Sand
Eels & Striped Bass
Ed
Mitchell 2002
From
the crest of the dune, we looked out over the calm waters of Vineyard Sound as a
light sea breeze rose to greet us. It was hard to imagine a prettier scene. To
our left an orange sun settled silently into the west, signaling the final hours
of a perfect spring day. And the only sounds were the hush of gentle waves against
the beach and the call of terns as they darted over the sandbars.
After a moment or two, we headed down the face of
the dune, out across the backbeach, and then down to the blue water’s edge.
Our strategy was a simple one--split up and search for striped bass feeding on
sand eels. After surveying the surface for swirls, I elected to walk to the
east. A short distance ahead, where the beach took a jog, a number of terns were
busily diving into the water. Obviously the terns had located a school of sand
eels, and just as likely there were stripers on the prowl there too.
I moved quickly to the spot and peeled line from the reel preparing for a cast. Immediately I spied a cluster of swirls out about 50 feet. Flexing the rod, I sent the fly toward the melee. After allowing the fly to settle for a second, I began my retrieve. A moment later the rod bowed with the weight of a striper. The fight was on.
A Late Afternoon Walk to Dogfish Bar
The
Sand Eel Scene
Coastal
fly rodders see many combinations of predator and prey; each staged in its own
circumstance and season. But if you had to capture in a single scenario the
essence of Northeast saltwater fly fishing, it would be the situation I just
described—walking and wading a long sandy beach in the ebbing light as terns
wheel overhead and striped bass swirl on sand eels.
On Cape Cod and the Islands, the finest of this
fishing often takes place from late May into early July, a period when the
seasonal movements of striped bass and sand eels collide. At this time of year,
sand eels push inshore from their wintering grounds in deeper water. At roughly
the same time, pulses of migratory stripers surge up the coast, especially on
the stronger moon tides. Ravenous from the energy demands of their northern
trek, these bass focus heavily on sand eels, chowing down with a vengeance.
In addition to being a key menu item for migratory
striped bass, sand eels, which aren’t eels at all but a type of fish called a
lance, are important forage fish along much of the Atlantic, from the Canadian
Maritimes down to Cape Hatteras. There is an inshore variety, Ammodytes
americanus, and an offshore one, Ammodytes dubius. The inshore
species is of most concern to fly rodders and an understanding of this forage is
helpful when seeking a wide variety of fish including Atlantic bonito, Atlantic
mackerel, bluefish, spotted sea trout, red drum, hickory shad, weakfish, fluke,
little tunny, and sea-run brown trout. Moreover, Pacific Coast fly rodders
should also be aware of Ammodytes hexapterus. It’s fed upon by Pacific salmon
and sea-run cutthroat.
Wherever sand eels roam, they are slender creatures
and easy to match with a fly. Adult americanus typically range 2.5 to 4.5
inches long but can grow to 6 inches. Their flanks are iridescent silver, and
their backs vary in color depending on local conditions. Where the water is
stained by tidal river run-off or the bottom is dark, expect americanus
to have a deep-blue or black back. In clear waters, particularly over a light
sand bottom, their backs are pale green.
Many sandy beaches along the Atlantic are home to
sand eels, but the largest schools are frequently found in and around estuaries,
especially where tidal or long shore currents exist. These habitats are loaded
with plankton, sand eels’ primary food supply. Since plankton drifts freely
with the tide, sand eels adjust. On an incoming tide, expect sand eels to move
up inside a bay, salt pond, or river mouth; on the ebb, expect them to fall back
toward open water. They’re following the food.
In any location, striped bass feed on sand eels
around the clock. And as a result even anglers relatively new to the salt may do
well at any hour by simply tying on a sand-eel fly and blind casting.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of nuances to this fishing, and at times it is
downright challenging.
Experienced salts realize that the best of this
action frequently revolves around three distinct periods of day: the dusk bite,
the night bite, and the bite at dawn. And they know that where sand eels are
numerous, these three events provide fairly dependable action. Nevertheless,
they will also tell you that it is important to hone your skills to take full
advantage of these opportunities. For instance, things such as the right
retrieve or the right fly can make all the difference. In short, experience
pays. Lets start by looking at fly size.
Sand
Eel Patterns
Picking a fly that matches the
prevailing size of the sand eels in front of you is a good first step. But sand
eels vary considerably from beach to beach. Nearshore, adults can be from 4 to 6
inches long, while tiny young of the year (YOY) are barely as long as a paper
match.
