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Peterjay

Rain Bait

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Mudskimmer was saying the other day that there hasn't been much going on around here lately. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but this is the time of the year when I get sick of holing up in my office and start counting the days until it warms up enough to get out there. The rump end of winter is also when it dawns on me that I'm gonna have to quit screwing around and whip up some bread-and-butter stuff for the coming season. I've been tying these little basic marabou deceivers for more than 20 years, and they've long been my go-to pattern when small bait is in the water. Nothing fancy, they just work. So far, they've taken brook trout, brown trout, landlocked salmon, stripers, blues, false albacore, a few reds and trout, even the occasional flounder. I like to use calf tail for the throat and also the wings, when I have the right color on hand - otherwise, it's sparse bucktail. I've tied them down to #12 for trout and salmon- these are #2.

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PJ, they do look like very versatile flies. I used to make an annual trip to the outer banks for albies and fished for Pacific bonita when I visited my bro in California. Wish I had some of them in the box back then. They look like great bonita/albie flies. I will have to add some of those to my building collection. I dont know if my call to arms will do anything to help rid us of this winter. Every time something heats up around here (eg. the rookie tarpon thread), the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic get blasted with another polar vortex. I did manage to get out on my local detention basin the other day to retrieve my son's sled. That is the only thing I have caught on a hook and line since last November.

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Nice ties PJ! I have a few similar ones you had sent me in a swap and actually swam them on my last trip!

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Glad you guys like them. Yeah, when the albies/bonito/stripers are on anchovies, that's all you need - tan or olive. Where do you go down there, Harker's? I might take a run down there next fall. No albies here, not with the murky water being what it is. From what I hear, you've gotta go out three miles or so to get them.

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Yep, the first few trips I fished Harkers Island. The inlet opens to the west I believe and is generally very manageable and sometimes the fish are well inside the hook. Lost a bit of interest when that area got so popular. Later on, I started going down to Hatteras Inlet with the family. Almost no fishing pressure on the albies there but the inlet can be tricky. I had a 19 foot CC then and usually had no trouble heading out. The neat thing about the last few miles of beach at Hatteras is you can reach the fish from the beach (there is an access right across the street from the Coast Guard station). Never landed one that way but had a few chase right up to the suds at my feet. Just outside Oregon Inlet has them too, but that inlet can be a bear in a small boat. Nice days no problem. You are right about the ES. I have caught them on conventional tackle but we were about 9 miles out.

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Hey Ben - what did you get down there besides snook and cobia? How did those hand grenades work out?

 

Skimmer, I've seen them come in on the beach many times up north, but trying to guess where they're gonna show is pretty much impossible. Occasionally, they'll get a school of mullet trapped up against the shore, and they'll scoot in and grab one, then dart right back out. I actually caught one once in two feet of water - I was trying to snag a mullet to show my friend what they look like, and an albie came screaming in out of nowhere and grabbed my fly. I think I was more startled than the fish was. The albie situation up there has been dire the past few years. Guys who normally get 50-60 per year from shore have been getting skunked for two or three years in a row. Gotta be something to do with the bait situation.

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Hey Ben - what did you get down there besides snook and cobia? How did those hand grenades work out?

 

Skimmer, I've seen them come in on the beach many times up north, but trying to guess where they're gonna show is pretty much impossible. Occasionally, they'll get a school of mullet trapped up against the shore, and they'll scoot in and grab one, then dart right back out. I actually caught one once in two feet of water - I was trying to snag a mullet to show my friend what they look like, and an albie came screaming in out of nowhere and grabbed my fly. I think I was more startled than the fish was. The albie situation up there has been dire the past few years. Guys who normally get 50-60 per year from shore have been getting skunked for two or three years in a row. Gotta be something to do with the bait situation.

 

PJ: Caught a little bit of everything! Hooked a NICE tarpon and lost it when I got it 5ft from the kayak and it did one hell of an aerial leap. Got into Snook, Redfish, the Cobia, Jack Crevelle, some trout, and saw TONS of sheephead.

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Hey Ben - what did you get down there besides snook and cobia? How did those hand grenades work out?

 

Skimmer, I've seen them come in on the beach many times up north, but trying to guess where they're gonna show is pretty much impossible. Occasionally, they'll get a school of mullet trapped up against the shore, and they'll scoot in and grab one, then dart right back out. I actually caught one once in two feet of water - I was trying to snag a mullet to show my friend what they look like, and an albie came screaming in out of nowhere and grabbed my fly. I think I was more startled than the fish was. The albie situation up there has been dire the past few years. Guys who normally get 50-60 per year from shore have been getting skunked for two or three years in a row. Gotta be something to do with the bait situation.

 

PJ: Caught a little bit of everything! Hooked a NICE tarpon and lost it when I got it 5ft from the kayak and it did one hell of an aerial leap. Got into Snook, Redfish, the Cobia, Jack Crevelle, some trout, and saw TONS of sheephead.

Sounds like a great trip. Did the tarpon take one of those flies you posted that I suggested you keep in the box? Just kidding. Five feet from a kayak sounds like a catch and release to me.

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Hey Ben - what did you get down there besides snook and cobia? How did those hand grenades work out?

 

Skimmer, I've seen them come in on the beach many times up north, but trying to guess where they're gonna show is pretty much impossible. Occasionally, they'll get a school of mullet trapped up against the shore, and they'll scoot in and grab one, then dart right back out. I actually caught one once in two feet of water - I was trying to snag a mullet to show my friend what they look like, and an albie came screaming in out of nowhere and grabbed my fly. I think I was more startled than the fish was. The albie situation up there has been dire the past few years. Guys who normally get 50-60 per year from shore have been getting skunked for two or three years in a row. Gotta be something to do with the bait situation.

PJ: Caught a little bit of everything! Hooked a NICE tarpon and lost it when I got it 5ft from the kayak and it did one hell of an aerial leap. Got into Snook, Redfish, the Cobia, Jack Crevelle, some trout, and saw TONS of sheephead.

 

Sounds like a great trip. Did the tarpon take one of those flies you posted that I suggested you keep in the box? Just kidding. Five feet from a kayak sounds like a catch and release to me.

 

 

C&R my foot! If you knew Brother Ben as well as I do, you'd have noticed that he said "THE" kayak, not "HIS" kayak. The "tarpon" in question was more likely a terrified hickory shad that had bumped into a manatee and leaped next to another fisherman's kayak a half-mile upriver. Skimmer, you've gotta read between the lines when you're dealing with a crafty rascal like Ben. OK, OK - if this sounds like sour grapes, I guess it is. It's 40 degrees out and it's blowing so hard it sounds like there's a freight train coming up my driveway. I'm about ready to bait up a #20 hook and see if I can catch a mud minnow in the creek out back. Congrats Ben - sounds like a great time.

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Sorry, can't resist.... we went three for four today in the 60 to 80lb range with two doubles in a row...

Flamingo is finally getting some hungry fish inside.

 

Unfortunately not with a fly rod...

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PJ, Those are some nice looking bits of phish phood, you will do well. Check your e-mail….

 

Ben, glad florida treated you well. Pictures?

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Awesome flies PJ. I used to tie something a bit similar only with icelandic sheep hair for the wings. I like the idea of calf hair, it will probably hold its shape better. Maybe I'll try a combo of sparse calf hair topped with the sheep?

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