Marlin fishing - The hard way

Don't be a fly - by

One great thing about fly fishing nowadays is the accessibility. Even the most modest of budgets can get a workable set up. There are $39 packages out there. Are they any good? Sure. Are they really good? No. At least not compared to a set up up that is several hundred dollars, but it is enough for someone to get on the water, catch fish, learn the fly fishing game a bit.

You'll buy more and better equipment over time. You don't have to work at it. It just happens.

I have $20 Cahill rod from Cabela's. It is an 8wt I bought as a holdover/beater rod I could abuse while saving and searching for a better one. Turns out it does pretty dang good. Casts surprisingly nice. Can it hold a candle to $500 or more rod? Of course not. If you are beginning though you can be sure it will meet your needs as you develop.

Where should you spend and where should you save?
-Inexpensive rods are getting surprisingly good.
-Avoid the bottom of the price range for reels. The cheap ones have poor drags, are noisy, fall apart jam and tangle. For $50 and above you can a decent reel. Look for a sealed drag and a smoother action. You can feel the quality here. If you have to go cheap, it won't last, but it will get you going.
-BUY GOOD LINE! You might think that all lines are basically equal. They are not. Good line makes everything else work better. Cheap line makes everything else worse. Spend $10 or $20 more. Think of it - it has an effect on every cast. Over hundreds of thousands of casts it is a small investment against a big return. Your casts will be further. Your presentations better.
-Tippet schmipet. A tapered leader is an advantage. A looped tapered leader is even better unless you like nail knots.

I firmly believe that mono is a serviceable if not best practices option for larger flies where less technical presentations are okay. Inshore predator fish are drawn by a splash. Note the success of popping cork rigs and large splashy plugs, buzz baits and other contraptions that ....... work.

Try different stuff. Break the rules. Those folks who turn up their noses at using mono for a leader and tie a five stage taper by hand - well good for them. Heck, throw a fly reel on your spinning rod if you want. It won't be ideal, but I bet you'll have fun and if the fish are biting you you will catch them right along with the guy next to you fully rigged out in Sage, Orvis, Lamson, and all the top of the line stuff. That's all great too. It's luxury more than necessity though.

Point is - budget is no longer a reason for anyone to be a fly-by.

My flies

Soon as I get set up in some new digs I will begin posting photos of flies I have tied. I'll probably start giving some to anglers I come across as well to get their feedback on how they work and can be improved. Guess I am coming to terms with the fact that fly tying is becoming something even more enjoyable that fishing. Never thought it would come to that. I just thought I was going to save a bit over these expensive salt water flies.

Well, whatever. Tie, fish, it is all good.

Currently I am on a bit of quest to find cheap or free alternatives to expensive fly materials. Not that I don't continue to haunt fly shops. Certainly spending more than I should too. It's just fun to do things like turn glass bead from a craft shop into an excellent top notch fly and catch fish on it.

Lowdown on wading

Waders were the best thing I ever bought for fishing steams. Bushwhacking to distant streams with aggressive undereducated fish is the best. I would rather work to get in a secondary area of smaller fish and lower fishing pressure than deal with combat fishing.

I have not used the waders down here though. The water is so warn you don't need them. I have been thinking about it though. The ability to tromp through high grass, the bug protection. Best wearing the boots should protect one from oysters. I wouldn't wade through oysters, but it is good to know brushing up against one won't slice you.

Report to come.

Tippet tips

Some folks take leader and tippet selection very seriously. For salt water starting at anywhere from 40lb to 80lb and working it down in four or five increments. Shoot, that would take me so long I would have no time to fish, and would be terrified of getting a fly snagged and possibly breaking it off and needing to rework the leader. I would never make a risky cast. Fish, as we all know don't get out in the open to be in the best possible position for you to cast.

I just can't be bothered. Yes a tapered leader produces a better cast and a softer landing for the fly. Fishing a stream with a size 14 or smaller dry, it really matters.

In warm water and with larger flies, I am not sure the advantage is worth the price or trouble. Somewhere along the line I got lazy. I just tie on about 8 ft of mono or flouro. Just one piece, no taper. I don't want to get any purists upset - but it is just fine. Turns out fish are not so judgmental.

Give yourself a break. Not everything needs to be perfect all the time. Just fish.

Topwater Streamer

Topwater - dry flies - are perhaps the most fun fly fishing there is. To trout hunters it usually means a small fly with a body, hackle collar and tail the fly is so light the surface tension of the water alone creates the resistance needed to keep the fly perched high and dry. There are hundreds of versions. The adams, shown here is a classic, and probably the single most popular dry fly.

