The New Moon in June
By: Jonboy
We arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon. We were staying in 2 separate houses right on Shear Pin Pond. The houses had no electric, but they were still comfortable. We unpacked our stuff and relaxed a little bit. Man, this place was awesome! Nothing beat fresh clams and cold beer as we prepared for our first night out on the water. After packing up our gear and deciding who would fish with whom, we headed off in different directions. There were 12 of us altogether and we all were in contact with walkie-talkies. I just couldn’t wait to fish.
We started before it got dark. Some guys fished the “ Cape Pogue Gut,” where the water was deep and really ripped. I had no sinking line with me, so I just pretty much watched a little and fished a little on top with a crease fly. No hits, no swirls, just practicing for me, but that was O.K., it was only the first day, right? As night time fell, we headed inside to the bay. It was cold that night and the wind was blowing over my right shoulder. This was not great for my casting, or the back/side of my head. Because we were fishing shallow water, I could walk out into the bay and basically turn my back to the wind and cast. There weren’t too many fish caught that night.
You could hear the stripers slurping sand eels on top. More interestingly, you could hear them splashing hard on bait from time to time. We tried to match what we thought they were taking. I was fishing a very small, black slider made from Rainy’s foam. It was a black cylinder with some black bucktail out the back.
I was instructed to fish it very slowly. I would cast out and let it sit. Then I would take one short strip and let it sit again. Then I would take one more str.. WHAM !! The fish railed that fly and I wasn’t really paying attention. The fish turned its head and I had it hooked for about 3 seconds and then nothing. Although I lost the fish, I was happy that it took my fly and I gained a little confidence. I never did get one that night, but it was a good experience. We fished hard until the sun came up and went back to the house to sleep. The next day, we charted on a map who caught what, and where. There weren’t too many fish caught that first night. As a matter of fact, it took a few days to figure out what those stripers wanted, but when we did find it, it was great!
I happened to be with the guy who found a successful pattern a few nights later. We were fishing by the lighthouse on the outside of the bay. It was about 2 in the morning when he said, “Jon, I’m hooked up.” He landed his fish and proceeded to catch a couple more. He could see I was getting frustrated so he hands me this thing that I had never seen before. It was also a slider, but it had a big bullet shaped foam head and a whole bunch of feathers, mylar and peacock herl sticking out of it.
Wouldn’t you know, first cast BAM!! Fish on. I got my first striper. Now I was pumped! It wasn’t big, but it was a good fighter. I played that fish and beached it promptly. It was 26” and plump. Every cast for about 45 minutes, a fish either blew up on that fly, or tail slapped it. Now we knew what we would be tying the next day!
The following day, we left Cape Pogue and took a trip to Lobsterville Beach. Another club member was renting a house there, so we stopped by for a BBQ before we headed to the beach. I had been told stories about this place, but still could not believe it when I got there. There were hundreds of birds diving into the water. They were everywhere. That meant there was bait there. When we got to the water’s edge, there was bait alright. Too much bait! It was almost impossible to catch fish because they would just swim through balls of 2” sand eels with their mouths open. They weren’t really “chasing” the bait at all. You could literally reach your hand down and scoop the bait up with your hand. One guy happened to get a fish on a flatwing deceiver that evening. When it got dark, you could see stripers sipping sand eels on the surface. They looked like trout feeding on a mayfly hatch on the Delaware. Cool, but very hard to catch fish. We decided to go back and fish the Gut some more.
Basically, I had caught a few fish each night. Some were over 30” but most were 22-27”. That was fine with me. I actually lost fewer fish than many of my friends. I was starting to gain a little respect as I landed fish after fish without one coming unbuttoned. As the week continued, we lost a few guys as their commitments at home made them leave early. We would leave Saturday morning, but wanted to go back to Lobsterville and fish Dogfish Bar again before we left. There were 5 of us that took that trip back to Lobsterville. It was a gray evening and there wasn’t as much bait there as the first night. At first I was bummed, but then I realized that this might be good. Well, bait started getting restless and shortly after, the bass showed. It was right before dark when a bunch of bass started
busting bait in front of me. I was in the right place at the right time. I cast that black slider out and I could see the bass come up and inhale it. I almost pulled the fly from the fish, but I hooked it. I knew it was a decent fish as it started heading out to deeper water. This was the first fish to take me considerably into my backing. I finally landed the fish and got my friend to take a picture of it with my disposable. I promptly measured the fish, snapped a picture and released her.
That bass was 34” and was 2” shy of the biggest one anyone caught that trip. I didn’t care about numbers of fish; I didn’t really care about the size of the fish I caught. The only thing I cared about was how great this trip was and how much I had learned.
I remember the long drive home and how I drifted off into reminiscing about the week on “The Vineyard.” After literally thousands of casts in the dark of night, after having to wear tape on my fingers because stripping the line rubbed my fingers raw, and after being utterly exhausted, I thought to myself, “This was worth it and I would do it again.” What an experience. After that trip, in my own mind, I felt like one of those legends I read about in Post’s book. And it’s a feeling I will never forget.
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I’ve always read how wonderful the fishing used to be on NJ’s coast. I marveled at the stories of 50 lb stripers being caught more than regularly. Eel skin plugs, squid tins, live Menhaden; these were the baits/lures of choice. I never really knew of or cared much for the saltwater fishing opportunities anywhere other than my home state. This changed the day I picked up “Reading the Water,” by Robert Post. For those who have not read the book, it is more about the history of surf fishing and the legendary surf fishermen of Martha’s Vineyard, than about fishing techniques. After reading about the famous Derby held each fall, and the wonderful fishing opportunities year round, I just had to take a trip to Martha’s Vineyard to see what this was all about. This is a short story of my first trip to Martha’s Vineyard and the first fish that I ever caught from the surf using my fly rod.
Starting sometime in January, I began tying flies for this “fraternal” adventure I was going to be a part of. One night a week, my neighbor and I would tie flies for the trip. Although we would only spend about 2 hours tying on those nights, we were fairly productive and quite creative in preparing our selections. He kept telling me that you never know what those fish are going to want. They could be keyed in on squid, herring, crabs or sand eels. We tried to tie a few flies of each so we could at least experiment the first night we were there. I was going to be ready for this!
Just when I thought I was going to die of anticipation, the day finally came. We packed our stuff and drove 5 hours to Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 45 minutes later, we arrived by ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. Wow, what a place! Although filled with tourists, the place was nice. After riding the 2 minute ferry from Edgartown to Chappaquiddick Island, we headed towards our final destination; Cape Pogue. We stopped to let air out of the tires near the Dike House, before crossing over the Dike Bridge and heading off towards Cape Pogue. I had never driven on the beach before, and although I was a passenger in the car, I was still quite nervous about it.
He kept telling me that you never know what those fish are going to want. They could be keyed in on squid, herring, crabs or sand eels. We tried to tie a few flies of each so we could at least experiment the first night we were there. I was going to be ready for this!
Just when I thought I was going to die of anticipation, the day finally came. We packed our stuff and drove 5 hours to Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 45 minutes later, we arrived by ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. Wow, what a place! Although filled with tourists, the place was nice. After riding the 2 minute ferry from Edgartown to Chappaquiddick Island, we headed towards our final destination; Cape Pogue. We stopped to let air out of the tires near the Dike House, before crossing over the Dike Bridge and heading off towards Cape Pogue. I had never driven on the beach before, and although I was a passenger in the car, I was still quite nervous about it.
The water looked inviting, even in the middle of the day. There were millions of sand eels present. This is good, right? It looked like we might have to tie sand eels even smaller than the ones we had with us. These were only 1-2 inches long. It’s tough to match that hatch.