Cinder Worm Hatch Chronicles

Cinder Worm Hatch Chronicles

This blog contains a few of the 114 hatches that I have found since 2010. 

Cinder Worm Hatch #5: (5/11/19)  Today I didn’t feel like going, walking out onto the marsh in the full hot sun.  So I took a nap, and then had an early steak dinner with double-dark chocolate gelato for dessert—that should get me in the mood I thought?  I arrived late which is unusual for me, and then took a slow amble instead of the usual forced march. Upon arrival at 4:15 there were 3 or 4 stripers already swirling.  An hour and a half later, as I was about to leave, there were about 30 fish busting away at the spawning worms.  After I caught and released 27 fish, I made myself stop—the largest was 26-inches.  The bigger fish should arrive just in time for the late-May tide cycle.  Later at home, when I closed my eyes to go to sleep, all I saw was the vivid and animated vision of the rise-form swirls of stripers dancing in my head.

 

Cinder Worm Hatch #4: (5/14/20) Today we had the second day of full sun plus 3 or 4 half-days prior to that.  I arrived at my favorite salt pond at 4 p.m., with a picnic dinner.  As I sat down on my rock in the shade, I wondered if history would repeat itself, as all the factors and most of the variables were in alignment, and sure enough it unfolded as it had on May 8^th, 2017.   As I said then: “About halfway through my cheeseburger, I saw a couple of worms.”  The water temperature here was 61 degrees, the same as 2017.  After eating, I waded over to the northwest cove thinking that the water there might be warmer and more favorable and it turned out to be 63˚, and there were a few more worms here darting about.  At first, I saw 3 worms, and all of a sudden, they vanished.  Hey, what happened to my worms?  Upon closer inspection, I saw minnows attacking what few worms there were, just ripping them apart and devouring them in a matter of seconds.  I did not see any swirls yet, so I walked around the circumference of the pond to check things out and found nothing else happening.  So I headed back to the northwest cove and as I approached—started to see a few worms again, then a couple of big swirls.  This looked like it would be a cool weather mini-hatch with just a few worms, so my fly should get noticed.  I cast towards the swirls not expecting much, then saw a massive swirl where my fly was, followed by a heavy into backing series of tugs.  “HOLY JESUS,” was my spontaneous reaction.  I had lost big smart fish here before in this pond that had about 8 or so landlocked stripers, and so took my time handling what looked to be a fish in the mid 30-inch range.  After landing this fish, I took several hasty photos against my fly rod so I could measure it later, and quickly released this grotesque looking striper.  Judging by the number of swirls, there seemed to be only 2 fish left in this pond, what a shame.  Well, six gone, two more to go, when those 2 get killed or even just one, that may just mark the end of an era for this salt pond.  A sign of the times, a bittersweet ending?   The other fish that was swirling was too smart to take my fly, so I was quite happy to land that one fish and headed for home.  Later I measured the fish in the photo against the rod and it appeared to be close to 36-inches. 

If I can find another bigger hatch here, maybe I will be able to make another fish count, hoping that there will be more than just those two fish left in here. 

The next day, there was a massive hatch there.  I didn’t go, but a friend told me that: “yes, there were 6-8 big fish swirling, and no one was catching anything.”

 

In the photo, you will notice the big old striper head attached to a 26-inch stunted body, indicating that there is probably not much for those fish to eat during the winter in this small salt pond.  

 

Cinder Worm Hatch #27:  (6/3/14)  Ok, just had to go one last time since the conditions were perfect.  I launched my kayak this evening, and began catching the same small fish, so I paddled toward the south end of the harbor to hopefully find some bigger fish.  On the way, I started to see some bigger swirls.

I put away the schoolie rod and picked up my state of the art Sage Xi3 8-weight.  I saw a good swirl, and cast towards it, and with a slow steady two-hand strip, locked into a good fish.  Deep into backing twice told me how good.  After a good long fight during the setting sun, with its soft golden light glinting off the fly rod and line, I landed a 33-inch striper.  Save the best for last, I am done with worm hatches for this season.  (Well not really, I found number 28 the next evening).

 

 For further reading and a killer worm fly recipe see my book available on Amazon.

Cinder Worm Book

                                           Cinder worm fly
 

Cinder Worm Hatch #12, 5/19/17:  You just never know what you will find at a worm hatch, especially on the third and last day.  Today, I was joined by my kayak fishing buddy Gary Christiansen, and we followed the same schedule as the past two evenings. 

Two days earlier on May 17^th, I had found two locations and both had spawning worms, and plenty of stripers.  At a back bay location, I was able to land five fish, with the largest one measuring 29-inches.  It was really windy, so I hoofed it out of there, huffing and puffing the whole way.  I was looking forward to going to a salt pond, several miles away, that would be a lee shore, and somewhat protected from the wind.  I caught and released another ten stripers there before sunset, with the best fish measuring 27-inches.  Most of those fifteen fish were from 26 to 29-inches.  If those were trout, they would all be considered trophy sizes. 

We allowed for an hour at the first spot, and after not finding anything, we left this location at six o’clock, so we would have some time left to hopefully find something at the salt pond.  We might have left too early, but it turned out to be the right move. 

Upon arriving, we eventually found a few worms just beginning to spawn in a salt marsh ditch, along with some stripers lying in wait, just outside of the mouth of the ditch where it entered the pond.  Typical of the third day of a hatch, there were only a few worms here and there.  This turned out to be a good thing, because our flies would be assured of getting noticed.  Gary ended up catching five stripers, and I landed eight.  We had the very good fortune to land and release a 29-inch fish, and another 33-inch beauty.  During the fleeting hour or so that we had to fish, under changeable skies, the wind finally relaxed and actually went calm.  Then a thunder cloud passed over, the wind picked up again, and we became slightly drenched during a ten-minute downpour that sent us packing with our mission accomplished. 

I have heard other fly fishermen comment that “you usually only find small stripers at a worm hatch.”  There is a good reason for that, because during spring migration, the schoolies arrive first, and the larger fish follow along ten days to two weeks later.  Following a polar vortex winter, schoolies might not arrive until mid-May, instead of late April to early May, as they would after a mild or normal winter.  So that would make larger migratory fish scarce until early June, and by then, most of the worm hatches are over.

During the 2017 season, both January and February had above normal temperatures.  From April 30^th to June 3^rd, I found 15 hatches, and caught and released 94 fish. Out of those, 3 were small keeper sizes from 28 to 33 inches.   Over a 11-year period from 2010 to 2020, I found a total of 114 hatches, where I released 676 fish and 24 of those were keeper sizes ranging up to 36 inches. 

Gary Christiansen with a 33 inch worm hatch striper.  5/19/17