Striper Flies/Tactics?
- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated Jul 6, 2007 at 1:36 pm by
.
-
Posts
-
We have a pretty good hybrid striper fishery near home and I have really been trying to get into some of these fish on the fly, but I have been relatively unsuccessful with figuring out how to catch these things. I know some of you do some fishing for hybrids/stripers here and hopefully you can help me out.
The lake averages about 15′ deep, but has several areas that from 1-3′ deep and several other areas that go down to 30′. It also has some nice deepwater structure in the form of old sunken road beds, as well as some flats that drop off into about 15′ of water pretty quickly. Alewifes are the predominant baitfish that I have been told the hybrids feed on.
I have seen that the fish really move in on the flats and adjacent drop-offs at night, and have witnessed schools of fish pounding alewifes on the surface. While these fish were feeding, I have thrown everything over them to no avail. Clousers, crease flies, gurglers and deceivers have been patterns I have concentrated on to try to imitate the alewife that the fish are chasing. Most of this has been done with an 8 wt and floating line, as the fish are relatively shallow.
Are there any particular tactics and flies that any of you have found to be more effective when fishing over stripers busting bait on the surface? Have you found any good alewife patterns? Also, any tactics for finding fish when they are not chasing the bait on the surface? I appreciate any advice you can give, as it can be pretty frustrating to have giant fish busting bait all around you and not even get a bump!
I don’t get to fish to busting fish all that often. The topwater blitzes that everyone talks about when talking Striper is pretty rare at least in my part of the country. That said I’ve done it several times with mixed results. One time it seems as if anything you throw will draw a strike and others it seems like they know you’re there and laugh at anything you throw. I have even put fish down casting flies over them.
One very important key is to match the bait size and profile of the bait they are chasing. Catch and photograph a few of them and tie up some stuff to match them. The flies you mentioned should have worked unless they were way off in size. Next use a shooting head to so you can get the fly down. If there are lots of fish on the surface there are just as many below and usually the bigger ones are just below the school picking off the wounded baits.
Locating them in a lake would take a book. Best thing to do is hire a local guide and pump his brain. I’d hire a bait guide and tell him you’re a fly fisher. He’ll share more info with a fly fisherman then he would another bait guy.
It takes a little time to get Striper and Hybrid dialed in no matter how you go about it. IMO its the most fun you can have in freshwater on the fly.
Thanks for the advice Mike, we are going to give it a go again on Saturday night (hopefully with better results this time).
I experiment with my retrieve alot. If you get follows but no takers go with a faster more erratic retrieve like a jerky strip,,strip,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,strip,,,,,,,,, strip,,strip,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,strip, type of retrieve. I usually start off with long solid strips and a pause just to see if they work since they are alot less stressful on your stripping hand. I can cast 500 grain on a 10wt all day and right arm will feel fine but my stripping hand feels like I pitched a 12 inning game in the world series with it.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.