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2019 All Things Fly Fishing

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bonefishdick

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Lows in the upper 40's at night, highs in the low 60's and ample sun this weekend.  I know of a spot that sort of resembles a parking lot with about 2' passing over it, I figured this would warm the water just enough to get the feed on.

 

Saturday, nothing, not a bump.

 

Sunday same locale, but I noticed there were some herring like bait flitting about, so I threw on a fly i use for striper connected to a sinking tip (4 IPS) and started swinging the fly in the deepest sections of this area.  I was finally rewarded with a very aggressive and bigger than typical SMB for this location and his little brother.  Packed it up knowing that is probably the last smallie of the year for me.  This season went longer than the last maybe a sign of the times who knows.  

 

 

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Edited by scooleen74
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1 hour ago, RedGreen said:

Scooleen74,

 

Calling it quits already? I'm a bit confused. Where I am I believe the smallmouth bite lasts until November. I'm on the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania, from Harrisburg to about 20 miles south of there. 

What are your water temps there?

 

There is a season for all things.  Mine is wrapping up, water temps are mid 50's at best during warmest periods of the day.  Weve had a few frost warnings, water is cooling off and they are staging on deeper contours.  

Edited by scooleen74
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On 10/15/2019 at 1:14 AM, Uncle Stu said:

 

bwahaaaaaa! but NOPE. graveyard likes to get all his cows after midnight.

Fish look bigger in the dark :howdy:

 

Actually while it was a great trip it was the final realization of how bad things are getting for the breeding stock.  I have fished with Steve since 2014 and back in 2014 3 trips with him produced over a dozen keeper sized fish.  Those trips are what gave me the push to focus on night fishing and targeting bigger bass.  2014's pictures:

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The trips with him in 2019 produced one random bigger fish that I think was a keeper caught off the kayak with spin gear otherwise it seemed like the big fish were completely absent in Steve's fishery.  This fish below was the second largest of the day and I would estimate it between 21- 24" (was a fast release).  I am a much better angler than 2014 in all attributes so more skilled, in kayaks, and with an excellent guide finding a keeper bass was almost impossible. I am not certain that fish was a keeper either since I have not put it to the tape my gut says 29" but I have seen so few keepers since the 4th of July the "little fish" pictured below got me pretty excited.

 

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Most of the fish were 17-20".  So 1 keeper sized fish vs 12 keeper sized fish 2019 vs 2014. I am not the best kayak angler so did not attempt a picture because I would definitely drop my phone or rod or paddle in the process lol. I asked Steve how his season has been and he said that they have caught similar total numbers of stripers, but the average size is down by over 10 inches.  2019 both Steve and my keeper numbers are under 25 fish for the season both of us have over 75 days on the water.  

Edited by The Graveyard Shift
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Steves a great guy and good friend.He told me you were going out with him.Those fish are quite the majority now pretty much all around the area.There's some huge schools of them about 30 miles away.1 in a thousand is a 34-36" fish.Heading there now as the tide rises and the wind is going to blow later today.As he says ....."It should be EPIC"! The parking lot shuffle is the trick.

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20 hours ago, theshadow said:

Steves a great guy and good friend.He told me you were going out with him.Those fish are quite the majority now pretty much all around the area.There's some huge schools of them about 30 miles away.1 in a thousand is a 34-36" fish.Heading there now as the tide rises and the wind is going to blow later today.As he says ....."It should be EPIC"! The parking lot shuffle is the trick.

Steve is such a hardcore fishing guy I assumed he was still getting them regularly even though I have been struggling.  I fish really hard but Steve makes me look like a college athlete vs a pro athlete. To hear even he was not finding those fish was very sobering.  It means they are just not around.

 

The trip was an absolute blast.  I have never had one bad trip with Steve we always manage to find fish and have fun.  Tight lines out there hope you find the 1/1000 striped bass over 30"!

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4 hours ago, The Graveyard Shift said:

Steve is such a hardcore fishing guy I assumed he was still getting them regularly even though I have been struggling.  I fish really hard but Steve makes me look like a college athlete vs a pro athlete. To hear even he was not finding those fish was very sobering.  It means they are just not around.

 

The trip was an absolute blast.  I have never had one bad trip with Steve we always manage to find fish and have fun.  Tight lines out there hope you find the 1/1000 striped bass over 30"!

Still searching daily.Now,it's split with stops at the ponds as we continue the "parking lot shuffles" and the marches through the woods and dunes.Did you toss those sliders and poppers?

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Got back to Maine about 2AM on Saturday morning from my week in Bozeman.  Tough conditions- cold water and a lot of wind.  We had a solid day of fishing blue wings on the Yellowstone on the first full day; found one pod of huge cuttbows and cutties on Monday east of Livingston, solid Park day on Tuesday, and some nice streamer fish on the Stone on Thursday.  Rental house was great- the fishing water behind the house as pretty, but not as fishy as last year.  All in all, a great trip again. 

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I would ******* LOVE a grave blanket. icon14.gif
 

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