Fly Fishing and Tuna Fishing?

[IglooMan]

Article written by Captain Fred:

Here's something that I hope that some of you "bug chuckers" might find of interest. While you might think this hardcore big game, bluewater guy is trespassing on fly fishing "water" and throwing around nicknames like "bug chuckers" to make fun of fly guys and gals, please let me state that I have been a serious, avid fan of fly fishing since I was a lad. I really can't say enough about my love for fly fishing...besides, nobody'd probably believe me anyway! However, I have something quite different to say about this particular form of fishing that is probably a lot more likely to clearly show that love and respect that I have (and the thanks that I have give) to both fly fishing itself and those who also love it. Read on, if you dare!


STREAM TROUT AND BIG GAME FISHING?

I am well-known (perhaps “notorious” is a better description) in certain circles as a devout believer in the power of teasers when it comes to all forms of offshore fishing. I have written about it incessantly in my books and many magazine articles for many decades now. Anyone who knows me well or has fished with me knows that I practice what I preach – I simply do not troll lures without teasers attached to them, primarily in the form of Moldcraft Little Birds in front of conventional marlin and other trolling lures and the hollow squid teasers on my spreaderbars that I am enamored of. (I no longer fish with the daisychains that also employ teasers because spreaderbars do the same job, only far, far better.)

Just the other day an old friend asked me where this abiding love for teasers came from. I hadn’t thought about that in years, but my answer was immediate; “It all started back when I was a young, fanatical trout fisherman – specifically a fly fishing one.” He was fascinated by the history I then related to him and because of that, I figured that it might be a good idea to share that history here, because it could have a direct effect on how others think about and pursue this salty game of ours.

Interestingly (to me at least), I started my love affair with teasers and that led to my even more beloved spreaderbars back when I was that young, dead serious fly fisherman and member of the Cortland Pro Staff who targeted big native brown and rainbow trout in some of the most famous and hard fished trout streams in the northeast. Big streamers in trout patterns chasing wet flies or small streamer flies were my secret weapon and I developed quite a reputation as a big trout slayer using them back then. When I heard stories of a big trout that lived in a certain pool on a given stream I frequently caught that fish and usually pretty fast, too. Of course, back then I never told anyone what I was doing to catch those fish. That was just the way that it was in those days. That first teaser rig, and that is what it really was, was fun and deadly as all get out.

It is where my love for teasers and multiple lure fishing started.


See picture below

Yep, that's me! 1964. This was my junior year at University of Pittsburgh, which I attended on a scholastic and football scholarship (tight end and big time girl tackler mostly and part time pre-med student). I was a lot more serious about those first two than I was that last one.

I may not look it in that picture, but I was a big monkey back then - 6'2", 235# playing weight. Those trout that I am holding are natives caught just below the Delaware Watergap. The rainbow was a very famous fish that lived in one pool for years and as you can see, got to be a real beauty. Considered uncatchable by many, I caught him on my first try and not only that, I missed but stung him with the hook on the first cast, but like an enraged marlin on a lure that pokes him in the mouth, that normally ultra-cautious rainbow ignored the stab and came back and really nailed my fly on the very next cast. A big streamer that I tied to mimic a small rainbow trout that was chasing a mini muddler minnow that I also tied did him in. I don't remember the weight, but I was told that it was the record for a New Jersey fly-caught rainbow for the time. I have no idea if that was true or if it was, how long that record might have lasted. That other fish, a nice native brown, came on the very next cast I made after landing the rainbow. Naturally, it was an unforgettable experience!

See why I got hooked on teasers early-on? That was way over forty years ago, but it was one heckuva fish for its time and I can recall every detail of its deception and capture to this very day. That early “daisy chain” hooked me and has stuck with me ever since. That concept of a predator fish closing in on a smaller fish flips the switch on a lot of territorial, competitive and aggressive instincts that often overcome big fish caution and even lack of hunger. Learning that was one of my most valuable fishing lessons ever. I learned later that a lure chasing a whole POD of bait (i.e. a spreaderbar) was even more effective. And of course, it didn't take long for me to discover that the same rigging worked on saltwater fish too.