Occasionally, different sand-eel age classes do mix
together on the same beach, but it is more common for them to segregate by size.
Here is a good general rule: Expect the older, larger sand eels to inhabit the
prime locations where currents are strongest; expect their much smaller siblings
to reside in shallow areas of weaker current. On Cape Cod, for example, I expect
to find larger sand eels in the swift waters of Chatham inlet, while just across
the way their smaller brethren abide on the flats of Monomoy Island.
Most anglers carry patterns to match adult sand
eels, yet few have anything in their fly boxes to match the young of the year.
The truth is these YOY fish regularly give anglers fits. An exact imitation
should be about 1 ½ inches or less. Still I prefer to make my fly a bit larger,
just shy of 2 inches long to stand out in a crowd. A #2 long-shank hook is about
right for that task, but tying on these hooks, especially stainless-steel ones,
can lead to trouble. They may hold schoolies, but too often they open up when a
bigger bass latches on.
To avoid that I rarely tie YOY sand-eel flies on
long-shank hooks, preferring instead the following alternatives. You can tie a
2-inch fly on a hook bigger than #2. A Mustad 34007 in #1/0 is an example. Yes,
the gap looks big for the size of the fly, but the fish don’t care, and the
hook holds well.
Another alternative is to pick a smaller hook
designed with a wide gap such as the Varivas 990S. In #2, this stainless hook
has the right size shank for a small fly yet has a gap nearly the equal of most
#1/0s.
If you want a more appropriate looking gap, another
option is to tie your YOY sand eels on #2 hooks made with heavy wire. For
several seasons I have successfully used the #2 Gamakatsu SL11-3H. Mustad’s C
70S D deserves serious attention. Neither hook is stainless, so expect some
tarnishing, but also expect both hooks to hold.
The
Right Retrieve
Sand-eel
flies can be fished effectively employing either the traditional one-handed
strip or the two-handed retrieve with the rod up under your arm. I prefer the
two-handed strip because it’s more sensitive to the strike and it’s better
for setting the hook.
While either style of retrieve works, the retrieve
speed is a critical part of your success. At dusk and dawn, a slow to moderate
retrieve is the ticket. After dark, things change. When fishing at night, your
retrieve speed should be a bare crawl. If you know the fly is traveling through
feeding bass, and you are still not getting strikes, reduce your retrieve speed.
Try moving the fly forward at roughly an inch every three or four seconds. That
is difficult for many anglers to do, especially when they can hear the bass
feeding. Wherever sand eels are numerous, stripers usually refuse to chase a
fly. You must slink it slowly by them. If it moves even a hair too fast, the
number of strikes you get will decline dramatically. A fly dead in the water or
simply hanging at the end of a swing works for the same reason.
High
Tide, Low Tide
Light
level is more important than tide level in this fishing. Still, tide has a role.
Given a choice, I prefer a high tide for dusk fishing because the deeper water
is more likely to bring big bass within casting range of the beach. A high tide
at dusk allows the sand eels to bed down well up in the intertidal zone, but
when the tide lowers late at night, they must relocate to avoid being stranded.
As they emerge and move seaward, a wall of striped bass waits for them. The
result is a strong, late-night bite at the bottom hours of the tide.
The
Dusk Bite
The
dusk bite usually begins as the sun’s rays slant over the water, around 6 P.M.
in late spring. Then, schools of sand eels move to the beach preparing to bed in
the sand for the night. The bass follow this shoreward migration, which brings
them within casting range. During the dusk bite schools of sand eels travel back
and forth along the shoreline with the bass in hot pursuit.
While dusk fishing is seldom fast and furious, it
often supplies a few hours of steady action. You see the bait; you see the
swirls; and at times, you may even see stripers cruising right under your rod
tip. The schools are in motion, so be ready to move along the beach to stay in
touch with the action and expect a sudden blitz of activity just before dawn.
<B>Tracking the terns.<P> If you
don’t see surface activity at dusk, let the terns be your eyes. They rely
heavily on sand eels to feed themselves and their young, so any beach where
terns nest is almost certainly home to sand eels. And where the terns are the
busiest, the action will be best.
If you can’t find a group of terns, watch for any tern patrolling the water. There have been times when I have taken fish by watching one or two terns move along the water’s edge. When a bird stops and dives, I mark the spot in my mind, move there quickly, and then cast a fly. This simple trick catches fish when a shoreline seems dead.
A School of Sand Eels Packed Against the Shore at Night
The
Night Bite
After
darkness descends there is a lull in the action, and many anglers head home.