There are other types I have learned. In the Southeast floating streamers solicit top water bites from Bass, bluegill and inshore species. This is perhaps more fun. Instead of getting a good drift you work on getting good action by stripping in the fly. Short strips, sometimes just a twitch and waiting often works. Watching a fish rise from out of site and track a fly is great. I sure don't know why, it just is.

Over the weekend I fished some ponds. It was blistering hot and fishing was slow. My most dependable fly is a not to attractive pattern I threw together after watching the banks of ponds loaded with thousands of tadpoles.
TADPOLE FLY
Hook: size #1 - #8 long shaft hook of no particular brand or model.
1. Simply tie in black marabou tail. add a small amount of krystal flash is you like.
2. Tie on one or two layers of foam, depending on hook size.
3. Wrap some black krystal chenile over the foam.
Its basically a floating woolly bugger with foam sparkle. It's like the spooky shad shown here, but black, and I don't bother with eyes on this. Yes, I know I wrote at length about being and eye believer, but this is a tadpole pattern. Eyes just aren't prominent with those fellas. Gills either. Alright I am not totally consistent.

No fear

For those of us lucky enough to be on the coast, fly tying is an easier hobby to pick up compared to those mountain trout stalkers. The idea of trying to tie size 18 or 20 blue wing olives. Using a magnifier to tie. All that itty bitty dubbing and hackling. Shoot, I would just as soon shell out out the 89 cents.

Salt water flies though, that's a whole 'nother matter. The flies are $2.00 to more the $6.00 each. And they are tied on hooks big enough to see. They are easier patterns in general too. So if you are a coastal fly fisherman and don't tie, you should give it a shot. I tie more than fish now. I have not bought a fly in ages, and all the fish I have caught this year, gators too, have been tied by yours truly.

So get yourself a $39 kit to start. They really are just fine. It won't be long before the biggest problem you have is fly management. What do you with all the danged things.

The main thing is don't worry about the first couple you tie. For goodness sake fish your flies, even if they are less than perfect. Heck, even if they seem goofy. I was FW's place a while back. As the kids ran about we settled in with wine an vises. Some decent flies were produced. Some pretty shabby flies were produced. I am still not sure if we got better or worse the more we drank.

Eventually the black standard poodle, overdue for a haircut came buy. I grabbed the dog, trimmed some bunches of strands. Then, yes, I tied a poodle streamer. brass cone head and a couple strands of tinsel. Tied it on and the next day got a nice bass with it. Poodle hair makes a good streamer, but it holds water. I suggest going light on extra weight or using for only part of the fly, say an underwing or tail.

The point is, fly tying is fun. Don't take it to seriously and don't be afraid to fish something that seems a bit weird. I guarantee those big spinner baits now so ubiquitous in bass fisherman's tackle boxes were weird once upon a time.

Crazy Charlie

Crazy charlie, the clouser and deceiver offer basic patterns that present an unlimited possible variations. Natural materials, synthetics, thick and thin bodies, various weight, sink rates, outrageous attractor colors and over the top flash or subdued colors. Learn to tie these patterns. They are easy and a jump off point for lots of your own creations.

Check out youtube. There are hundreds.

Essential patterns

The copperhead is currently the hot fly here. It is said red drum will not refuse it. I am sure it is indeed an effective pattern, but I have yet to see the the pattern I cannot get a any fish to refuse. For those who have not seen it, it is basically a crazy charlie pattern. There is copper flashabou and copper crystal flash for tail and wings. Copper Estaz or chenille forms the body.

Essential flies: You should have include Clousers, Deceivers, Crazy charlies and a few woolly buggers. A couple crease flies or poppers to use when your losing flies to oysters. I also favor the Enrico Puglisis flies. They are amazing in the water. Colors should include white, chartreuse, black, olive in various combination's and sizes.

Additional patterns that are valuable for inshore anglers: Some shrimp patterns would be next. Some swear by spoon patterns though I have never given them much of a chance. Same with crab patterns. I like bend backs though. I also like poppers.

After that there are about a million fly patterns you can tie or buy. Experiment.

Where theres a gill theres a way

I was wading the clear salt ponds at the North end of Huntington Island State Park. It was a spring day. The sun was high. I am told there are flounder in the ponds. All I ever see is Mullet. I think there are few predators in the water and those that are there do not have to work hard for a meal as the mullet are so plentiful.

As I waded schools of finger mullet cruised by my legs. I watched always puzzled at how the whole school turns exactly on cue. Always in the right direction.

