First Saltwater trip report

[PSUFishMenace]

Got back from a week-long vacation in Chincoteague VA yesterday. Overall the vacation was awesome, the fishing was alright too. It was my first time flyfishing the salt and thanks to some great advice from you guys I was able to get into some fish every outing. I caught all of my fish using size 6 black or white clousers, here's a summary and a few pics:

Tuesday morning: My first saltwater fish on the fly, a 6" sea bass. I ended up catching 2 before the current got too strong to get a fly to the bottom. Switched to spinning gear and caught a 12" flounder.

Wednesday morning: On my second cast I hooked into a cownose ray in the Assateague Channel. I did not win the fight but surprisingly it took half an hour for the 5x leader to fail.

Thursday: Too windy to flyfish. Dropped some minnows off a pier in the evening and caught a 16.5" and 11" flounder.

Friday: In the morning I finally located some snapper blues. Not many and they were only 5-8 inchers. I caught one. Friday night was interesting. I went back to the docks I was at the night before where I had seen a good number of fish chasing minnows. I assumed they were all blues. Started around 7:30 pm and by dark I had only one strike from a tiny bluefish. The minnows they were eating were smaller than the fly I was using, which was the smallest size saltwater fly I could find when I bought flies for the trip. decided to keep fishing since I could still see fish feeding. I started concentrating on fishing near dock lights and at 9:30 p.m I was rewarded with a 9-10" shad. On my next cast a much bigger shad grabbed the fly as I was about to pull it from the water. I got overexcited and set the hook a split second too soon, he shook his head once and was gone. That was the end of the action for the night.

Saturday: Last fishing day of the trip. Really wanted to get a flounder on the fly but it just wasn't meant to be. I tried off the pier that had produced all of the other flounder but only got a sea bass. I also "caught" an oyster and the kid crabbing near me caught an old beach chair! Current started ripping again right before dark so I moved to where I caught the shad to try to catch that bite. Seemed like there were half as many fish as before, I did get one vicious swipe at the fly but the fish must have missed the hook.

Thanks again for your help guys, I didn't land anything big on the fly but it was still a blast to catch a fish or two each time out. I barely scratched the surface of the fishing down there and fortunately we are planning to return next year. I will absolutely be taking the fly rod again!

 

[gfen]

100_2009 isn't a blue.

Hickory shad?

Still, you did better in your week than I do i mine. I like that you never know what the hell'll be on the other end. And I'm super jealous of your ray, actually.

 

[PSUFishMenace]

Yeah I know that one's a shad. I posted the blue in the tips and tricks chincoteague thread the day I caught it and it was a really small one so I didn't bother re-posting.

The ray was a total surprise. I thought they mostly hunted by scent, never expected one would hit a fly. I don't think they can be landed on the fly without having a boat or at least a 12 wt.

 

[sandfly]

on the jersey coast we fish for rays up to 100 lbs. using merkin crabs and 10 weights. 100 yd. runs.

 

[Fishidiot]

PSU,
Neat report. What you experienced is typical of inshore salt fishing in mid summer during daylight hours - a variety of small fishes on the fly. Good to hear you broke out the spin rod - some days at the beach it's just too windy to FF.

 

[bam]

Cool report. I might steer away from the 5x tippet next time. Only time I go that small is when I'm fishing dries or spring creeks for trout.

 

[gfen]

sandfly wrote:
on the jersey coast we fish for rays up to 100 lbs. using merkin crabs and 10 weights. 100 yd. runs.

I ain't too proud to fish exclusively for rays, how big of a fly are we talking about here, like the diameter of the crab?

 

[pete41]

Come on down to paradise Gary and I will put you on rays that would make the jersey ones look like minnows.
First time I ever saw any one claim to fish for them.around here they target the cobia that follow the rays-
Speaking of paradise,temp in the 60s this am.

 

[volcanomil]

nice report

 

[roosters977]

Good Job Man!

 

[trevor]

I feel ya with the rays. What fly did it hit? Was it just cruising near the surface, or did you spot it on the flats? I am very interested, as I often spot big rays cruising beneath the surface in channels and near the bridge, but they are never interested in eating anything I have. I like to drift the flats behind assateague for clearly feeding rays.

 

[PSUFishMenace]

Trevor,

It hit a size 6 white clouser minnow. If you know the bridge over the smaller channel that everyone goes crabbing off of, I just let the fly sink to the bottom there about an hour after high tide. I think it was about 6 feet down when I got the hit. after the first run it started to head toward the big channel through that flat along the road. I had to chase after it running along the road. But then I got to the big bridge and I was stuck on the shore and the ray kept going. Then it would stop running and go back and forth for a few minutes, I would get my hopes up and put more pressure on but that would just trigger another 50 foot run.

 

[trevor]

That's awesome! Not to doubt you, but did you see if it was hooked in the mouth? I often snag them while working lures for flounder. They swim by in schools of 20 and just swim right into the hook.

 

[PSUFishMenace]

If it was snagged it would have to have been on the belly. It circled in close a few times in that narrow flat along the road and i didn't see the fly on its back or head at least. Didn't seem to be fighting awkwardly either so I'm assuming mouth hooked or close to it.

 

[trevor]

Very cool