Roccus Writing: Jack Gartside's Blog

The Stripers are here!

Stripers have been appearing in good numbers (and sizes) all up and down the northeast coast for several days now along with good numbers of baitfish: herring and silversides for the most part.

It seems like you can almost predict the date: May 8. Depending on weather of course. My logs from the past ten years show that one or two days before and after May 8 you can expect the stripers to be in the warmer parts of the harbor and in most of the estuaries. So get out your gear and head to your favorite striper spot and expect some good action, especially around the lower stages of the tide. If you have only six hours to fish and are wading, try to be on the water three hours into the drop until about three hours after the rise. You can, of course, find good fishing at other times but the fish are more concentrated when the water is lower–and of course it’s easier to access most fishable spots at this time.

I’ve only been out twice in the past few days (the weather hasn’t been all that cooperative; wind, cold, rain, etc. but the two times I’ve been out I’ve been successful. And thrilled to bits to catch the first (for me) stripers of the season.

Here’s a brief rundown of the past few days, my life in capsule form, so to speak.

Saturday, May 10

I had to cancel my first Striper Strategies class of the season because of a predicted storm (which never came, by the way; however it WAS cold and windy) and I stayed in to tie flies and catch up on orders and watch the weather forecasts, hoping that the next day would be warm enough to fish. I was impatient to get back on the water, especially since the night before I had done well fishing for stripers “under the lights”.

Sunday May 11 warmed up more than expected and turned out to be a really interesting day, actually a great day for fishing–at least until the wind picked up. I started fishing a little later than planned (couldn’t get up early enough to fish the dropping tide) and arrived at one of my favorite spots in the inner harbor about half and hour into the rise. It was my first visit of the season and for the first half hour I didn’t get a hit. It wasn’t until about an hour into the rise that the fish started showing up. The water was exceptionally clear considering how roiled up the outside water was and the fly I was fishing–a chartreuse/white BeastMaster–almost glowed beneath the surface. Most of the fish hit close to the surface, within a foot or two, and I was able to see almost every take. The fishing, to be honest, wasn’t fast, one fish about every fifteen casts, but what a thrill! The smallest was about 21″ and the largest 32,” a real beauty! I caught seven in all–this in about an hour and a half. I would have fished longer but the wind was picking up and my hands were getting cold; my shoulder was beginning to bother me as well. Not only that but I had a plan to fish for largemouth bass later in the afternoon and I wanted to get home and take a nap so that I wasn’t completely exhausted for the evening fishing.

Later in the afternoon, after my nap, my friend Dale Linder came by and we headed up to Putnamville Reservoir in Danvers/Topsfield. I hadn’t been there in fifty years and was looking forward to fishing for bass with a 5 weight rod. If you read my last blog entry you might remember that I’ve been looking over some of my log notes from fifty years ago. It was while doing this that I remembered Putnamville Reservoir and decided to revisit it, just for the fun of it–and maybe for the nostalgic element as well.

The fishing was about as good as I could have expected with the temperature in the low 50′s and the water colder than that. Wandering the shore line, I picked up bass wherever I found structure close to shore. They were all largemouth bass–though there are smallies here as well–and all eagerly hit the small Bass Gurgler I was fishing. None was large–the largest about a pound–but all were fun. Caught four bluegills and a pickerel as well. Dale was fishing a streamer and caught many more pickerel than bass. We didn’t have a lot of time to fish, a few hours, and it took a bit of hiking and wandering through the woods to discover some of the best places but in that short time I decided that it was a place I’d love to explore further, but I think I’ll wait until the water warms up a bit before heading up there again.

All in all it was a wonderful day of fishing. Stripers and largemouth bass. Who could ask for anything more? Well, maybe a trout or two thrown into the mix. But that’ll have to wait for another day.

Just taking a break from writing up my newsletter for April. In it I try to answer some of the more frequently asked questions that have been put to me over the years. Since many of my blog-readers may not receive the monthly fly fishing newsletter, I thought I’d post the questions and answers here as well. If you’d like to receive a newsletter, by the way, please sign up for it on the home page.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. (and this is the most-frequently asked question)

Do you personally tie all the flies that you have for sale?

