This late-spring striper took a baitfish fly on a shoreline flat.
If patience isn’t your strongest quality, then try casting at the dark spots and coaxing the fish out of the hiding places. This isn’t pure sight fishing, but if you happen to see the fish follow your fly and then inhale it, then that half counts, right?
Flashing fish are a gift. When a striper turns on its side, revealing the white part of its belly, it’s a cinch to see at a good distance. In this case, a good strong cast and placement of the fly is crucial.
Casting a long fly line and hitting your target is wonderful, but if you don’t know what to do beyond this point, you might as well be casting on the lawn. If you make the cast and present the fly with grace, just to fumble around for your fly line while the striper takes and then drops your fly, then all was for nothing. Never let the fly line out of your line hand. While making your final shoot, make a circle with your fingers on your line hand and let the line shoot through smoothly, so at the last moment you can have control of the line, and control of the fly. When you make your cast and the fish changes direction abruptly before your fly touches down, you must pick up all that line and re-cast right away, and this is nearly impossible if your line has been allowed to slacken and sink. This is good advice no matter what species you sight fish for.
Practice making both long and short casts. On the eastern end of Long Island, one flat may be light-colored so you will be able to see for a few hundred feet, and shoot a long cast to a fish. The next flat is rocky and dark, so you will have to make quick, accurate short casts at fish spotted close to the boat at the last minute. I find that the shorter casts are more difficult and sometimes go to short, floating shooting heads to solve that problem. Shorter leaders can be of help, too, when it comes to loading a fly rod for short casting.
When fishing in very shallow water, movement and noise must be minimized, including excessive fly and line splashdown. Then, leading the fish more than normal may be your only option. Determine where the fish is traveling and present your fly well ahead of it. Let the fish come within five feet or so of your fly, and then simply twitch it with a very short strip of the fly line. You’ll know right away if the bass has seen your fly. This technique also works well with off-target casts. Rather than risk picking up the line, waving your rod around and scaring the fish, if you think the fish might still come over the fly, play it out, and there could be a nice recovery.
After a day of fishing the flats of eastern Long Island, you might ask yourself why you haven’t done that before. It’s world-class sight fishing, there are seemingly endless flats to pole, and the beauty of the area will amaze. Long Island’s waters are blessed with clean, clear cool waters that harbor a healthy striper fishery, and will for as long as we respect it. There’s always going to be imbalances in the sight-fishing equation— sometimes no sun, sometimes too much wind, but with sufficient skills, a little knowledge, or the company of a good guide, the Long Island flats are a helluva place to sight-fish.
