My good friend Justin and I took advantage of this amazing weather and hit the sound together today for the first time in a few years.
Pretty weak tides and super bright, warm weather didn't make for ideal fishing conditions but we managed to land a decent amount of fish including some real quality specimens. It was a strange day in that the fish were very schooled up in specific areas, and in some of those areas they were super spooky, finicky, and boat shy while other areas they were as aggressive as I've ever seen them be. No idea what accounted for the difference in behavior. The first area we found a big school there was pretty decent current but they were super not the least bit aggressive. The next spot we found a much larger school that were absolutely fighting over themselves to eat any fly we threw but it was total stagnant frog water. Was pretty strange but made for some furious action at times and some more frustrating fishing at times.
Can't complain about the quality of the fish though. My biggest was a solid 18"+ and my buddies biggest was just slightly smaller. All fat and healthy, and most encountered were in that 14-16" range. In the first school we found there was some nice fish but one was an absolute monster that stood out like a sore thumb. It was a serious stud but we never were able to tangle with that one. My buddy lost another giant that was definitely bigger than anything we put in the net.
We did encounter one sizeable school of small rezzies that didn't hang around long.
Fly didn't seem to matter much. We each caught some fish on four or five patterns. I actually did my best with a stupid olive/orange rubber legged bunny strip clouser type pattern that was pretty large and obnoxious that I threw on out of frustration while fishing over one of the finicky schools. Seemed it all just boiled down to what sort of mood a particular school of fish were in. If they were aggressive they gladly ate everything we showed them. If they weren't, then fly didn't seem to change their attitude one bit.
We did see one small school of chum fry right near the end of the day but that was it on the fry front.
Overall a fun, if warmer than I'd have liked day on the water with some good fishing and some frustrating fishing. Wind was fairly annoying though. It was not supposed to be around until later in the day but showed up about 11 or so and made things kinda annoying at times.
