OCMD help please

[purplewoolly]

Hoping to get a few hours of fly fishing in (several times) during the week of 6/18. The property we are staying at has a fishing pier (bay side) and I would like to try some in the surf also. I have a 9wt and have a floating, intermediate and 300grain full sink lines but only 2 spools. I’m thinking sink and intermediate? I use this outfit for striped bass in the upper Chesapeake and have 2/0 and 3/0 clousers, deceivers and half and halves. Are those flies too big for flounder? What other flies should I have? What other fish can I target? Can you wade in the bay or is it mostly muck? Any insights are appreciated.

 

[Dave_W]

Your gear covers everything. I would use the fast sink for the surf and the other lines, mainly the floating, for the bay. Your flies are on the large size for flounders; I'd go with something in the 3" range tied on smaller hooks in the range of a 4. You can expect to find bluefish around.
Not sure about bay bottom. If you can rent a kayak, that will open up a lot of bay opportunities and allow you to find hard bottom and get out an wade.

Good luck with your trip.

 

[purplewoolly]

Thanks Dave. I like the kayak idea, I’ll look into that. Would my standard smallmouth clousers be OK? I know they will be ruined in the salt but probably don’t have time to downsize on saltwater hooks. Danger of an average flounder straightening the hook? Thanks again.

 

[Dave_W]

purplewoolly wrote:
Would my standard smallmouth clousers be OK? I know they will be ruined in the salt but probably don’t have time to downsize on saltwater hooks. Danger of an average flounder straightening the hook? Thanks again.

Your bass flies will work. Rinse 'em off in some fresh water when you're done and they will be fine. Flounders, especially average ones (12-15"), are fun to catch but pull much less than a smallmouth bass; highly unlikely they would straighten a hook.

 

[BrookieChaser]

If you watch the Isle of Wight Bay on the north side of the 50 bridge there is a large sand flat.

My flounder/fluke and snapper blue flies are size 4. I've caught them on 1/0's but I've also lost my fair of fluke on large flies.

I second Dave's recommendation of just using your freshwater flies and rinse them right away. I got into snapper blues last year and used a beadhead bunny leach left over from a steelhead trip.

 

[purplewoolly]

Thanks BC. Our place is on 67th bayside, I might be able to see the sandbar from our window!!

 

[purplewoolly]

Didn’t add flounder to my fly caught list but had a good time trying. It was a family vacation so time was limited. Spent 1 early morning in the surf on an outgoing and another on a sand flat bayside. Couldn’t tell if the tide was moving on the flat so it probably wasn’t going to be more than casting practice. Thanks for the advice.

 

[BrookieChaser]

On a sand flat, on the outgoing tide, the larger fish will stack off the break and ambush the smaller fish as they come off the flat following the tide. The best thing to do is survey the flat on a low neap tide and note the contour. Then fish that ledge as the tide goes out.

Saltwater fly fishing is a lot of casting practice. But you can't beat the scenery (girls on the beach).