05.24.13 From browns to big blues......

     When I woke up this morning I first had to remember I was back home. I looked outside and expected to see more weather than I did. No wind, no rain, just overcast. It was the last hour of the flood tide so I grabbed my saltwater gear and pushed my freshwater gear over on my truck seat and headed to the beach. It looked dead. Off color. No birds. No bunker. No tossing bass or blues off in the distance. Nothing. I spoke to a few guys who'd been out since 5 am. Nothing. Just dead, as it's been slow for the last few days outside of a pair of blitzy evenings where the big girls chased in the bunker. I heard of fish to 40 pounds caught, and kept, and some released. Two nights worth of harvesting, and then the boats had a shot at them during the day....how does this species survive? Alright, enough of that.
     We jumped in the boat and headed to the river to see if we could find a bass, as we knew the blues where in there and would be easy to get to chew, well chomp. It was still windless and the clouds and rain were out and up to our north. We hit them with topwater poppers and they followed with some swirls and vicious strikes. The largest came in at 30 inches, which depending on your chart, come in anywhere from 12-14 pounds and is 8-9 years old.



     Few things when your fishing for or when the blues fish are around. Number 1- Watch your fingers, arms, and legs. They bite down hard, and then shake their heads. Human flesh won't stand up well with the yellow eyes sharp teeth. A few other things- leave your self tied or $5 dollar a piece Bob's Bangers home as they'll get shreaded. Bring a bite leader, wire, tieable wire, or heavy 50-60 pound fluoro to use as a short bite tippet. A boga grip or pliers will help when trying to get a hook out. You can help your own cause by pushing down the barbs and going barbless.
     Bluefish are looked down upon as a nuisance fish mostly by anglers targeting other species like stripers or fluke. They are a blast on the fly rod and can be a fly rodders friend when things are slow or when hunting for bass. The more aggressive blues will be up on top chomping through bait while the lazy bass are underneath or lagging behind picking up the scraps.

It's a great time to try fly rodding from a boat while the bass, blues, fluke and weakfish are still in the rivers. I run 4 hour and full day charters for two fly rodders. If you'd like to get in on the action give me a call to book a trip, 732.261.7291. (It's a great bring your non-fishing significant other trip with usually calm waters and lots of pretty settings and nice houses to view from the water)


                                              

05.23.13 Back from the Delaware....great times, some good fishing, and thankfully some rain

     Super week. I could write a long story but I'll keep it short and sweet. Went up Friday after my sons junior prom pics and met up with guide Charlie "Bunky" Limbert who was with our four clients at the Dream Catcher Estates on the West Branch of the Delaware. Bunky put the trip together which included lodging, food- breakfast, lunch and dinner, float trips, shuttles and beverages for the guys. We had a nice intro dinner and cocktail session Friday night which included chewing on some smoked and rubbed venision steak Digger brought that was out of this world. 

                           

      Saturday we were up and at it and floated the upper Main and the boys worked hard, had a great shore lunch, and ended back up on the West to fish the evening. A few smallmouths to the net and a few misses but several targets kept everyone happy. 

                        

     On Sunday the boys were ready to go- well ready to watch and wait- so we put in a little up river and re-floated some familiar water. We had sulfurs pop up and Digger caught the nicest fish of the weekend when he dropped and drifted perfectly a size 14 sulfer emerger right down the pipe. Another small brown and a few targets kept us interested on a slow day into a slow evening.  

                                    

   

  It was guides day off Monday so Charlie and I enjoyed a hot, but beautiful day on the river. Yes we caught browns, but it was a chub, or fallfish, kind of day. We had a blast with them, and we didn't care. 

We left the trouty water for the working guides and targeted fallfish most of the day.

     We caught browns in the riffles but didn't find a rainbow. We didn't see many bugs but we did see some Green Drakes that are here and there throughout the system. 

     On Tuesday I had a trip re-schedule so it was off to the races again for me and Charlie. We spent most of the day at the Border Water Outfitter shop in Hancock before jumping into the Junction Pool in the late afternoon. We had nice steady bugs for a while and brought a few nice browns to the net. But the best part was the setting and having it almost all to ourselves. That night guide/chef Brandon Alexander cooked up a great curry chicken dinner for the guides over at the "guide house".



     I did see the below set up on my way past the Capra Motel- one way to beat the cost of a shuttle!

      On Wednesday I had Brian and Vic come up from Hoboken. We put in, found a few targets, and shortly after, the heavens opened up, and up, and lighting, and up and so on. At one point I think I had 10 inches of water in my boat. After a good hours soaking we peeled off the rain gear (and my plastic hefty bag). pumped out the boat, and went to work. We looked and waited for bugs and fish that really never showed. The boys nymphed and blind casted almost all day. I had to apologize for hooking a rainbow while doing a demo on nymph fishing with an indicator. I just hate when that happens. 

     We rowed on and set up and hoped for an evening something that never materialized. It was a good day with good guys, and we had a great lunch. Hope to see them again. 

     I got a call at midnight that my Thursday clients were canceling out so in the morning I hit Hancock and washed the boat before heading back to Jersey and jump into the salt on Friday.

