{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Delaware Bay - 1st SW experience

Hey -- we hit Delaware Bay this weekend as a first SW trip.  The make the trip more enjoyable, I shattered the tip of my 8-weight loading it into the truck (don't ask) as we were about to leave.  This left me with the 9' 5-weight to do the task of fishing in the salt with a 10-20 mph wind from the NW.  We both had DIY stripping baskets made from bungee cords and rubbermaid tubs.  

We didn't catch a single fish, but we did accidentally snag several horseshoe crabs.  Those suckers were EVERYWHERE this weekend....and appeared to be spawning and/or dying from exhaustion or something.  We "helped" dozens of upside down ones back into the water.  Lucky for them, they come with a big stick you can easily grab.  Maybe flipping upside down is normal during spawning and they naturally flip back over without help?  I dunno.  If you know about these dudes please fill me in.  They do look like something from H.R. Giger though.  

The 5-weight performed actually better than I expected, I just had to use a ton of hauling and dumping my back cast due to wind direction.  Not ideal, but okay.  I fished in a variety of directions, so the wind kind of helped on some casts.  I also didn't attempt to use my 1/0-2/0 patterns, and went with #4-6 ones instead for obvious reasons. I had a full-sink 6-weight line (cheap) that seemed to cast in the wind better, and it definitely put me on the bottom (snagging horseshoe crabs by accident).  I stopped using the floater after about an hour and went to the full-sink for the rest of the day.  We'll return once my 8-weight is repaired/replaced.  No biggie, it was my own fault.

No red knots -- but plenty of other bird species were around.  The crabs kept bumping my legs and feet and it kind of freaked me out.  

The stripping basket was really weird to us both at first because I kept hauling and hitting it with my hand and she just thought it felt weird.  Once we figured it out though, it was WAY easier to keep the line in good order.  I can't see fishing in the salt without it.  I did keep getting line tangled on my bungee cord hooks, so I might try to use a wader belt instead once I work on it....you can really shoot a LOT more line with the basket.  

That's the most fun I've ever had fishing, without catching a single fish!  Fly fishing in the SW is awesome.  It's so "unknown".  I'm really excited to get back out there again...and again.  

Okay I'm done -- 

Gene

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http://www.tpfr.org
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