Sand Eel Fly Patterns for the Fall Run

Pictured Above: This bass fell for a sand-eel pattern tied with SF Flashblend to imitate the iridescent colors of a live sand eels.

Sand eels are the king of the Northeast,” says Capt. Craig Cantelmo of Fin-Addict Fishing and Van Staal Reels, “and everything that swims will key in on them.” This bait is key for several reasons. First, they are loved by striped bass, bluefish, bonito, false albacore, bluefin tuna, and even sea robins. Second, they are more resilient to temperature changes, meaning they are around from late summer through fall and into early winter. When they are dense along the beaches, it keeps gamefish from heading south too fast.

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Sand eels, also called sand launce, are found along the Atlantic Coast from Labrador to Cape Hatteras. In near-coastal waters, they congregate in huge masses at lumps and ridges; in the fall, they often mass at the edge of the surf in enormous abundance. Most of the surf action happens from Massachusetts to South Jersey, but from Delaware and south, their surf appearances thin out. Veteran saltwater flyrodder Don Avondolio confirms, “Sand eels are an important bait from Martha’s Vineyard through Long Island and the New Jersey coast, but they don’t really show up below Delaware, although pods may be seen in the outer waters off the beaches.”

About 3 to 6 inches in length, I once saw sand eels many years ago at Jersey’s Island Beach State Park that were nearly a foot long. The striped bass were rooting their noses into the sand after each receding wave at the surf’s edge in the north jetty pocket, pushing the baits out of the sand. As the eels slithered out of the sand, bass chased them with their backs entirely out of the water, at times flopping on the beach until the next incoming wave floated them free. What a sight! The spin-fishing guys were throwing 10-inch Alou Eel lures and catching fish on what seemed like every cast. The few fly guys on the beach back then were fishing long, skinny Deceivers in all-white or white and yellow.

Stormy weather and water temperatures influence the relative abundance of sand eels along the beaches, pushing the pods onto or away from the shore.

The Enticer

An abundance of sand eels has been one of the reasons why Martha’s Vineyard and Long Island waters are so productive in the fall for albies, bonito, striped bass and bluefish. Avondolio fished both areas for about 40 years and developed a unique fly he calls the Enticer, a fly pattern that won third place in the saltwater fly category in the 1999 Best of the Bench fly-tying contest. Don’s pattern has been catching bass in the surf for over 20 years and he notes, “The Enticer is a great searching pattern that consistently attracts fish from a distance when waters are still.” Fished on a floating line, the Enticer runs at or near the surface because of its small head, and the strikes are sudden and exciting. Tied on a long-shank 2 to 2/0 Tiemco 811 hook with a chenille body and pearl Krystal Flash for a rib, it features a popper head to give it a unique action. Don’s favorite colors include all-black, chartreuse-and-pearl and olive-and-pearl. He usually ties them with marabou tails.

E-Z Body Sand Eel Fly

“The EZ-Body Sand Eel Fly is my go-to sand-eel pattern, says pro fly-tyer Brad Buzzi of BuzFly Products. “I tie them on 2/0 to 5/0 J-hooks or 60-degree jig hooks in weighted and unweighted versions. Depending on the customer’s needs, I tie them from 4 to 12 inches and in the most popular color schemes of olive-and-white, black-and-purple, and yellow-and-white. The tails are usually bucktail, but I sometimes use a synthetic. I also occasionally add flash and peacock herl for a top wing. For durability, I use Salarez light-cured acrylic for the head.”

Capt. Isdanavage is also a believer in the EZ-Body Sand Eel and he ties his in a variety of lengths from 2 to 6 inches on 1/0 and 3/0 hooks; other times, they’re much longer and need to be prepped with a variety of lengths. “My favorite colors are yellow-over-white and black-over-purple for early morning or night fishing. I also like to fish them on tandem rigs with 5- to 6-foot leaders and either intermediate or sink-tip lines, depending on conditions.”

