Time of Appearance: May through November.

Along with the sand eel and menhaden the silverside is a major food source for striped bass. Silverside spawn in May, June and early July and their eggs hatch 10 days later. The silverside remain in the bay until early November.

I have seen them up to 6 inches but the average is about 3.5 inches. When undisturbed, silversides will suspend at the surface with their mouth actually penetrating the surface of the water. When disturbed they will dart very short distances and make little leaps out of the water. As summer progresses these fish will collect into very large schools.

The Atlantic Silverside's body is narrow, translucent olive above, pearl sides and underside. The Inland Silverside's body is also narrow with a protruding gut. The top is a translucent greenish-gray, pearl sides with a glimmer of light blue and the bottom is whitish.

The bottom fly grew out of Ray Bondorew's Ray's Fly and Ken Abrames' Ray's Fly Flatwing. Unlike the Abrames' fly that uses an olive saddle in the tail tied flat I put the olive saddle in the wing to create a fly that suggests both species of silversides that are found in the bay.