As they came close to me and did a 180 and started moving back away I saw dozens, hundreds of red flashes. Their gills were wide open. From behind, ideal predator strike position the gills would stand out. In fact the gills would be the feature to trigger and target a strike upon.

So I like the red prismatic eyes because they are easy. They look cool and they represent both eyes and gills of a small baitfish.

Recently while fishing another small pond a similar little stream was steadily attacked by fish to small to take the hook. After a few casts I noted the eyes were gone. Those little fish I think focused their strikes right on the red eyes until they were picked off at which point their attacks tended to stop just short of a strike.

My opinion: Add eyes, especially to crustacean patterns. For bait fish patterns include eyes and gills.

Did I mention the prismatic stick on eyes were cheaper than the molded epoxy eyes?

When applying them use some super glue or they tend to fall off on their own. Make sure the eyes are not placed so they may interfere with the opening of the hook and cause you to miss hook sets.

Red eye

Recently I was reading about Horberg flies. The body, wigs were mallard. Cheap and available. The eyes were jungle cock. Expensive and rare. Maybe even an endangered species. Personally I won't tie with such materials even if I could get them. Anyway, they started tying the hornbergs without the jungle cock eye and they just didn't fish. Was it confidence? Maybe that was part of it but I think the fly lost something too. Even though I happen to be one who thinks eye do help.

The eyes have it

There is a reason I prefer using red prismatic eyes. Not because minnows have red eyes, but because they do double duty as gills.

There is debate over whether all the trouble we tiers go through to add eyes to our shrimp and bait fish patterns really mean anything to fish. The theory of some is that if eyes do work it is simply because the fisherman is more confident with the fly. He or she likes the way it looks and fishes it more and presents it with a bit more care.

For my part I tend to agree that an angler liking the fly and having confidence in it works. I also think that in some bait species eyes are a dominant feature and a strike trigger. My opinion is that shrimp are an example. Their eyes glow red when hit with light at night, and they are black bulls eyes on a very well camouflaged shrimp during the day.

So don't thing for a second your wasting your time making those epoxy eyes for your shrimp patterns gosh darn it.

A shortcut, and the neatest trick I have seen is a gentleman who uses cheap grocery store hair brushes for shrimp/crawfish/crap eyes. They are light, uniform black plastic with a little bead already on top. Brilliant and you can get about a hundred for about a buck. Way, way cheaper than from a fly shop. Just keep the brush handy at your tying station.

FlyGator

So how did this blog get its name? Two weekends ago while fishing with FW, we were night fishing at a small pond near my home on Pawleys Island. FW, was tossing a large rubbery crawdad like thing across the pond where it splashed near the opposite bank. The idea being bass often cruise the banks, or lay up pointed toward the banks and expect food to come from that direction. Makes sense. Minnows, polliwogs small, bugs all use the bank for cover. Putting a bait with a splash near the bank than realing in so that the bait is drawn away from the bank and hopefully right into the strike zone of an alert and hungry bass.

Several casts did not get the attention of the bass we have seen there in the light of day. Then we saw a pretty substantial wake vectoring in on the splashing in the moonlight. A big fish maybe. A really big fish.

Nope, it was a gator. There was a neighborly gator often seen sunning itself on the banks of the pond. He has grown in the year I lived there. Seems to be about 5 feet including tail. I would guess about forty pounds. My daughter has names him tiny. We always keep a safe distance and see him mostly by car. He's not huge by gator standards, but quite a bit more than most anglers look to tangle with. He kept on after that lure for a couple casts. Chasing the splash.

Now I didn't think for a minute the size 4 streamer and 4 lb tippet I was casting with a 3 wt. Winston would be of any interest to the beast. Heck, I rarely make a presentation good enough to fool a fish. What are the chances of an animal whose ancestors were around millions of years before ours being fooled?

As it turns out the chances are pretty darn good. One cast to the side of gator caught his attention as I stripped it by and he snapped at it. I should have known better but I thought I must have seen wrong and shot another cast in the dark his way . Again he snapped at the streamer as it stripped by, then again., and he was on!

My drag was to tight and a couple head shakes nearly took my rod. Winston has a lifetime guarantee, but this might have been a problem. For those who have not had the experience, a gator on the end of a fly rod is quite a sensation the head shakes and pulling that you know you can't stop. I broke him off after only a few seconds. I didn't want to harm him more than the already might have, and I had no intention of landing him and trying de-hook him.

So thats how the blog got its name. For the record the gator is fine. After I broke him off he continued to hang close to us, thinking we were a source of food. In fact he got closer than ever. He could easily be reached by a rod tip. He made no motion to leave the water though, so we fished a bit more. He was to big to catch but still to small to eat us. The next morning Tiny was out sunbathing on the bank again. So he is fine.

