Sand Eels in November
I pause on the crest of a big, bulbous dune to soak up the scene that lies in entrance of me. My breath is available in small puffs of vapor that grasp like fog round my face, clouding my imaginative and prescient. It’s chilly tonight. The sand glistens like 1,000,000 minuscule diamonds underneath a heavy dew and full moon. Whereas the air is sort of totally nonetheless, the rolling surf breaks the silence with rhythmic pulsations of churning water. It’s a weak surf, however the sound carries far within the crisp air. The celebrities are so vivid and clear that they really feel shut…as if I might attain up and maintain them in my hand. In a fleeting second of childlike creativeness, I need to restrain myself from making an attempt.
Motion to the precise catches my eye. I flip, disturbing the stillness round me with the swish sound of my waders. A fox is working the tide line, his nostril down, darting and swerving as waves break and roll towards it. It’s a bit late for me to run into my season-long nocturnal companion, but right here she is. She pauses momentarily to examine some potential meal. I feel to myself, “I’m wondering if this would be the final evening I see her this season?” I frown. The thought is yet one more harbinger of a season coming to a detailed.
(Word: On The Water is reader-supported. If you purchase via hyperlinks on our web site, we could earn an affiliate fee.)
This thought brings with it some urgency and pushes me out of my reflective, passive statement of the seaside and into an energetic looking mode. I half stroll, half slide down the slender path lower within the dune grass. The fox seems to be up all of a sudden and turns rapidly to flee. She bounds away, after which stops for a second, glancing over her shoulder, showing to replicate on my sudden and alien look. She could also be questioning the identical fundamental thought that many different fishermen would possible be pondering—what am I doing out right here so late within the season?
As I attain the waterline, I give her a fast half-wave/half-salute and watch her dissolve into the evening. I flip again towards the horizon and concentrate on the duty at hand. The lure choice is automated—an unloaded Cotton Cordell Pink Fin. My fingers are already a bit chilly, however anticipation pushes it out of my thoughts. I can see the sand eels glowing in entrance of me, proper on the surf line, in addition to out into the trough. I snap on the lure and take a forged. Solely 20 or so ft into the retrieve, I’m tight to my first striper of the evening.
For the rest of this tough, vitreous evening, I catch bass all through the complete tide to about 12 kilos. Regardless of my late arrival and the constant motion, the evening nonetheless feels lengthy. The moon disappears, and I find yourself fishing via inky darkness and into the morning, unable to drag myself away. Twilight passes languidly, however as mild begins to peek over the japanese horizon, I tally my nighttime catch at nearly 40 fish.
But, it isn’t over. Out of the blue, stripers start swirling all over the place within the wash. They’re rolling on shimmering balls of sand eels thick sufficient to ripple and rile the flat floor. I’ve stopped catching, because the fish begin to reject my plugs, however I can see fish cruising tight to the shore. I make the choice to endure the lengthy stroll again to the automobile and seize my fly rod. I word as I unlock the door that my car is roofed with frost.
Upon hustling again to the surf, my fly rod in hand, I discover the fish aggressively breaking within the surf because the solar rises absolutely over the japanese horizon. I lay out a properly positioned forged, however it hardly issues. I don’t even get an opportunity to strip my line earlier than I’m tight to a fierce, keeper-sized striper. I grin ear to ear—it doesn’t get a lot better than this.
November is a lonely, determined time for the New England surf fisherman. There appears to solely be a handful of diehards left as everybody else has both given up striper fishing for the season or began making lengthy drives south. This isn’t shocking, and even unjustified. Late-fall fishing within the New England surf may be robust. Huge expanses of shoreline are devoid of life, places that, solely weeks earlier than, had been full of blitzes of reckless, seemingly indignant, migrating fish.
Studying the story above, chances are you’ll surmise I’m speaking about October in South County Rhode Island or November in New Jersey. Nevertheless, this particular evening happened on Cape Cod in mid-November. Over these 12 hours of fishing, I caught greater than 60 fish, and through that November I caught greater than 120 from that single spot. To these new to the game, or those that have forgotten historical past, November within the Cape surf was a main month for giant fish, although I by no means noticed these days. Whereas issues have modified considerably, I nonetheless discover stable tides full of schoolies to teen-size fish every season deep into November. Persistently catching these fish has come down to at least one easy tactic for me. I key in on one forage species, to the exclusion of all different elements. I concentrate on sand eels.
