Nice! Something that is on my bucket list!

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That is an early Ross from their Etna days with a special spool on an S2 model reel. I have two other spools for that reel that don't have that pattern engraved.

Stripers on a glass fly rod is so much fun! You had a great day! Hope you get out again for more fall run fun!

Sounds like fun. We have stripers out here, non-native of course. From what I've read the west coast stripers migrate up the delta and rivers this time of year, and people often fish for them in the surf during the springtime. They are in a few reservoirs, too. I have yet to catch any, but one of these years ...

The fall run is a special time for sure but it really requires some kind of watercraft as the fish are mobile and tracking the numerous schools of bait which must keep moving to survive.

Last week I went out late in the day to a Cape Cod estuary and low tide was at 9:00pm so I was fishing the outgoing tide. It is a large estuary that funnels out into the ocean so the obvious spot it the inside top of the funnel earlier at the start of the outgoing and then dropping to the bottom of the funnel for the end of the outgoing tide.

Upon arriving two hours into the drop I ran into another fly fisherman who reported the fishing to be slow. And low and behold it was slow. I moved around up and down the funnel/channel with no sign of life. Finally at sunset around 630pm I joined a spin fisherman at the tail end of the funnel where the water meets the ocean and some fish had started biting there. The spin fisherman unfortunately broke the tip of his nice spin rod high sticking so that opened up the prime spot to me. Still I was not having the success he was with a jig but eventually landed several twenty plus inch stripers.

At about seven o'clock with the sun long since set and completely dark with overcast skies I heard a funny sound behind me. I was standing in knee deep water at the mouth and tide was still flowing strong with two hours left in the drop. The sound it turns out was hundreds of striper tails slapping the surface of the water as they engaged a school of young of the year river herring approximately 2-3 inches long. When I turned on my head lamp they were zooming every which way around me running for their lives with stripers 18-26 inches in hot pursuit.

I had to change up my fly to a more suitable imitation but once I did I started getting some tugs and fish. It was still not easy as you would think due to the shear volume of bait in the water that was surrounding me. Crazy was how close it all was as I was literally surrounded by bait and blitzing stripers. It was about at 8:00 when the scene turned into what can best be compared to the one in Caddy Shack when Bill Murray was caddying the guy to his best game of golf ever when the weather went south. Heavy rain and thunder and lightning. The classic quote 'I don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for a while' That was me. Of course the first sign of lightning which was not forecast and I was done but it sure was not easy to leave the action. In the end I was completely drenched.

The amazing thing was if you had left before that school dropped down the funnel to the ocean you would have thought there were no fish around. It was very slow. So find the bait you find the fish. They are fattening up for winter and that is their main focus.

That's an old school Fuji graphite seat. Guessing it's a DPS seat. Also guessing LK modified it so that he could hide the hood under the cork (or the hood was small enough he didn't need to modify it).

I thought you were going to say that when you turned around it was a great white. My days of fishing in the dark on the Cape are over, but I still like to sight fish on Chapin Beach on the outgoing.

Looks absolutely fantastic. Definitely on my list. I got invited to visit a friend in RI last week to fish end of striper run in Narragansett Bay, then over to the Wood River to fish for brook trout. I couldn’t go because I had Durango CO already scheduled. Fall is fantastic indeed.

My friend was back out in that area with his brother this time first light on Saturday morning and they found similar surface action for the first hour and a half of daylight. The only difference was the size class of fish was up a notch or two. They were getting fish in the thirty plus inch class on fly rods with the largest 37"...

You are correct Jeff , many slot size and larger in the mix up there , seen many 50+ splashing around in the mix over the years , good news though , they all are headed your way !!!