Mark V
07-26-2015, 03:05 PM
Yesterday I 50/50 fished with Maury Hatch on the American river. Nice morning! Still re-running it in my head.
We started in low light casting the (topwater) Pole Dancers. Maury landed the first striper of the day, a 26 incher (first pic, closeup), followed by a fat rat. I had only 2 small blowups that missed.
My first fish came a little later after we were fishing the clousers S6, and it was memorable. My personal best at 26" plus a good-sized a gut Maury est. at 9 lbs. It seems to me it looked MUCH bigger in person, and I never pose the fish arms out to magnify... Didn't have a Boga on board but it def was slightly over 26" and chart says that ranges 7-10 lbs. Me & the fish pretty worn out, took awhile to revive him.
The clousers we used all day were Maury's latest concoction, a "suckerfish" pattern with a black tail. How many of the fish we see in the water have a black tail? I think this fly is slick, he hides a little extra lead in the head/body for extra action w/ smaller eyes, and the combo of bucktail w/ artificial hairs gives it a tall/fat bulk when wet. Maury says he owes a favor to Andy Guibord for showing him how to do that. And it swims w/ bulk without having bad hair issues.
Got to use his 9 wt Sage ONE rod and it is really sweet. I love the older Sage Xi-3 that's my main weapon but this ONE was more effortless and possibly a little longer casting. A beautiful day, thankfully mild on the heat. You forget that this guide is a 'foodie' until the smell of the heated meat n cheese croissants hits you late morning and you break to indulge. Xlnt.
That sight-fishing-for-stripers in less than 3' of water action Tony Buz talked about? We fished that area too; out the gate Maury spotted & directed, I popped a somewhat lucky extra long cast...
We watched as a small school of smaller stripers seemingly came out of Klingon 'cloak' mode, excitedly all chasing my fly, and then the biggest among them ate my fly and was on! About an 18 incher, he proceeded to flash once; I shoulda strip set, but unfort I raised my rod the lazy way to handle a dink. So the next thing we saw was him head shake and flare his gills, and my fly zinged out. Oh well that was a fun 3 seconds. That was like video I've seen of bonefishing.
In all we caught & released (only) 23-25 stripers incl 4 keepers and mostly fat rats, only 1 was a true diaper striper. Oh and somehow Maury had never caught a smallmouth on the American before yesterday got a nice one before we headed back to the launch.
Just texted Maury who said ok to share info about his fly w/ pic, and added that his 2 clients today used it to catch all the fish including an 18 pounder, and another one sight fishing. (final pic) His report:
And today was flocking crazy
A BIG fish bent my clients hook and got off
We found a 15# that was cruising the flats and it followed the fly all the way to the boat before turning away...holy sh1t
And the best fish of the year 18#
Thank you Mr. Hatch for a very memorable morning on the American!
We started in low light casting the (topwater) Pole Dancers. Maury landed the first striper of the day, a 26 incher (first pic, closeup), followed by a fat rat. I had only 2 small blowups that missed.
My first fish came a little later after we were fishing the clousers S6, and it was memorable. My personal best at 26" plus a good-sized a gut Maury est. at 9 lbs. It seems to me it looked MUCH bigger in person, and I never pose the fish arms out to magnify... Didn't have a Boga on board but it def was slightly over 26" and chart says that ranges 7-10 lbs. Me & the fish pretty worn out, took awhile to revive him.
The clousers we used all day were Maury's latest concoction, a "suckerfish" pattern with a black tail. How many of the fish we see in the water have a black tail? I think this fly is slick, he hides a little extra lead in the head/body for extra action w/ smaller eyes, and the combo of bucktail w/ artificial hairs gives it a tall/fat bulk when wet. Maury says he owes a favor to Andy Guibord for showing him how to do that. And it swims w/ bulk without having bad hair issues.
Got to use his 9 wt Sage ONE rod and it is really sweet. I love the older Sage Xi-3 that's my main weapon but this ONE was more effortless and possibly a little longer casting. A beautiful day, thankfully mild on the heat. You forget that this guide is a 'foodie' until the smell of the heated meat n cheese croissants hits you late morning and you break to indulge. Xlnt.
That sight-fishing-for-stripers in less than 3' of water action Tony Buz talked about? We fished that area too; out the gate Maury spotted & directed, I popped a somewhat lucky extra long cast...
We watched as a small school of smaller stripers seemingly came out of Klingon 'cloak' mode, excitedly all chasing my fly, and then the biggest among them ate my fly and was on! About an 18 incher, he proceeded to flash once; I shoulda strip set, but unfort I raised my rod the lazy way to handle a dink. So the next thing we saw was him head shake and flare his gills, and my fly zinged out. Oh well that was a fun 3 seconds. That was like video I've seen of bonefishing.
In all we caught & released (only) 23-25 stripers incl 4 keepers and mostly fat rats, only 1 was a true diaper striper. Oh and somehow Maury had never caught a smallmouth on the American before yesterday got a nice one before we headed back to the launch.
Just texted Maury who said ok to share info about his fly w/ pic, and added that his 2 clients today used it to catch all the fish including an 18 pounder, and another one sight fishing. (final pic) His report:
And today was flocking crazy
A BIG fish bent my clients hook and got off
We found a 15# that was cruising the flats and it followed the fly all the way to the boat before turning away...holy sh1t
And the best fish of the year 18#
Thank you Mr. Hatch for a very memorable morning on the American!