05.17.13 Second cast bass this morning before heading to the Upper Delaware for a week of float trips

     A client and I re-schedued todays trip so it gave me the chance to run down and wet a line. Got down just on the bottom of the ebb. Figured it would be slow but it was a beautiful morning and the swells and winds that we had yesterday were absent when I got down. Came up with a plan and headed out on a different set of rocks than usual. Made a cast, then another......and came up bassy. It was a one and done short session before running home and doing the physical and mental salt to freshwater switch.
     I'll be up on the Upper Delaware from tonight till next Friday. I have Tuesday and Friday open if you are interested in a float trip. Its $400 for the day includes shuttles, lunches, snacks and drinks for one or two anglers. Drop me an email or give me a call to grab one of the days...732.261.7291

05.16.13 It was a hard, but fun, days fishing.....

                         

     We had fog, rain, bright and hot sun, wind, incoming and outgoing tides, swells, waves, and lots of white water....but couldn't find a fish to eat. The fishing has been great, the catching a little on the slow side. The water temps seem to have played a part in the slow week. We had a NE-E blow that seemed to last for weeks and then the wind changed and it dropped the hammer. Todays water felt like it was below 50 degrees, although it was coming in at 52.
     Vincent came down for a days charter and worked, and worked, and worked. He found a new friend in the double haul which helped when the wind started to blow. We put a pot-pourri of flies out there for them to sample but no takers. No doubt I'll see Vincent again down in these parts, and in my drift boat on the Upper Delaware.

05.15.13 Bottom of the ninth, two outs, 3-2 count.....

......and he gets a hold of one! Very late in a full days trip Greg from Colorado drifted the chartreuse and white Clouser just over the right spot. We'd spent the day casting into S- SE wind that blew steady from 15 with gusts to 25, all day. But we had a great day and he was rewarded for lots of hard work.

     Greg started out with an Orvis 11'6 ZG 8 wt spey rod that he picked up pretty quickly for his first time in the surf. We went over to an H2 9ft 10wt for most of the heavy lifting with the wind and the high tide. We jumped from groins, to the beach, to the inlet, to the river and back to the groins to finish the day. 

     The second high point was a slammer fluke that took the Clouser as drifted in between the rocks on the retrieve. Lucky for the fish it isn't May 18th yet! We fished all day, stopped for a good lunch at Frank's in Asbury Park and now Greg is ready to fish a striper tournament in Cape Cod this weekend.

05.13.13 "Brooklyns in the house....."

     Today I had Dmitri down from Brooklyn looking for stripers off the rocks. We spent the morning in the W wind blowing from 12-22 mph. Funny thing is the winds were blowing east for about a month and we complained, but I wish they were back. Dmitri started out working his way on both sides of the end of the groin throwing an Orvis pattern called a Predator Pounder followed up by some Clousers and Deceivers. He worked hard and he went back and forth between his 11'6 rod and my Helios 2 with the Depth Charge line. As the morning turned to afternoon the winds picked up and changed from W to WNW so we changed our direction a bit and gave some new water a shot. The fishes mouths were welded shut, or, they just weren't around for brunch.

                                   

05.09 - 05.09.13 Great few days on the Upper Delaware now back to the salt

     Great days on the Upper Delaware in a mix of foot and boat traffic, water conditions, rain and wind, but as always enjoyable. The first night I was able to get into town and sneak into the water and get a few brown trout that were garbage picking at the end of the day. Had two floats the first day with Vic and Bob. Had tons of wading anglers and boats that we had to navigate through to find some fish. Bob caught his first brown trout on the other boat after we switched up the party of four after a shore lunch. Vic laid down a great cast and a good drift to catch his first Delaware chub which he proudly holds below.

     Day 2 started in the middle of the night with a heavy downpour that stopped and then started up as we met up the Orvis NYC at the Border Water Outfitters shop in Hancock. Joe D had six boats with 12 eager anglers chomping at the bit. I had the pleasure to draw Jeff and Kevin who worked hard throwing caddis to a few fish right out of the gate landing a smallmouth bass that was rising to caddis. Then they went nymphing in the rain till lunch. Jeff managed a small but pretty rainbow that took a March Brown bead head nymph (in the back).
     After lunch we got serious and did lots of blind casting March Brown emergers and setting up on and flossing and breaking off a few nice fish. We had some late targets right till dark then the boys went  psycho on them and threw some meaty streamers and a mouse fly to try and drum up a big brown. Great few days, great laughs both days, and a pleasure to have hard working guys happy even though it was a tad slow and we didn't see that many bugs or rising fish.

Now back to the salt all week, till the Upper Delaware next weekend.

05.09.13 Quick a.m. session before heading to the Upper Delaware

     Fished with Richie this morning in some great looking water, but with a only a micro bass flipping off at the rocks for a good effort. Water looked nice with plenty of white water created towards high tide. It's fishy looking....but either not many fish are around or their just tight lipped. The fish are low, and sinking lines with Clousers taking the mixed bag of fish the last couple of days. Rich ordered the Orvis Depth Charge line last night which will help getting that fly down, and stay down, in the water column.
     Off to the Upper Delaware today for a trio of days of float trips. The Catskill region got rain, and that has helped bring up the flows a bit. We need that nice steady soaking rain, not the deluges we got across the northeast yesterday. As far as fishing in the rain- it's okay, the fish are already wet!