Hi Billy:
Although I love to fish for albies & bonito, and have been fishing for them for close to 20 years, I haven't been a lot, mostly due to weather (in late Sept & Oct.) and the fact that they tend to be an offshore quarry. Of the 50 times I have planned a trip, I would say I have been blown out 25% of the time.
That said, Albies & Bonito are perhaps the best challenge for flyfishing in the Northeast. For their size: they are super fast, picky and great once you hook up strong and make the reel sing the high notes.
As for the choice of flies, there are 2 basic strategies,
"match the hatch" or an
attractor/ wounded bait. Most of my Albies have come from matching the hatch. IMO the key being retrieve & placement first, then size , then color.
Placement: The fly needs to land where the Albies are "going to be", in a blitz situation the bait moves very fast as the Albies are pushing them in the feeding frenzy.
Retrieve: The fly needs to land and retrieve started immediately, sometime a 2 handed or a drag & retrieve needs to be used to get the "Bait going fast enough"
Size: Albies tend to focus on the smaller baits from 3/4" to 1-3/4", therefore small epoxies, soft gel & gummies and small e-z body patterns work well- size them same or slightly larger. A 2X size in many cases will not work. If you can have 2 rods a small popper on top when they are blitzing is a ball and 1 rod with an intermediate and small imitation should do the trick.
When fishing the rips small decievers/ E-Z bodies tend to work well.
Color: Seems to be the least important, yet there are times when the seas lay down and the Albies get picky on the color.
I hope this helps, let's plan a trip for next fall? Be well, cb
