down the bait.

 

when I turned the light off, the bait explosion took a few minutes to subside - and twice I heard huge splashes a minute or two after the light went out.

 

I chucked a few casts toward the sound but no dice.

 

Anyway, I filed it away and next time I’m going to bring something smaller (and not dark) to mimic the little bait I saw, and maybe I’ll try to tie a green crab option too!

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49 mins ago, CLB said:

Skunked Monday night during the low

to high turn in a north shore MA estuary.

 

Fished a known “hot spot” but new for me - I usually go further downstream but was feeling lazy and no one was there already.

 

I was all geeked up on fishing after dark this weekend so had tied some deceivers in purple and black.

 

Upside down but you get the idea:CA5907CC-B923-42F7-A113-D070C08ECACD.jpeg.195d5d074333985266dad27a6b4b15f5.jpeg

 

Anyway, no fish, no bumps, no nada. I heard maybe 6 splashes during the 2 hours I was fishing but couldn’t get any action.

 

Now the interesting part: when i decided to call it a night and started walking out with my headlamp on, the shallows exploded with bait - sounded like a heavy downpour - pretty sure it was sand eels - small, 0.5-1” - that went nuts when the light hit the water. The light also revealed green crabs everywhere going nuts hunting down the bait.

 

when I turned the light off, the bait explosion took a few minutes to subside - and twice I heard huge splashes a minute or two after the light went out.

 

I chucked a few casts toward the sound but no dice.

 

Anyway, I filed it away and next time I’m going to bring something smaller (and not dark) to mimic the little bait I saw, and maybe I’ll try to tie a green crab option too!

Fish that fly again and add a dropper crab or sparse clouser behind it.  Green  Crab dropper is a recent discovery that has picked up some nice bass for me at night.  

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TGS,

 

About those big eel-like patterns. How is the hookup ratio on them? Do bass tend to attack that fly at the head or do you get some where they're T-boning the fly and missing the hooks? Reason I ask is I'm wanting to tie up some big (12"+) eel patterns but am not sure if I want to have a trailer hook in them or not. 

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On 7/29/2018 at 11:56 AM, secampb1 said:

I know night fishing is the preferred approach by most for stripers in the summer but it just doesn't work typically with my schedule and distance from the beach.  In other words I have never tried fishing past the posted hours on a beach and what I see most often is "sunrise to sunset" on signs.  Does this truly mean that you'll get locked in or kicked out in most places past sunset or am I taking it too literally?  Is it really for swimmers etc?  Obviously guys fish at night all the time but I'm wondering if that is only certain places.

 

It really depends on where. 

 

The places i fish on Long Island have seasonal night fishing permits. Some places you are guaranteed to get a ticket or a tow if you don’t have the credentials 

 

most places, however have relaxed rules when it’s not prime summer season. 

 

But not all. A few places the inbred locals drop a dime on you the minute they see you suiting up. 

 

in some places the risk is not enforcement but others out there in the night. I know of guys being mugged. Others have had their tires slashed (‘ don’t fish my spot anymore”). 

others have had trucks broken into. I got ripped off one night years ago. 

 

You really have to scout the places you are thinking of fishing if you are not sure. 98 percent of the time you’ll have no issues

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5 mins ago, JohnP said:

 

It really depends on where. 

 

The places i fish on Long Island have seasonal night fishing permits. Some places you are guaranteed to get a ticket or a tow if you don’t have the credentials 

 

most places, however have relaxed rules when it’s not prime summer season. 

 

But not all. A few places the inbred locals drop a dime on you the minute they see you suiting up. 

 

in some places the risk is not enforcement but others out there in the night. I know of guys being mugged. Others have had their tires slashed (‘ don’t fish my spot anymore”). 

others have had trucks broken into. I got ripped off one night years ago. 

 

You really have to scout the places you are thinking of fishing if you are not sure. 98 percent of the time you’ll have no issues

Wow that's pretty bad. Makes me think there's definitely a lot of poaching going on. Thanks for the info

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8 hours ago, RedGreen said:

TGS,

 

About those big eel-like patterns. How is the hookup ratio on them? Do bass tend to attack that fly at the head or do you get some where they're T-boning the fly and missing the hooks? Reason I ask is I'm wanting to tie up some big (12"+) eel patterns but am not sure if I want to have a trailer hook in them or not. 

Hookup ratio has been 2/3 I guess.  But a few nights lots of swing and a miss.  Personally I think most of the misses are bass under 30".  The bigger fish seem to eat it much better and it has not caught a fish smaller than 26" this year.  I am experimenting with using one of the longest big game shanks then the hook to see if putting hook back 1/3 into length of pattern will work better and if those big game shanks are gonna hold up or not.  The dragontails have great movement but casting is tough due to water absorbtion.  I am trying some alternate tail options currently.

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7 hours ago, The Graveyard Shift said:

Hookup ratio has been 2/3 I guess.  But a few nights lots of swing and a miss.  Personally I think most of the misses are bass under 30".  The bigger fish seem to eat it much better and it has not caught a fish smaller than 26" this year.  I am experimenting with using one of the longest big game shanks then the hook to see if putting hook back 1/3 into length of pattern will work better and if those big game shanks are gonna hold up or not.  The dragontails have great movement but casting is tough due to water absorbtion.  I am trying some alternate tail options currently.

What about long saddle hackles? They don't give a real 3-D profile like the dragon tail does but they'll cast a hell of a lot better I'd imagine.

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TLB,

 

I find the nights rare that I can't see anything at all, even on the dark of the moon. The east coast is notoriously well-lit at night, and that light pollution travels for miles. Also, your eyes get accustomed to the dark. Especially on a moonless, cloudless night, the ambient starlight is quite illuminating.

 

For me, line management at night is a lot like casting at night: I do much of it by feel. (You could go all Obi-Wan here and say "Your eyes can deceive you.") With something like the greased line swing, I do much of it from muscle memory. It's kind of like sports: NHL teams practice breakouts without any opposition, and MLB batters take BP before a game -- repetition, confidence, repetition, confidence. If the water is calm enough, you can track your line as it lands on the water, much like you might be looking for rise rings in the dark.

 

What's more, if you channel your inner ninja, you can get really close to actively feeding bass at night. Earlier this week I waded to within 20 feet of a 10-pound fish. That's an easy cast in the dark.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Steve Culton

"We fish for pleasure; I for Mine, you for yours."
-- James Leisenring
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7 hours ago, RedGreen said:

What about long saddle hackles? They don't give a real 3-D profile like the dragon tail does but they'll cast a hell of a lot better I'd imagine.

I have a couple of ideas that I need to test.  Saddles work fine for profile and subtle movement and I use them on Rich murphy's quarter moon special.

 

  My goal is creating the same motion and vibration signal of an eel to bass in the dark water.  dragon tail really does that well and in areas where I can get away with 40' casts I am going to keep a few dragontail flies for those locations .  but throwing them further than 50' is realy tough.

 

One idea is using a  parachini wave tail set up so it can be changed out since they dont last more than a couple fish.  

 

Another is making a extended body multi tube fly all synthetic setup.

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