Friday, May 20, 2011

Salt Water Fly Fishing?



That's the question I got when I showed my most famous photo to one of my friends today. Most people don't even know how productive fly-fishing is, let alone that you can fly-fish in the ocean. How many fish you catch today? One? Two? No, I caught thirty four. That was one of my conversations last Summer, and the look on that man's face was pure confusion mixed with some terror. But salt water fly fishing, even less people know how productive that is. I am lucky enough to be able to do quite a bit of it. I've done quite a bit in Florida, as well as some in California. That's where today's story begins, Cali. I was out to do some fishing, and the water was calm. That was good, because I'm not sure how the boat would handle in big waves. So we were sitting out in the middle of the ocean, trying to catch sharks. Yes, sharks. It sounds crazy, but it's definitely some of the most exciting fly fishing I've ever done. After a little while getting some sharks near the boa, it was fish on. The cute little shark weighed about 15 pounds, and took about as many minutes to get in. This kind of thing happened again and again throughout the day, with the numbers going like this: 15, 5, 30, 40, 40, 40. All the fish were fun, but the 40 pounders were definitely tough. Sharks are solid muscle, and they aren't big fans of being hooked. So all these fish were caught, but my luck was about to change. For the better, if you can believe that. I had just dropped my line in the water, tired from catching three forty pound fish in rapid succession. So I turn around, and sure enough there's another shark swimming by. But this fish was different. This shark was HUGE! I flipped my fly out to him, not expecting to hook him. The way most of these sharks are caught is using a hook-less teaser and then taking out the teaser and putting the fly near the fish. But this monster turned, to two big tails whips over to my fly, and ate it. Fish on! After a VERY tiring fight that neared an hour, I brought the fish in. The beast weighed in at 115 pounds. We took some pictures, then let the shark go to swim another day. A great way to end the day.

5 comments:

  1. It definitely sounds exciting, but I've never really had an urge to fish salt. I think it has something to with Jaws or something. My motto is never fish for something that can turn the tables and eat you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The only salt fishing I have done is for halibut in Alaska. And of course that was not fly fishing. Great write up

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow,, Nice PosT i read,, Love the Picture,,

    visit Please,, http://el-janhreview.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. co- good point, good point indeed
    dustin- did u catch much?
    and el- thanks

    ReplyDelete
  5. yeah we fished for 3 days before hitting the kenai for salmon. I caught the biggest and smallest. A 11lb one and a 189lb one wooohoo.. I caught around 25 in all.

    ReplyDelete