Reading the Water

I pulled up to the end of Beach Lane to have a glance at the Quogue Canal. There was a bridge at this spot that couldn’t stand the forces of the great 1938 hurricane. At the time it was very deep to allow for boat passes; now the depth of this spot well be seen by many fishing lures, and on occasion, fish as well.
As I exited my vehicle, a female golden retriever came over to investigate my presence as I said hello to its owner/friend. “Any luck here today?” I asked. I left my fishing rod in my car and walked over to have a look.
“No luck, as of yet. Actually looking pretty quiet here.” I bent down and gave his golden-colored friend a scratch on the ears and followed with a smile.
“What do you mean when you say that it’s quiet here? Are you talking tides?” I looked at the water line on the bulkhead across the canal just to have an idea of what was going on.
The dog’s owner responded with, “Well the canal usually fishes O.K. regardless of the tides, but there’s no birds working, nor are there any baitfish. It’s not quiet here, it’s dead.” I gazed up at the clouds, smiled at the dog one more time and proceeded to walk to my car. As I shifted my car into the drive position, I poked my head out of the window and yelled to the man and his dog, “good luck!”
Even though “luck” is helpful to have along when fishing, there are also an infinite number of other determining factors that can assist you in locating and catching fish. The surrounding environment that nature provides for us should be used as a building block to learn from. Unfortunately, you cannot go about enrolling into a class entitled “reading the water”, nor is it something that can be explained easily. What the non-fisher may call a “myth”, is a quality similar to the “sixth sense” obtained from experience on and around the waters. Even though I could never call myself a talented enough outdoorsman to explain such a subject, I still feel it my need to point you in the direction of some fish. Or better yet, maybe you’ll learn to point yourself in the direction in which to cast your lines.
If you’re casting your lines in the freshwaters for largemouth bass (Micropterous Salmoides) here are some keys and hints on Americas most popular game fish. Those who know the secret will follow it to their grave that bass are nocturnal, full moon monsters. If you’re hunting monsters under the full moon, your odds of landing a lunker largemouth bass are greater than your chances of catching other ghouls and goblins that may haunt the air. If it’s late at night or even into the morning under the full moon, you may turn a bit crazy yourself, in the solitude of the vastness and quiet. This, however is the essence of learning and picking up on your hidden senses. According to Bauer these night time fishers rely on “feel” more than sight (Bauer 101).
If you remembered to bring along your polarized glasses they may come very useful when peering into the waters under the light of day. When observing the waters of bass land keep in mind to take advantages of shade and structure and also fish depth changes, as well as in and around vegetation (Maas 76).
Over the years, I have also learned to enjoy the company of the birds fluttering nearby and/or circling above. The most common birds to share the local waters with are the Osprey, or otherwise known as the “fish hawk” (Eastman 150). Proving that a waters healthy food source thrives to feed their young, these fishing birds perform impressive dives which often produce larger fish than I may be catching at the time. It is also a great sight to experience, and would be wise to note in the fishing journal “big fish in pond. Was out fished by birds today”.
My favorite and most common other friends of the freshwater are as follows: Belted Kingfisher, Red-Tailed Hawk, Great Blue Heron and the Black Crowned Night Heron. The Belted Kingfisher has also been noted to do “belly flop” dives, a useful method of scurrying some fish out from the Lilly pads and into capturing sight (Boag 84).
It’s always helpful and enjoyable to bring along the binoculars for the fisher birds as well as the birds of beauty. On the local waters you should take a bird identifying book and be prepared to note in your journal the sightings of Fly Catchers and Baltimore Orioles. If you’re cruising down Dune Road also look for Red-Winged Black birds as well as the Egrets, slowly walking the shores, fishing.
There is a great connection between seagulls and the mysterious stares from the eyes of boat captains. Strong and big fish can be found underneath the circling and diving of seagull flocks due to one fact. They are after the same school of bait fish. In the ways of Darwinism the bait fish are on the bottom of the food chain, swimming for their lives through the mayhem of Seagulls, Bluefish and hopefully the Stripped Bass. Locate the birds, and you have found the fish.
Keeping in mind the importance of other determining factors let’s slide our legs into the neoprene of waders, and take a walk to the river. Even though we fish for fun, we know and are aware of the unending doldrums of the bends and pools in the rivers where we cast our lines. People line up, rain or shine, and camp out while they drink and speak Latin of some sort. The Latin in which the fly fishers are known to mumble is not the scientific name of the targeted species of fish, nor is it bird-related.
Scattered throughout America, probably in the places in which you would least expect, are a rare breed of insect geniuses. You’ll have your number of dentists, bus drivers, saxophone players and you’ll have your fly tiers. Now, whether you spend your life trying to tie and replicate the trout’s diet or not, you’re still involved in the fun. You’re a fisherman aren’t you?
You’re a new-wave “entomologist-angler”, and even though you know a thing or two about fish, you’re a genus in insects because the trout eat them. You know what week of what month this and that type of insects will hatch and even the time of day and cloud formation that will make this hatch possible.
You may be into photography as well, and if you are you’ll have an extra powerful zoom lens. You’re a bird and insect lover right? It’s only necessary.
The dentist, and the fly tier are lined up and peering into the river. The bus driver and saxophone player come running alongside the river to meet the pair of fellow anglers. Two of them have waders dripping the river’s water , and one with no fly and a long tapered tippet , or what was left of his leader, flying behind him as he made his way to the fly tier.
After the usual of shaking hands, it was all business: they aren’t there to hang out. “Ephemerella!” said the bus driver. The saxophone player waved the end of his rod at the fly tier and dentist, signifying that he had been “bit off” and said, “Yeah Mayflies. Got him to take an emerger.”
The fly tier slipped his hand into a pocket on his fishing vest and pulled out a light green, floating rectangular shaped book. As he opened his box of flies, the saxophone player, bus driver and the dentist leaned over to have a look as well. Even though the fly tier has some hoppers, stone flies and “carry always” flies, his book was filled with flies of different sizes and stages of the Ephemerella’s life span. The fly tier had the mayfly in nymph form, emerging, and adult form as well. He had perfect imitations in all sizes. Remember he does this for a living right?
He handed a size 18 mayfly emerger to the bus driver and the saxophone player. All that was left was the dentist who was bug-eyed himself and staring, into the book of pretty Mayfly imitations.. The fly tier grabbed a size 20 artificial fly between his pointer and thumb and looked at it really closely. “Here, try a size 20; you’ll do better on a smaller fly anyways”. The dentist looked up with bright eyes and smiled at the proud fly tier. He snatched the pretty and small mayfly-emerger and started tying his new fly to the end of his leader.
They all proceeded in their own direction into the woods to their favorite stretch/pool of the river. The dentist yelled through the woods before getting to far. “Thanks for the emerger, very pretty!” The fly tier, who was just taking his first step into the river, smiled for a minute and thought about his response. He looked up at the pretty sunset and responded to the dentist before he got too far away. “Guess they don’t teach you everything in dental school”. From the opposing direction in the woods and already a distance away, the bus driver and saxophone player were heard chuckling from the fly tier’s response.