Stripers at Night
My Dutch buddy, Theo Bakelaar, was here in June to fish for stripers on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. It can be a fabulous fishery when things are right, and Theo hit in spot on. There can be good fishing both day and night, with the dark hours usually trumping the daylight. Interestingly, the big fish often fall to smaller flies, representing injured or wounded sand eels or other bait. The Stripers (and blues) come right in next to shore (as in the first wave out) and slam through the bait, killing and wounding as many as possible by their violent swimming actions. The big fish then come back and casually scoop up the dead and wounded. It’s not the type of fishing that one assumes would be happening with big fish feeding on bait. There’s no casting and rapid stripping. There’s no 2/0 and 3/0 flies. Rather the imitations are small (like the bait) and usually black in color (to give a good silhouette). They are fished on top or near the surface, usually dead drift with a very occasional twitch (the death throes retrieve). The take is subtle–a barely imperceptible tightening of the line. And then look out!
Theo took this rather handsome striper from the beach on a size 12, curly eel-skin tail, black sand worm imitation