Flymen Blog
These fish are flat out amazing and if you haven’t been fly fishing for them, you're missing out!
This fall marks the tenth year I’ve engaged in the madness known as fly fishing for false albacore.
I remember my first few trips chasing albies up and down Shackleford and Cape Lookout in North Carolina, all which ended in frustration, not due to a lack of opportunities, but mainly because I had not yet paid my dues and learned the ins and outs of catching these fish.
Somewhere around my third trip, I hooked into my first Albacore on fly. That 20-pound fish took every bit of my backing, and the event is still etched in my mind to this day.
10 years down the road and a ton of albies later, I’m hoping these tips will make your first few outings a little more successful than mine.
Something about pulling a fish out of a big body of water makes you feel heroic.
Walking up to a big body of water, so big that your cast doesn’t even cover a fraction of the water, can be daunting and even downright discouraging.
You almost feel nervous to make your first cast. Where do I start? How do I tackle this water without a boat?
But when everything comes together and you hook into that fish, you feel like you won the lottery!
Here are a few things to help make swinging your fly rod feel a little more like fishing and a little less like… flailing.
Most of us will not get the chance to chase bonefish on the flats of Belize, but with a little preparation we can still get the same rush a little closer to home.
As a staunch streamer junkie, there's nothing greater to me than having a big brown trout absolutely hammer a streamer.
But after fishing Gulf Shores, Alabama, I realized I've been missing out – the salt is a streamer junkie’s dream.
Saltwater fish hit a fly like they have had a lifelong vendetta against that poor little Clouser (seriously, I had a ladyfish almost take the fly rod out of my hand).
Bahamas Bonefishing on a Budget
My first trip to the Bahamas helped me realize how attainable it was, even though I had put it off for many years because I thought it was out of my price range.
Lesson learned.
We returned the following year and now the Bahamas has made it to the top of my list for DIY fishing vacations.
I’m learning more each time I visit, but I’d like to share a few thoughts with anyone who has considered scratching it off their bucket list.
It's getting to be tailing redfish season.
The tides will be getting right to cast to fish looking for crunchy snacks in the spartina flats.
You want to catch one, don't you?
Well guess what? You're going to screw it up and it's going to make you go nuts.
Here are 5 things you're going to mess up on and some ways to be prepared in advance so you won't chuck your rod in the water out of frustration.