I don't know if the average offshore angler has ever thought about the importance of certain basics that apply to all fishing, but as a student of the game I have and the old picture of that kid with those trout brought it back. Trout fishing, especially for stream natives (and serious bass fishing too) really prepares a fisherman for many other forms of fishing, perhaps especially the blue water trolling game. Many of the top anglers who I know started out on trout streams or bass lakes and were good at those games before they made the transition to the salt and I am of the opinion that the fly and bass fishing really helped prepare them to quickly become well-rounded offshore fishermen. It sure did that for me.

LOOKING LIKE A PRO, FISHING LIKE AN AMATUER
Fly fishing for trout in particular is a fishing/learning opportunity extraordinaire. And just as it is in big game saltwater fishing, just owning the right equipment is something that anybody with the inclination and money is flat-out simple to do. However, becoming an expert at either game takes a great deal of knowledge and skill.
First and foremost, to be a successful fly fisherman one has to learn to read the water and fish where the fish are. Sounds simple, but an awful lot of saltwater anglers fail to abide by that simple-sounding, but oh-so-critical rule. Fact is, I call it “Rule #1” in my books.
An amazingly large number of fishermen not only spend a lot of time fishing where there are no fish, they don’t understand the utter futility of that silly act. And that is mostly because too many fail to learn how to look for and find their quarry in the first place. In this they are not unlike a neophyte fly caster wading a stream and haphazardly casting all over the place, with most of his casts never even getting near a lurking trout, let alone tempting one to bite.

IT’S THE SAME IN THE BLUE WATER
If he doesn’t have the knowledge, the guy with lots of money and a brand new Viking battlewagon with the best gear and lures on it is no different than the novice fly fisherman in this regard. His idea of "fishing" is a truly knowledgeable angler's idea of "wasting time".
Not so with a sharp, truly expert fly fisherman. Unlike the beginner, he doesn’t waste time putting his flies where there are likely no fish. Thus, the basis for the saying, "Knowledge is the key to fishing success". It is the absolute truth...with it, one can truly become a pro. Without it, one is stuck with pure, simple luck and a lot less fish. Oh yeah, there’s the saying “I’d rather be lucky than good.” It’s a cute saying, but to tell you the truth, that is one of the dumbest things that I’ve ever heard anybody say! A further truth is that the fishermen with the most and best knowledge are far, far “luckier” than those who don’t have that knowledge and apply it. It ain’t luck that separates the men from the boys when it comes to fishing!

The experienced fly fishermen who have become big game fishermen who might not have considered the “big/big” and "match the hatch" and “don’t fish where the fish ain’t” rules don't sit around and dispute them when you point them out to them. Instead, they recognize the truth in what has been pointed out to them and they immediately set out thinking about ways of answering the generally unfamiliar offshore big fish/big bait side of the equation when they first start out.

They KNOW how important all of these factors are and that they apply to all fish and all fishing. That's because they know things like a little-trout-and-big-dace-and-sculpin-eating big brown trout will occasionally eat a tiny midge or two, or maybe even a lot of them if they are tremendously abundant, but astute fly fishermen also know that if they really want to catch it, they should offer that big, hook-jawed cannibal "king of the pool" a nice, fat little trout imitation chasing a midge in "his" pool to ignite his competitive and territorial instincts and toss caution to the wind.

I have always automatically checked the stomach contents of the pelagic fish that I have caught, both while fishing and after. That is the fly fishing heritage at work again, right down to learning to use washdown hoses pushed into fish gullets to wash out and see what fish that are about to be released have been eating before letting them go, instead of using a specialized tool for doing so like I did with the trout. Matching what I find in their stomachs and trolling that to mimic it in a natural way for that species is absolutely automatic for me; this too is the fly fishing heritage come home to roost.

