Sight fishing...after dark

Every year I look forward to fishing the worm hatches around here. In the past, I have mainly targeted the buildup to the new moon, while not seeing much on the full moons. There are 3 spots that I frequent when I have an inkling that worms may be around doing their dance, and 2 nights ago I was nearby one of them, swinging some big flatwings to no avail. After enduring a skunking, I decided to check one of my worm spots, in hopes that maybe, just maybe there may be some worms or maybe some shrimp.

This particular spot, has a great vantage point, with lights nearby and behind to illuminate the water, albeit subtly. As I walked up, all I could see was alot of quiet commotion in the water, as I got close I realized it was millions of worms, swarming in every direction. The tide had already moved out quite a bit, there were some small fish popping and chasing the worms, but I didnt even have any worm patterns with me. So armed with the knowledge that we are on a buildup to a full moon, warm water temps, and worms out the previous night, I had to tie up some flies and hit this spot last night, and I'm glad I did.

When I first arrived, there weren't many worms or fish, but before too long, big stripers invaded and were the most aggressive I've ever seen stripers act during one of these hatches. The first fish I tied into was in the 36-38" class, I watched this fish approach and laid out a short cast 5' in front of it, one quick twitch and she was headed for my fly, she never hesitated and slurped it in. I set the hook, she gave a couple massive headshakes and bolted for deeper water. After a great fight with a bit of back and forth, I had her 3' from my feet, she made one last bolt for freedom and took my fly with her as a souvenier, as my tippet popped. After settling down(I was shaking) with a smoke, the fish quickly got back to feeding and I was tight to my next fish shortly. While this fish was smaller than the first I hooked, it still put up a great fight.

After releasing this fish, the fish disappeared for a few minutes. I thought it may have been done for the night, but they were back. I hooked another fish, guessing around 34-36", it bolted directly for a piling and broke me off on his first run. I got one more about the size of the one above. By this time the action slowed enough to call it a night and I was home before midnight.