York River near Yorktown advice

[robert mills]

Hi All,

I'm down on the York River across from yorktown for the next few weeks and the house I'm at has a beach and a pier that extends out quite far. I've been going out and casting chartreuse and white half and halfs and a white popper that I know work for strippers up north with no success. I have some speckeled trout flies, some velcro crabs, and a variety or clousers as well that I need to try, I just have no clue of what fish are here right now. I've seen some fish taking on top water but can't seen the fish and none have taken when I've cast near. Wondering if there are any suggestions for other flies or places I should check out to fish.

Thanks in advance

[Charlie Church]

Robert,

If you have time and the budget, I would reach out to Chris Newsome as he is somewhat local and could really help speed up the learning curve. 

If not, here's some info that would help the DIY scene:

Stripers, Specks and Reds are all around right now. In order of ease, I'd put Stripers being the least picky with Specks being by far the most (they are mostly big ones in that area at the moment). I generally have had a lot of luck working topwater on grass flats this time of the year. Look for potholes, hard sand, small depth changes or anything that would give a predator an advantage. Also keep an eye out for mullet/bunker, birds circling overhead, feeding slicks or cleaner water. All of those would be signs that you should work that spot hard or wait until the tide gets right. 

For tides, a moving tide is the best. In the summer, an incoming tide is a bit colder/cleaner so I try to fish those more often.And also, don't forget to reference the Major and Minor feeding periods. Big trout do follow these. I would try to be set up in a good spot if one of these overlaps a good tide.

As far as depth to fish, I tend to think the shallower the better and generally don't fish water much deeper than 5 feet with 1 - 4 feet being the sweet spot.

If you end up finding a bite, remember the time and tide it was on and show up the next day at that tide/spot. It will be an hour later. 

If you have access to a boat or kayak, there are some great flats near your area. Take a look at google earth and look for sand/grass/deep water nearby. Some are also wadeable if you don't have a boat. And if your dock has a dock light, I would definitely keep an eye on that at night. 

Hope this helps. If you put the work in over the next few weeks, you should have a blast. 

[robert mills]

Thanks Charlie, We have nice sand here with a lot of objects in the water, I've been kinda dumb and realized i'm going out to fish on the outgoing tide. I need to find a kayak, I do see a lot of grass in the area, just on private land so I'd need to come from the water to get at it.