Yes, I do personally tie each and every one. Which is why I sometimes get behind a bit in filling orders, especially during the busy winter months (January and February especially), when I’m traveling a lot. If you order selections of flies, there’s generally no delay in getting these out; I usually have most of the selections on hand. It’s the orders for individual flies that take a bit longer since I often have very few individual flies in stock and must tie each one to order and I tie each individual order in the order in which they arrive. Since I’m a fairly slow and methodical tyer I may tie up only about three dozen flies on an average day (that is if my eyes and back don’t act up on me, in which case I’ll tie fewer). Eventually, though, all the flies get tied and everybody’s patience is rewarded. The best time to order individual flies or those flies not offered in selections is generally April through July and again in September and October, when I’m traveling less and I have more time to tie.

2. Do you have a shop?

No. Because of the web site, many people make the assumption that I have a shop or operate a large fly tying consortium but this is far from the truth. A laugh, really, since there’s just me, myself, and I to do all the tying, packaging, writing, and all the other chores that need to be done.

3. Do you make a good living doing what you do?

An honest answer to this is: Hell, no!–BUT I make a great life.

4. How long have you been tying flies?

I was taught to tie my first fly by the late, great Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox. This was in 1956 or 1957 (can’t remember now exactly which year). I was just a young lad at the time and Ted was my idol. At the time I had never seen a fly tied before but I figured that if Ted was interested in fly tying, this was something I’d like to know more about. I’ve been tying regularly ever since.

5. Where do your fly-tying ideas come from? Or, another variation of the same question, What inspires you to come up a certain pattern?

These are difficult questions to answer meaningfully. I’m an habitual experimental tyer and my tying area is often a chaos of materials. Out of this chaos, I am sometimes moved to create order. Ideas come to me most often when I’m bored with the repetition of tying a single pattern over and over again, flies that require no thought to their construction or design but only rote mechanical skill. It’s then that my mind is free to range over the possibilities that exist within all the different materials spread out before me. Once I focus on a particular material (say a pheasant feather), I try then to imagine all the particular uses to which that feather can be put. And so on.

It should be said at this point that I have hundreds of ideas in the course of a year–but only one or two of them ever turn out to be GOOD ideas; the others not so good, some downright foolish. But it’s the pursuit of the good idea–that perfect expression of a perfect fly, for instance–that keeps me involved, enthused, and searching–and occasionally satisfied. After many years of tying, the successes remain and the failures are forgotten.

I’ve heard about Mother Teresa’s face being seen in a bagel, Elvis’s image popping up in someone’s toast, and the face of Jesus being revealed in a potted asparagus fern as well as numerous other images appearing unexpectedly in unexpected places , but this one beats all.

One of my readers claims that an image of yours truly appeared on the shell of a Gurgler that I had tied for him years ago, one that he recently retrieved from his fly box in preparation for a new season. He claimed further that the fly proved to have miraculous powers (he didn’t say WHAT powers, however) and that he was considering putting this up for sale on eBay. Asked me what I thought he should ask for it.

What do you think? Is this a hoax? Or could it really be true? As yet I’m undecided–but if any of my readers have found similar images, there will be a further investigation. Stay tuned.

Just taking a much-needed break from flytying. Although I’ve been tying mostly simple (and larger) flies this afternoon– Soft Hackle Streamers and bonefish flies–my back and eyes need a bit of a rest.

Since I sent out my last newsletter a week or so ago I’ve been getting lots of orders, mostly for selections, which people are often giving for Christmas or as gifts to themselves, but also for relatively large orders of individual flies (i.e. one of this, one of that, one of another). While sets are easy to prepare and to a certain extent anticipate, the orders for individual flies are not.

I’d like to point out here that I keep relatively few flies “in stock”–usually just the most popular patterns and sizes– and when I get an order requesting one of this, one of that, etc., I often cannot fill the order as quickly as I can an order for a selection of flies. As you may guess, it’s very time-consuming to go from one material to another, one style to another, one pattern to another. I often put these orders on the “back burner” until I have time to work on them. So I’d like to suggest here that if your order is for multiple “single” flies that you be a bit patient with me, especially at this busy time of year.

As most of you know, I personally tie all the flies offered on my website; they’re not mass-produced somewhere over in Asia or Africa (as so many commercially available flies are these days). There’s only one of me to do all the tying. I’m very meticulous and don’t cut corners and, as a result, I’m really not a very fast tyer. On a good day I can tie maybe only four dozen flies; most days it’s just two or three dozen. I wish it were otherwise but time is beginning to take its toll, it seems, and I’m slowing down a bit.

I do my best to fill all orders as quickly as I can but, again, I ask you to be a bit patient if you’re ordering multiple “singles.”