Weighted, Sparsely Tied Baitfish Patterns

Capt. Robby Barradale does the sink-tip thing too, as do other members of the Bayshore Saltwater Flyrodders. Robby tweaks his flies so that they reliably ride with the hook point up and explains, “There are tons of sand-eel patterns: epoxy heads, Clousers, Jiggies, EZ Bodys and many more, and they all work great if tied sparsely. My favorite is tied with a slight bend-back to the hook and with two to five turns of lead wire just below the hook bend. I do this because it creates a nice keel to keep the fly tracking true. Other flies, when stripped rapidly, tend to their sides.” According to Robby, this causes a lot of missed strikes. The slight bend-back of the hook shank and the lead wraps nearly eliminate the problem.

Surf Candy

Although blues are thinning out by late November, you never know when ol’ yellow eyes will unexpectedly show up, so it pays to have a few flies pre-rigged with short pieces of single-strand or knottable wire. Rick Ferrin of Long Island recalls a morning on the south shore near Montauk when he got bitten off several times in quick succession until his small supply of Surf Candies was gone. “The pod of 10 pounders I ran into that morning bit off everything I had in my surf bag. I had to hike back the truck, get more Candies, and tie short wire to them.”

I also like Surf Candies for the fall and tie them extra-long to resemble sand eels instead of anchovies, and I often tie them with the body placed far back on the hook (close to the bend) so the shank serves as a short leader. And, I have a half-dozen pre-wired flies in a zip-close bag ready for duty. It’s good protection against bluefish cut-offs, and the bass don’t seem to be bothered by a few inches of American Fishing Wire’s camouflage color knottable wire.

Fly Rods, Lines, and Leaders for the Sand Eel Run

A 9-foot rod is the weapon of choice for most fly folks, although some coastal areas in New England and New Jersey have hard-core groups who prefer a 10-foot (or longer) fly rod built either as one- or two-hand designs. In quiet water, a floating line is a good choice and tracks well though small surf; however, the grubbing-in-the-sand lifestyle of sand eels makes a sinking line a more useful choice. It’s also a wise choice when the wave action is bigger than three feet or more. Many of the most experienced surf flyrodders select a rod with a slightly softer, moderate action when launching sink-tip lines. A slightly more open casting loop is much easier to control.

Being able to get down a bit below the surface can be critical. Avondolio related a tale about a night-fishing session with a friend of his at a river on Long Island’s North Shore, where they caught a lot of 20-inch bass. “At the end of the night, we tallied our catch, said Don, “and my buddy out-fished me by a 5-to-1 ratio using a medium sinking line. I used a floater.”

Using full-sink or heavy sink-tip lines in the surf is the ultimate way to go deep for boating fly fishers heading out beyond the beaches, but heavy lines are also very effective in the surf. Well-known fly-tier Steve Farrar got my head screwed on just right with some tips for heavy sink-tip lines in the surf that I’ve used along the central Jersey beaches between Manasquan and Barnegat inlets. By casting a 350- to 450-sink-tip or full-sink line, I could pull a sand eel through the sand to imitate the burrowing hide-and-seek action of live eels. At low tide, the trick is to make the cast to the outside edge of the bar and then retrieve the fly over the bar. I was just about wearing out the shock tippet, and flies too, as the nose of the fly dredged right through the sand. The striped bass sure seemed to like that retrieve.

Barradale likes to keep line and leader rigging simple. “My go-to beach and boat outfit to throw sand-eel patterns is a 9-foot Orvis that I fish with an intermediate Royal Wulff, except when I need to really get deep. For that, I use a 250- to 350-grain sink-tip. My leader and tippet are simple—3 feet of 30-pound blood knotted to 3 feet of 12- or 15-pound test. It turns over well and wind knots are scarce.”

Striped bass will eat sand eels all day long if conditions are right, yet the dawn and dusk time frames are especially productive. Flyrodders who live near the beach have two good shots every day. If you live inland, dusk offers more fishing time because you can keep on casting, and catching, well after the sun goes down.

If Mother Nature graces us with fishable weather and moderate temperatures so our hands don’t freeze up, there can be excellent sand-eel action well into December, a great way to end the fly season on a high note.