Fine by me. Under the stars some sand eels pop out of bed and feed, frequently
near the surface. The action will slowly start around 10 P.M. then build,
especially on a running tide.
On a still moonlit night, you may see the bass
swirl. Or you can often hear them sucking bait at the surface with a distinctive
popping sound. If you are where stripers are feeding in packs, the sound will
carry for a hundred feet or more. It takes nerves of steel, but you must keep
your retrieve speed to a minimum.
Current is the key. The best night bite takes place
where there are lanes of tidal current because that is where the bait is most
concentrated. As the tide progresses, however, those lanes shift, changing
shape, speed, and location. The fish adjust to these changes, and you must also.
Lobsterville Beach on Martha’s Vineyard is a long
stretch of shore facing into Menemsha Bight with a series of cusps and bowls on
its western end known as Dogfish Bar. On spring nights it is loaded with YOY
sand eels, and on the days around the full or the new moon, the tide crests
around 8:30 P.M. Early in the ebb, the current and the stripers are close to the
beach (see Figure A). But as the night and the tide progress, pockets of slow
and still water form next to the shore, and the remaining lanes of current are
out at the end of your longest cast.
In the still water there are plenty of sand eels
and striped bass popping. But here, sand eels are not holding in a current to
feed. Instead, they vigorously wiggle in all directions, and if you shine a
light down into the water, you see clouds of them swimming about. It’s a bowl
of hearty soup for the bass, a “Menemsha Minestrone.”
Stripers feeding in these pockets key in on this
wiggle, and a fly tracking straight through the water does not interest them.
Many anglers often spend the night desperately trying to hook these
“stillwater stripers.” It can be done, but rarely, and the fish are often
the smallest bass in the neighborhood.
Breaking the rules. Under these conditions you
should move to a portion of the beach where the current is still within range of
your longest cast. If that is not possible, try breaking one of night
fishing’s cardinal rules. Protocol dictates that you stay on the beach and
cast to the closest fish. But this is one case where you should wade through
some fish to get to others. The idea is to get out far enough to reach the
larger, more aggressive bass feeding outside in the last current lanes. Anglers
on the beach may call you a greenhorn for standing in the midst of feeding fish,
but when they see you outhooking them five to one, and landing larger bass, they
may change their tune.
Caution. Never wade over an unfamiliar bottom
especially at night and especially in places of strong current and deep water.
And, you should never wade out in front of beach anglers in a way that
interferes with their fishing.
The
Dawn Bite
As dawn approaches, sleeping sand eels rise en masse from the sand to re-form their schools. During this emergence, they are frequently more concentrated than they were at dusk, so expect the action to be intense but short-lived and isolated to only a few places along the beach. If you know where the major activity occurred during the night, the best of the dawn fishing is apt to take place there.
In late spring, this bite starts around 3 A.M. or
shortly thereafter in the false light prior to sunrise. Since the wind is
usually calm around dawn, even in this weak illumination swirls will be visible.
The action will build rapidly as the sun rises and then rapidly die as the sun
comes into full view. Prime fishing time may only be an hour or less, so set
your alarm!
Sidebar:
Tracking the Tide
Tracking
the Tide
Learning
to move during the tide is an important part of saltwater angling, whether you
are fishing over sand eels or any other forage. Remember that the larger, more
aggressive fish usually relocate as the current changes. During the day, these
lanes of current are usually very visible and easy for an angler to track. At
night it is a different story.
In Figure A, the ebb is two hours old. There is
current close to the beach in many places, so your casting from shore can easily
reach moving water from positions 1,3,and 5. Even in positions 2 or 4 you are
likely in business, although it is a longer cast. The only place where you are
in trouble is at position 6. Here a long cast is needed, and even if you reach
the current the fly is there only briefly.
Figure B shows the same beach during the second
half of the ebb. Things have changed dramatically. The current has moved out and
most of the shoreline has slow moving or still water next to the beach. At this
point, move until you find some current. Perhaps the best way is to cast and
move until you find a spot where your line swings during the retrieve. In this
illustration that is at position 1 or 5. When fishing at positions 2,3, or 4 you
might be tempted to stay put simply because there are fish popping within
casting range, but these stillwater fish are apt to be small, difficult to hook,
and lead to frustration.
If positions 1 and 5 are occupied, consider wading out to B, D, or F to cast to the better fish outside. You might have to go through some fish to reach others, but in this situation it can be the ticket to success.