Why Striper Fish Round Sand Eels?
It’s easy, actually—they keep put. Sand eels are totally different from many different types of bait. If there isn’t a loopy onshore storm that comes late within the 12 months and lasts for a really very long time, the eels don’t transfer round a lot. As soon as you discover them, you may depend on them being there for a lot of weeks, and even months, late into the season. As such, they appeal to and maintain the final remaining migrating fish as they head south or offshore. Cape Cod might be the sand eel capital of New England, if not the Northeast and holds concentrations that may boggle the thoughts. The opposite good thing the Cape has going for it’s seashores that face each course the wind might presumably blow. Consequently, if there’s a predominant northeast wind sample, Cape anglers can fish the greasy-calm circumstances of the south-facing seashores—and vice-versa. This generally is a actual asset later in November.
Tips on how to Discover Sand Eels
Past discovering the sand eels, throughout the tail finish of the season, selecting, testing, and sticking with productive spots turns into paramount. You will need to begin early. I don’t fish many of those late-season spots throughout the extra productive durations of the autumn run as a result of there are higher possibilities of greater fish on bigger forage. Nevertheless, I normally pressure myself to fish a few evening tides in October and even late September, testing my common November spots, understanding I might be comfortable I did so afterward. If I discover bait and even only a few schoolies, I do know I’m most likely in luck.
Whereas it’s November now, don’t fear – it’s not too late to get began. Go tonight or tomorrow, in the event you can. Don’t attempt to catch fish instantly; as a substitute, exit and hit as many possible spots as you may, on the lookout for good sand eel concentrations—concentrations being the important thing phrase on this sentence. You don’t need only a few or scattered pockets; you need a stable, thick swath of bait. And, be sure you are taking a look at sand eels and never spearing or different minnow-sized baitfish. I typically discover figuring out sand eels simpler at evening utilizing a headlamp. For those who flip in your mild and the bait darts away, showing to vanish utterly earlier than your eyes, you recognize you’re on sand eels.
When you’ve discovered the sand eels, begin fishing. I counsel not losing any time at spots with no fish this month irrespective of how a lot construction or bait there’s. In contrast to within the spring, summer season, and early fall, I don’t “stick it out” at spots that “look good.” No fish throughout an evening or two? I’m not coming again for some time, if in any respect. Nevertheless, as soon as I discover some fish, I’ll sit on them for so long as I can. Even when they’re small, I strive to not go away fish to search out fish. The presence of smaller fish suggests there’s something totally different about this spot, and bigger fish could seem. This doesn’t essentially imply I’ve to catch a dozen fish to deem a spot productive, however I’m on the lookout for an space with greater than only a single schoolie over a few nights. It takes time to get a really feel for it, however when you get into the sample and construct some confidence, you’ll nearly intuitively know when a spot is sensible.
As for the particular traits of the spot, I’m not fussy about nuance. I merely search for sandy areas near well-known migration routes or close to main holdover areas (i.e., rivers and estuaries). They don’t need to be immediately adjoining, however the nearer the higher. That’s about it. Whereas I obsess over water motion, construction, and different elements earlier within the season, I don’t fear an excessive amount of about it in November. It’s all concerning the bait and intercepting the remaining fish as they both head south or gap up for the winter in our native backwaters. (Word that this doesn’t apply simply to the Cape, but additionally to different areas in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.)
After you have a spot with sand eels and have caught a few fish, be sure you’re concentrating on one of the best tide. This will sound like an intuitive “duh” assertion, however it may possibly additionally show vital. For me, fishing sandy seashores this time of 12 months is all concerning the incoming tide. The water tends to be hotter, and an incoming tide will increase water depth. Since I’m typically fishing shallow areas, this deeper water appears convey the fish inside casting distance. Nevertheless, this may occasionally not apply to your spot. I counsel making an attempt as many tide phases as you may, and logging them in a fishing log. Each evening out is knowledge and an funding in your future success. Moreover, I urge you to fish solely the evening tides except you’ve gotten limitless availability to fish across the clock. This time of 12 months, many fishermen swap to fishing late afternoons and evenings, however I feel this to be a mistake. The perfect fishing nonetheless stays after darkish, identical to all season lengthy, and I nonetheless fish the very late “witching hour” tides properly after midnight.