A clear culmination of and example of that is long ago seeing the vast numbers of ballyhoo that were present in Cabo waters and making the logical (matching the hatch enabling) decision to import them from Florida because they were not available to buy for bait there in the early days and Americans were not allowed to catch their own bait in Mexico. That was an easy decision for an ex-fly fisherman, but consider for a moment the vast number of other anglers there who apparently never thought of this. My crew and I were the first, or certainly among the very first to import and use ballyhoo in The Baja. There were virtually no local fishermen with a trout fishing background there at the time and it is possible that in the final analysis, that was reason why ballyhoo were not used as bait – until some hatch-matching erstwhile former fly fishermen showed up and changed things radically.

And not only do most fly fishermen recognize matching the hatch's importance, they do something else that many salt water guys don't - they study the bait species that the fish they seek feed on because they in turn have to successfully imitate it and present it in the right way and at the right time in order to consistently catch fish. (That ties into understanding and appreciating such things as deep trolling and high speed ocean fishing for example.)

And they go even further yet if they do as many fly fishermen do and they tie their own flies. To my way of thinking the most advanced of that type are the ones who familiarize themselves with existing fly patterns and what they imitate and come up with their own patterns to do a better job of matching what the fish are eating and how it acts. The bottom line is that whether a fly fisherman ties conventional patterns or experiments with his own creations or both, many make their own lures and in the process, specifically design them to behave naturally in the water so that they can be drifted or retrieved to look real. In my case this led to “tying flies” that instead, were spreaderbars...and I’m still “tying” them to this day!

SAME GAME, DIFFERENT PLAYING FIELD
I once wrote something along these lines that I wish I could locate today. What I wrote was that in effect, I was still fly fishing like I was wading a moving trout stream when I was driving a blue water battlewagon hunting marlin and tuna, etc. The wading and spot casting is replaced by trolling and hunting for good water “wearing” a boat, instead of a pair of chest waders.

Matching the hatch is the same for me when I am blue water fishing as it was when I fly fished because I pick the lures and baits that we troll and it is my job to make sure that we are trolling ones that imitate what the fish that we are targeting are feeding on.

When trolling it was and is my job to make sure that the “flies” (lures in this case) are “retrieved” (trolled) the right way to imitate whatever they are supposed to represent. My hands on the wheel and throttles replaced them on the fly rod and line in that case. Sure, I’m talking blue water trolling here, but in effect, I am doing exactly what I used to do when I worked a trout stream with my lures and just about everything to do with them, only in a different way.

As it was when I fly fished, I also "tie" some new "patterns" (design and make new lures) that don't exist or where existing lures could be changed and improved to do the job of imitating a given kind of bait better.

Viewing things this way, trolling replaces casting because the captain is positioning the "flies" (lures) to present them to the fish or where they should be. In effect, he is casting. And like the savvy stream fly fisherman, top offshore guys "cast" in the right places and ignore and refuse to waste time working the unlikely ones. And as already pointed out, they also control the retrieve, just as they do when fly fishing by speeding up, turning, slowing down their boats, etc. They even abandon empty water or slow fishing and go look for "the right stuff", just like a sharp fly fisherman does. And finally, they even "set the hook" on the fish with the boat.

That “caster” even pays close attention to structure and how currents are affected by it and where the bait and game fish position themselves because those things are essentially the same, but on that different playing field of sea versus stream.

It is the same game, but it is a played in a different arena. I find that fascinating and thought a few of you might be interested in this perspective on the similarities between two forms of fishing that seem so different, but aren't.

Droppers in front of streamers, in-line teasers, leading to daisy chains and then leading logically to spreader bars in the salt. The same game; different field. Fascinating to a former bug-chucker and maybe one or two others.

Oh yes, fly fishing streams and rivers and trolling the streams and rivers of the sea...the same, my friends, the same! And I love ‘em both!

Pondering. Over and out.

Good teachers, them trout!

Never forget...“Knowledge is the key to success.”

Okay, I'll go back to my familiar old, ratty pirate's dock with the seagull poop all over it again with my eye patch, peg leg, and dirty-mouthed parrot on my shoulder! At least there I won't be hanging any backcasts off in the danged brush!