The fly used to hook tiny was tied by me. It was a very simple deceiver inspired streamer that used white puglisi fibers instead of feather and had a back of olive puglisi sparkle fibers. It had red stick on prismatic eyes which I favor, even though they tend to fall off.

Very simple fly. If you don't tie and ever though of starting, this very simple pattern will catch fish - and maybe other things.

So we are finally getting to the meat of this blog and talking about the important stuff. Fly tying and fishing down here where so few do it, and it can be so much fun.

300 years, five rivers

Winyah Bay was explored by the Spanish in the 1500's. One of the earlies settlements in North Amaerica failed on what is now the Waccamaw Neck - The peninsula that forms the North side of Winyah Bay.

The city of Georgetown was laid out on the banks of the Sampit River in 1680 and of course namd for the King of England. The city was incorporated in 1734. One of the oldest homes - still a residence - is a two blocks off the water and from that same year. A historic distric that would be the pride of any community is still a working downtown and neighborhood.

This little city has charm, friendly folks and a core of long term residents, who all know each other. It's a remarkable place and assuming you have to spend a bit off time off the water Front Street is a fine place to lift a cold drink and let your guard down and relax while try to figure out how to outsmart the darn fish.

The Sampit flows into Winyah Bay, along with the Black River, Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers. Water from the Smokey Mountains and a good bit of North ans South Carolina meet the sea at Winyah Bay. The Santee River also meets the ocean just to the South of the Bay. It's a fabric of water. Tidal creeks, marsh, oyster bars and micro bays. Fishy terrain indeed.

High country to low country

So I find myself here on the coast of South Carolina. Georgetown County to be specific. Far enough North of Charleston and far enough South of Myrtle Beach to retain it's Southern soul.

We are in the heart of the low country here. That unique stretch of coast with mazes of inlets, rivers and tidal wetlands that are an inshore fishing paradise. Not that I am particularly good at fishing it.

Small Water

I know the subject of this blog is low country in shore fly fishing. I am getting to that, indulge me a bit. During that high country hiking/fishing trip I had a bit of an fishiphany.

Upon reaching the shore of the glacier gorge lake I set up my spinning gear. While my friend was still fiddling with setting up his fly rod I was already fishing. Spinners, jigs, changing lures, varying retrieves, covering water. I was catching nothing.

After about 20 minutes of my already fishing and probably making a couple dozen casts, the Fish Whisperer finally got his old two piece 4 wt sage set up and ready. He leisurely strolled out on a rock outcropping I had already fished, covering the water all around it. He made a few false casts and put a fly, blue wing olive or caddis, I can't remember which, about 30 feet out over some submerged timber. An instant top water strike! The Fish Whisperer was hooting now. Those high country trout don't get to big, living in water that's frozen over most of the year, but they are beautiful. This one had gold sides unlike any other trout I have seen. After a few seconds of staring at it, he was released healthy and a bit wiser. He should still be up there.

This was a an oddity, right? No doubt I warmed that fish up for him. Then a few casts later he had another. It went on like that until I realized my spinning gear was useless, heavier, snagged more so I sat and ate my packed lunch.

Later we bushwhacked through some swampy areas. finding and fishing small headwater streams. Only inches deep and only a few feet wide. Wild trout darted about and stealth was critical. Casting spinning gear is such waters was pretty much a waste of time.

The fly rod on the other hand could deliver quick, stealthy and very efficient drifts, time after time. This is when the clear advantages of the simple essence of fly fishing became clear. It is the moment went from seeing fly fishing as an elitist activitt to a sensible, practical and in some conditions a "best practices" system.

The next couple years I experimented, learned and progressed - a little anyway.

In mountain country I prefer avoiding the gold medal destination rivers and prefer the smaller more aggressive fish and solitude that comes with hard hikes to small streams.

Welcome

This blog is dedicated to the pursuit of life, liberty and fly fishing. I have fished on and off wherever I have lived. I was introduced to fly fishing by a friend called the Fish Whisperer in the Rockies. Once I started fly fishing there was no going back.

I had no interest in fly fishing most of my life. It seemed a silly fringe sport practiced by people with to much time and to much patience, who wished to revel in taking the path of greatest resistance. Catching fish on microscopic dust balls? Ridiculous.

Then after a good long hike to a high country valley with a cold clear lake and several streams changed all that.

On my next post I will explain how I learned fly fishing is usually more fun and often the best method of fishing with artificial bait.