My
home waters for the spring and summer seasons are Gardiners Bay to Block Island
Sound including the huge rips known collectively as "The Race" in the middle of
Long Island Sound.
During the spring and summer months we encounter
a variety of fishing conditions from sight casting to stripers off the shallow
flats of Gardiners Island to fishing the fast moving rips of Orient Point and
The Race for both bluefish and stripers crashing bait on the surface. Sand eels
are one of the predominate baits this time of year.
We fish lots of Clousers and Deceivers along with
some of the newer fly patterns. Poppers can always add to the fun. Floating to
deep sink fly lines are all used, usually on 9 and 10 weight outfits. For the
flats fishing off Gardiners Island, I use a Hewes 18' Bayfisher for stalking both
stripers and blue fish that will cruise in less than two feet of water in our
productive north shore shallows. Flats fishing can be productive right into early
fall.
Late August to early September will see large numbers
of False Albacore arriving with smaller numbers of Bonito. Of course the bass
and the bluefish are all around this magnificent fishery during the fall run.
Surface feeding by all four species occurs almost daily during the fall but lots
of big bass still fall to the users of sinking lines.
Dependent on water temperature, the albies will
stay to mid or late October when they leave for warmer waters. Bay anchovy fly
patterns are the order of the day for these line burners. Come early November
we always hope the herring arrive so we can continue to cast to schools of large
bass busting the surface as they ravage these 10" baits.
Since 2001 we have been experiencing some very
good herring runs starting around Thanksgiving and continuing till mid December.
This is the time of year for trophy bass on the fly exceeding 25lbs.
