Fluke & Flies by Dave Spendiff

Posted on July 1, 2019 by kelli

I arrived at the Marshelder Channel around 7:00 am this morning in wind a lot stronger than forecasted – so what’s new! I started drifts across the channel due to the wind direction and used killies on my jig and teaser. Over the course of the next four hours I caught 5 shorts and killed what seemed like a thousand greenhead and small black flies. The tide changed from incoming to outgoing and with the use of my trolling motor was able to establish a drift on the edge of the channel of 1.2 mph and got a solid hit just east of the brick pile. I landed what turned out to be a 21 1/2″, 3.4 lb fluke. After a couple more fishless drifts, I called it a day happy with my catch and delighted to leave the flies!

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.