I fished with Toby Lapinski last night — make that very early this morning — at a top secret location in eastern CT. (Toby is the Managing Editor of the New England Edition of The Fisherman magazine. Look for some stuff from yours truly in that pub coming soon!) Toby was spinning and I was flying. I love that combination because of the instant feedback it provides both anglers, and last night the response was: up the spin guy, down the long rod. I didn’t get a touch. Toby, who was fishing a variety of surface plugs and soft plastics, had a few bumps, an unfortunate bluefish lure removal, and a nice 20-pounder. The action was sporadic and sparse, leading us to conclude that Toby’s encounters were with lone wolves rather than any pods of fish moving through. To be continued this fall…
I pride myself in my photography, but let’s face it: this shot sucks. In the heat of the moment, both photographer and camera screwed the pooch. As always, we strive for a quick, striper friendly release, photo op be damned, so by the time I figured out the issue we could only manage this blurry disaster. Try to imagine 30-something inches of piggy striper swimming away. Please.
currentseams.com 
Hi Steve, I was reading some of your past salt articles and was wondering what flies would you suggest for the 3 standard fly rig for this time of the year. I haven’t fly fished for stripers and want to give it a try. Planning to use an 8 wt with an intermediate line and your suggested standard on a outward tide. Like in swinging wets (I’m a big Davy Wooten fan) I’m thinking this is the way to go. Is this the right approach?
Thanks.
David
Hi David. Thanks for reading! To your questions. To start, I wouldn’t use an intermediate line because it cannot be mended. That doesn’t mean you can’t use a team of three with an intermediate; it just means you are ceding a tremendous amount of line control. As for flies, a good place to start is to check out the water. What bait do you see? What size is it? Match profile and size. The RI estuary I fished last week had silversides 2-3″, anchovies 3″, and peanut bunker 2″. I used sparse bucktails for the droppers and a micro Gurgler on point. I do like outgoing tides, but if your plan is to swing, all you need is current. Droppers work on both tides. I hope that helps, and if you have any more questions please ask.
P.S. Please let me know how it goes! 🙂
Yes, will do.
Looks like you have to dial back the flash a little if you can depending on the type of camera it is.
If you can’t do that experiment with some tissue over the flash to soften the output.
Bill
Hi Bill, the TG-4 is fussy when there’s background light at night, so the first issue was that it wouldn’t flash. The next issue was that the IR sensor wouldn’t properly focus. Add in the fact that I was moving while shooting and we wanted to get the fish back in the water ASAP, it’s not surprising that we had a less than favorable result. Thanks for your help!
Well it is what it is but we all got the image and perhaps it made the shot more interesting .
Bill
I don’t normally post substandard shots but I thought the story behind this one outweighed the downside. 🙂