Lastly, proper now, I choose to fish with the wind at my again, which is counter to what many are likely to suppose. Definitely, throughout early durations of the autumn, massive waves, white water, and wind-in-your-face circumstances may be dynamite. Nevertheless, this time of 12 months, I fish flat circumstances nearly completely. It’s actually not concerning the fish, it’s extra about my consolation stage. When it’s solely 40 (and even 30) levels out and the water is just 50, with the wind blowing in my face at 25 mph, my fingers don’t are likely to operate very properly, even with gloves (and I hate gloves). So, I concentrate on calm circumstances out of egocentric consolation and adapt my angling to catch what I can. Fortunately, calm circumstances are extra conducive to getting sand eels to come back up and out of the sand, attracting extra fish.
Sand Eel Lure Imitations
Relating to plug selection, that is the one time of 12 months that I closely use plastic minnow-style lures. They mimic the bait measurement, they’re low cost, and so they forged properly. I really like an unloaded Cotton Cordell Pink Fin. With a wind at my again, I’ve no downside casting them, and the unloaded Pink Fin appears to be extra productive for me in shallow, clear water than the loaded model. This lure has extra dramatic motion, which permits it to be fished very slowly whereas nonetheless having that seductive roll. I additionally like Yo-Zuri Magazine Darters, Bomber Lengthy A’s, and Daiwa SP Minnows. Nevertheless, Lunker Metropolis Slug-Gos may be the one factor that catches at occasions, so I all the time have them available.
Needlefish of assorted sizes are additionally all the time in my bag, however they need to be very gradual sinking. I cycle via all of those, each dozen casts or so, as I feel the fish may be comparatively fussy in these late-season, shallow-water conditions. It typically takes some experimentation to lock into one of the best lure selection.
For my fellow fly-rodders, November is a incredible, and missed, time to focus on stripers and bait near shore. I fish intermediate and floating traces on my 10-weight rod and sometimes use a straight, 15- to 20-pound chief of seven to 9 ft lengthy. It’s easy and works nice—I’m simply capable of shoot the complete line, blind-casting measurement 1/0 flies for hours on finish with out an excessive amount of fatigue, and don’t have any downside pulling teen-sized bass via the final wave.
The wonderful thing about fishing at evening is you don’t need to go loopy with mild tippets. I nearly completely use cheap Deceiver flies, or Clouser minnows if the water is a bit deeper. Sizes between 1 and 1/0 work simply nice, and by focusing in on one bait profile, issues keep easy.
Late Fall Striper Surf Fishing
I’ll open up to you one thing that not each fishing author, information, and even simply “Joe Fisherman” is keen to confess. Some years may be awful, and I catch only a few stripers—maybe solely a dozen or two in the complete month, regardless of substantial effort. Nonetheless others may be actually rewarding and yield good numbers of fish each evening for weeks. This comes all the way down to a number of elements; nevertheless, a very powerful is luck of the climate.
Climate can completely destroy any probability at catching something. Throughout September and October, fishing 4- to 6-foot waves isn’t any downside; throughout November, it may be a catastrophe. It may well disperse the sand eels and pressure them out of a spot or offshore, and typically, for no matter purpose, they simply by no means come again. It additionally tends to push the remaining migrating fish south. Since I insist on specializing in particular tides at evening, if a number of storms come again to again with solely a handful of days between them, it may possibly damage a complete tide cycle, and even the entire month. As such, when the window of alternative opens, I deal with these tides like I do these in Might or June—I encourage, borrow, or purchase my manner out of any obligations and fish like my life relies upon upon it. I keep totally dedicated to the surf, proper to the bitter finish, as a result of I by no means remorse it in February.
Associated Content material
Sand Eel Fly Patterns for the Fall Run
Teasers for Fall Run Stripers
Diamond Jig Suggestions for Surf Stripers
