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.