Best Autumn Fishing Tips
After the first autumn moon nudges stripers back downstream, forsake kayaks and canoes for speedier fly-casting platforms. Autumn’s cooling surface temperatures signal my favorite striper fishing season. As water temps drop into the low to mid60s, stripers are a movable feast, blitzing panicked schools of shad near or on the surface. This is dramatic, fast-paced fly fishing action. A quick boat is essential. Low-light conditions enhance opportunities throughout the day. Bright, sunny conditions may limit the best action to early and late in the day. The drill is deceptively simple: Look for migratory gulls and terns wheeling above feeding bass, and get within casting range as soon as possible without spooking the fish. But there are lots of nuances.
If the birds are in a feathered tornado whirling above swirls of feeding stripers, it’s hard not to hook up. Don’t ignore a pod of birds simply sitting on the water, particularly if they seem reluctant to flee from your boat. Stripers may be lurking near the bottom below the birds. An exploratory cast or two with a sinking line is prudent. In addition to an arsenal of fly rods rigged with varying sinking rate lines, I always have good binoculars within easy reach while chasing stripers under birds. Most fly anglers prefer approaching surface feeding fish by positioning their boats upwind to permit a stealthy drift within casting range, or by closing the final gap into casting range via electric motors. Good autumn-blitz anglers make quick, long casts, and fly line stripping buckets earn their keep.
COWEN’S COYOTE
When stripers are in the transitional feeding period for several weeks after spring spawning rituals, and again in early autumn before reliable surface melees, it’s time to tie on a searching pattern. Henry Cowen’s Coyote is an ideal searching pattern. The Coyote is indebted to the Road Runner, a popular spinning lure, and to Texan George Glazener’s Spinster fly. Glazener designed the bladed pattern to take Lake Texoma stripers. Cowen’s more compact Coyote is best retrieved with medium long strips and slight pauses. The Coyote excels in stained and moving water.
HOOK: Tiemco TMC811S, size 1/0.
THREAD: Fine monofilament.
EYES: Medium adhesive eyes.
BRAID: Pearl flat Body Braid.
MONO SPIKE: 40-pound-test monofilament.
BODY: White Zonker rabbit strip.
WING: Chartreuse bucktail.
FLASH: Chartreuse Krystal Flash.
BARREL SWIVEL: Size 12.
SPLIT RING: Size 0.
SPINNER BLADE: Size 00, hammered nickel Indiana blade.
Sometimes, however, even feeding fish spurn a stealthy approach and perfect casts. After several casts with no strikes, think about your fly retrieve. Retrieve rhythm and speed can make a crucial difference between getting thudding strikes and nothing.
Stripers like following flies. Anything that triggers the initial follow and subsequent strike is critical. Fly size, color, and sink rate seem to produce followers, but pauses and drops prompt strikes. Generally, the colder the water, the slower the retrieve and longer the drop should be. I’ve become convinced that during spring, summer, and early fall, it’s virtually impossible to retrieve too quickly, but no matter how fast-paced the retrieve, a pause is essential for consistent strikes. Indeed, it’s difficult for me to remember a strike, other than with surface flies, that didn’t occur during a pause, no matter how brief.
Even if you’ve deciphered the tiny shad puzzle, simply presenting a Somethin’ Else won’t guarantee success unless the retrieve is correct. “Correct” is usually a series of short strips followed by a pause of several seconds’ duration. A striper will let you know if the duration is long enough. If nothing happens, especially as the water cools into winter’s frigid range, let the fly drop longer. Make sure that your line hand is ready for a quick strip strike during the drop. A strike during a long pause is sometimes a subtle affair, often telegraphed by a muted “tic” or slight line hesitation. On other happy occasions, a strike is anything but subtle.
Freshwater striped bass and their hybrid cousins are perfect fly rod targets. They can be elusive for the uninitiated, but experienced anglers understand seasonal migration and feeding patterns. This knowledge and the accompanying top 10 patterns are your keys to catching one of the strongest freshwater fish in North America.
DECEIVER
No selection of freshwater striper flies is complete without Lefty Kreh’s classic pattern, the Deceiver. My favorite version is tied relatively sparse. Aside from Whitlock’s Sheep Shad, nothing else matches the effectiveness of a small translucent Deceiver in glassy water. Lefty’s enduring pattern isn’t a complicated tie and can be modified in several ways. Peter Smith’s S.S. Flies pattern is the essence of crystalline water modification. Peter gave me the secret to making a small, neat Deceiver head. First, measure the length of the head, and lay the bucktail against the hook to measure the desired length of the material. Pinch the base of the bucktail and clip the butt ends without moving your fingers. Place the trimmed bunch against the hook, and tie it on so that you do not have to cut any of the butt ends.
HOOK: Gamakatsu SS15, size 1.
THREAD: White Uni-Thread, size 6/0.
TAIL: Six white saddle hackles. (Vary the length of the feathers for more movement.)
FLASH: Chartreuse Flashabou.
BODY: Pearl Bill’s Body Braid.
COLLAR: White bucktail.
WING: High-tie bunch of chartreuse bucktail.
TOPPING: Peacock herl.
WEED GUARD: 20-pound-test fluorocarbon.
EYES: Black paint.
Pete Elkins is a regular contributor to our magazine. He lives in Alabama.
For more on fly fishing for freshwater stripers, go to americanangler.com/sodium-free-stripers