Finally I Caught A Striper on my Fly Rod

   Backtrack to the winter of 2010. DJ asked for a saltwater fly rod for Christmas. I bought him one but unbeknownst to me so did one of his aunts. Needless to say we were both pretty happy that there were now two 9 weight saltwater fly rods in the house. That summer DJ caught a couple of stripers on his fly rod. He didn't get any keepers but we did manage a few decent schoolies at a couple of locations.

   I did not catch any stripers on mine the few times I used it. I got so desperate I trolled a fly behind me for a couple hours one night in a saltwater pond filled with bass. I got a couple hits but no hook ups. I can’t say I gave up trying out of frustration. I gave up the fly rod because I was catching fish on my spinning gear, and I’d rather catch than blank.

Fast forward back to the present, specifically Wednesday June 11.

   I still hadn't caught a striper on a fly but I hadn't really tried again until this year. DJ and I fished the Narrow River a couple weeks ago without any luck. On June 11, we went to Newport. We got some BBQ at Becky’s in Middletown then went fishing. I went to a seminar over the winter about fishing Newport. The guide running the seminar said a specific area was almost a guarantee during a high tide at sunset in June. I stored that piece of info in my head for four months. When the time came we made the trip.

   The guide was right on target with his info. I caught a schoolies on my first cast. We fished through the night. Between us we caught about 35 fish. As we were catching I noticed fish breaking off a beach to my right. I went over and caught a few fish on my light spinning rod. Some fish were splashing within feet of me. It wasn’t a blitz but I’d see a fish splash every 30 seconds or so.

   I grabbed DJ’s fly rod (he long since got bored catching and was sitting in a comfy spot texting). I didn’t get any hits for a long time using a homemade black deceiver. I tried stripping fast and slow. Finally after at least 30 frustrating minutes I tried pausing the fly and letting it sink then moving it again. That did the trick, I hooked my first ever fly rod striper. Unfortunately, it was my smallest fish of the night. I could have easily overpowered it with my freshwater five weight. I’d say half the trout I caught this year were larger than this striper. It didn’t matter too much to me, the monkey was off my back.

   I casted out again and caught my second striper, about the same size as the first. I caught it with the same stop and go technique. At that point it was 11:30 and I had an hour ride home.