Schoolies at 5:00 AM

[OTTER]

Wrote out my schedule last night and set the alarm:
3:55 AM Arise
4:45 AM At site and ready to cast.
5:15 AM Sunrise, clear sky.
6:15 Low Tide; An unusually low tide.
Stuck to plan based on notes from previous years. However the date, time of sunrise and time of super low; do not exactly coincide from year to year; so must make intuitive adjustments.

This year has been really terrible but I figured if there was one chance of hitting it, this was it. The bait fish were very tiny. I started with a small no name streamer on a No. 6 stainless steel hook. ( Yes, that's tiny for schoolies; but it's what they wanted. Probably why not many landed.
PS Never keep a fish to eat without examining its stomach contents.

http://www.flyfishinginnh.com/vforum/picture.php?albumid=138&pictureid=1474

First schoolie hit on second cast. Got about 15 good hits but only landed 5 and kept one to eat. ( First one kept this year.) All fish hit in 1 foot of water, a couple of yards from shore line. As predicted by old notes; this spot could be good for a couple more days at first light; then must look elsewhere. It is a bit like going to a football game and casting to the hash mark on the 10 yard line. There is nothing on the rest of the field. Most striper fishing is not this particular.... such as fishing the Hampton Marsh from a kayak as reported a couple of days ago by scoop99.

At 5:15 AM they moved out as predicted, and before dead low. The sun rise and supershallow water is not to their liking. On principle, I tried another half hour of casting got nothing. So went home to sleep some more. I should have arrived a bit earlier: but I was out last night fishing another spot and did not get to bed soon enough. Tomorrow!

http://flyfishinginnh.com/vforum/picture.php?albumid=138&pictureid=1471

Sunrise and it is all over.
http://www.flyfishinginnh.com/vforum/picture.php?albumid=138&pictureid=1472

[hcivicgt]

otter if you don't mind me asking where are some good places down on the coast to get into the action with the schoolies?

[Hunyak]

Last picture has plenty of clues in it that if you start lookin, I'm sure youll find it or other
"fishy lookin" spots for that matter.

[OTTER]

hcivicgt:
I assume that you read my last three threads on stripers as well as other past Salt Water Threads. Hunyak is correct in that there are so many spots between Plum Island and Parsons Beach that "at times" are good for stripers. (Is that spot burning?)

But this year (and last year) have been tough for shore bound fly fishermen including me. If I did not live within 1 mile of tidal water, I think I would give it up. But I am retired so most days I get out for a few hours in the summer. It is too hot in this area to fish for trout. (Especially too hot for them practising C&R).

I hit the above pictured spot 5 times in the past two weeks and did not see a fish. Same with all the spots that I frequent. I usually go out and briefly check 3 or 4 spots on each outing. And usually catch nothing. A lot of folks like me who post tend not to report our failures which this year are plenty.

In the past I have done well at the Hampton Marshes that scoop mentioned in his reports recently. I have done well on the shores all around the General Sullivan bridge on the Spaulding. But not yet this year. These are well known so I am not spot burning. (I try to honor those spots introduced to me by friends over the years.)

(Hey scoop; Your reports should be under Salt Water Reports not General Discussion so folks can find past salt water threads more easily.)

Daytime fishing seldom produces this year except during rain or in fog. Got to fish predawn, dusk or at night. Fish are scarce. A few years back, it was possible to have actually catch 50 schoolies on a fly in one hour. I did that once for the record (duly recorded on video tape). I then usually quit after a dozen. This year I am happy if I catch one.

[OTTER]

One place to look is where a trib enters the main body of water through a restriction, a bridge, a culvert, etc. At certain limnited periods of a tide, schoolies ( and occasionaly a big fish) will hang near scooping up the minnows as they wash out as the tide drops. There are hundreds of such places from Plum Island to Parsons Beach and beyond.

Today that fish I kept had , in it's gut, more than 50 small bait fish. (as pictured). Knowing what the bait fish look like is often helpful in terms of size. I don't bother with patterns. My striper flies are either very small small or medium; seldom large. In my opinion, for "inland" wading for stripers, folks often use flies too large. As I mentioned above, who would use a No. 6 hook to catch stripers. Heck one day when I only had my trout rod in the car with a bead head hares ear nymph, I grabbed it near one of those spots and quickly caught 4 schoolies. Otherwise I never would have tried that.

One day I was looking at a deLorme of the Marshes in the Hampton area. There was a spot that looked promising but I could not find a way to drive or walk near to it. I stopped in a small eatery and there was a local cop. I told him my problem and he told me of a rutted hidden "road" through the Marsh that could get there. I got there and caught stripers. It is now part of my collection of spots.

I almost always use two flies in tandem (ffor trout or stripers). One big and one small. Or one light and one dark, etc. Saves time to figure out what they want, especially if there are no obvious schoools of bait to observe. When not having luck, go smaller is my motto.

[OTTER]

Went back to the same spot as yesterday. I went earlier and stayed later. Conditions were even more perfect if possible. The tiny bait fish were there at my feet. A thick fog kept the sun at bay much longer. Still all I could do was get 3 hits and land one schoolie.

I should have landed another one but my knot tying in dim light was faulty. It is obvious when the leader comes back with the unmistakable curls on the end where it was tied on. It was on long enough to call it an early "release." as in C&R.

Consolation Award: This afternoon got some SM Bass at the Lamprey. SM Bass do fight like hell but I can't get past my feeling about SM's pushing out trout in so many places.

[OTF]

Great information Otter. The more you post, the more I learn.

I go back and forth on the small mouth issue as well. There seems to be a place for this fish in the Northeast. Where that place is...I have not decided.