Interest in another Fly Swap?

[BillyBlanks]

Awesome!! I knew they'd turn up

[cb2fly]

I saw Murph at the Marlborough, MA FlyFishing Show, He got his flies and know that BillyBlanks got his, everybody get their packages?
Any more surprises?
Great Albie recipes for next falls flyboxes, thanks everybody for your patience.
Mrph, it was great meeting you and seeing the wonderful world of ez-body.
cb

[AT Grimaldi]

Both ATG and ATG Jr got theirs.

Many thanks.

[BillyBlanks]

Hey Guys,

I've been fly fishing for stripers for a while now, but albies and bonito are new to me on the fly. I know some of these are for that type of fishing and catching one of these on the fly rod is a goal of mine this season.

If you can, could you just post a little something about which fly is good for when and what species? I'd greatly appreciate it.

Billy

[cb2fly]

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