What gets your heart pumping??

[travbass2 0]

Following the favorite fish thread in the Warmwater species forum, I'd like to know what you salties like best to chase. For me first place has to be a tie between False Albacore and Tarpon. Then Red Drum, Bluefin Tuna, King Mackeral, Stripers, and Flounder. Lots of people are surprised to know I catch plenty of flounder on flies, they are actually a very voracious predator. I even caught a couple on a Pop-R while fishing bass tournaments in eastern North Carolina's tidal rivers. It's not odd at all to be fishing a wreck or old pilings and catch a bass, then a Red Drum, another bass or two, a striper, flounder, speckled trout, and bass again all in the same spot. For those who fish east Carolina, they have it especially lucky being brackish water and a mix of fresh and saltwater fish in the same places. I think that makes the Largemouth especially mean. I've caught them all over the country and have yet to find other largemouth that fight as hard and are as mean, even in the delta country of south of New Orleans...

What saltwater fish is everyone else's favorite??

[Linesides 0]

Without a doubt the best for me is the striper. I have been catching them since I was a 9 year old with a drop line of tarred mackrel line and a seaworm with a 3 oz pyramid. Then selling them to a baitshop. Now I use different tackle but you still get the thrill "Is it a schoolie or a keeper??????

Followed by my love for blues but so far I have been skunked with those fish.

Dave

Ugliest fish in saltwater was a sea robin.

 

Flounder on a flyrod......... are you serious?

 

[mb82 0]

Never caught something in Saltwater on a fly. Probably with a spinning rod would be Croaker

[Dble Haul 0]

I catch flouder and fluke on the flyrod, never as targeted species though. They are always incidental bycatches.

 

I can't pick a favorite, but if I had to it would be the striper because it can be caught in so many different types of water. That variety alone makes them worth fishing for.

[Redwings1 0]

Hands down...Mahi mahi. Dolphin is the saltwater king for me followed closely by tarpon, snook, and permit.

[James Daly 0]

I grew up spending summer vacations with my GrandFather (god rest him) in Old Saybrook, CT. Right at the mouth of the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. Can you say boat rides to Montauk and everywhere in between??? Chasing those nutty bluefish and striper. I have not had the opportunity to fish for a bonefish or a tarpon yet. The only tropical fish I've got so far has been Barracuda. So, I must say without a doubt Stripers and Blues are my two favorite. I can remember being about 7 years old and having a 12' surf rod with an 8lb blue on the other end.....Grandpa had to hold me by my beltloop to keep me from going waterskiing!! Right then and there I was a junkie and have been one ever since!!!! James D TB7

[travbass2 0]

Of course I'm serious about catching flounder on flies, on purpose to boot! All you need is a sink tip and a clouser crawled seductivly along the bottom where they are known to hang out. Tides dictate success and night fishing seems to do better than daytime. I do alot of night fishing in the summer to beat the heat. Not only is it more comfortable, but I can still fish all I need to while holding down a full time job, and the fish are more active at night anyway, at least where I fish for stripers, blues, flounder, and drum. Yeah, flounder fishing on fly gear is a trip...

[day5 0]

My fav would have to be redfish, They give a respectible fight they do not suck on the table and if Im fishin for reds I must be with my brother in Fla so that makes it all the better!!!

[Gregg A 0]

You guys are fortunate. I havent even seen the ocean yet. But some day before I retire I'm going to go and see what I can catch.

[travbass2 0]

Out there in the Rockies, you don't have it too bad either!! I spent a few years guiding in Colorado for elk and trout on the western slope, mainly in the Flat Tops Wilderness and the Frying Pan, Roaring Fork, and Colorado watersheds in and around the Aspen Valley, truely breathtaking country. But I'm a coastal kinda guy and couldn't make myself stay away from the ocean for an extended ammount of time. Even though I left a piece of my heart in CO, and will no doutedly return that way to fish, I can't deny the ingrained need for saltwater passed through generations of my family's bloodlines. I'm just so much happier smelling salt spray and chasing the overwhelming variety of fish in all sizes and shapes in so many different types of water. One of the true blessings of this part of the world is the diverse fishing opportunities of the mid-Atlantic states, namely the unique waters of the Chesapeake Bay and eastern NC. You get the northern fringes of fish migrating from warm southern waters as well as cooler water fish moving south, meeting up at the Bay and eastern NC. The cooler currents slide down the coast of NJ and MD while the Gluf Stream pumps warm water along the Outer Banks of NC and just offshore of the mouth of the Bay, mixing species that would otherwise not be in the same general areas. We even get Tarpon straying up to the Eastern Shore of VA/MD during the summer but the warm shallow waters of NC's sounds is the farthest dependable range of them and make for shots at some really respectable sized fish, not to mention the biggest Red Drum to be found anywhere. Then there's the legendary False Albacore runs in the fall off of Cape Lookout and up into the Bay, and one of my favorite things to do is chasing the Bluefins that show up in this area shortly after the Albies arrive, with the real giants showing up by late Dec, meaning over 500lbs with a few approaching 1000, but I've yet to tame a Bluefin that big, not exactly an easy thing to do.

Anglers have to be one of the most blessed of the humans. I know I sure feel that way...

[Hot Tuna 0]

False albacore....and mystery fish. I'm out fishing like ten years ago with super guide Scott Hoffmeister(Jupiter Inlet, FLA) and he puts my daughter Jessica and I onto a nice pod of false albacore( they call them bonita in FLA..a junk fish no less as far as many Floridians are concerned!) The albies are big outside of Jupiter inlet 12-16 lbs is not uncommon. First I get an albie sliced in half by a huge shark...then a huge fish grabs another albie I have on and sounds with it...I'm running out of backing so I tell Scott you better check this out, I have what feels like a three hundred pound fish on here...he grabbbed the rod and snapped back breaking the tippet and not losing the fly line. Always make sure your tippet is lighter than your backing just in case; other wise you'll lose your fly line if something like that happens to you.

Tight lines,

Hot Tuna

pS I hope it does!

[travbass2 0]

Albies... gotta love them! I spent all last fall fishing the coast of NC and caught some really nice fish, the best of the season went 18lbs and I lost one over 20lbs that bent a stout 2/0 Mustad. All in all I landed about 50 Albies last fall and lost probally close to that number. I use Battle Line for backing, a soft super braid made of polyester which practicly eliminates the problem of braids eating through guides. Lines like spiderwire can cut right through guides especially when fighting such a fast swimmer like Albies. I highly recommend that line. I can pack close to 400yds in the space 150yds of Darcon takes up and I've hooked Bluefin that would have taken every bit of that backing if I wasn't able to follow them and had some of the larger Albies get well into that 400yds, much more than if I had 150yds.

Guys, if you ever get a shot at False Albacore, I encourage you to go. Words hardly describe the intensity and excitment of fishing for these powerful fish. They slam flies at nearly 40mph and then when hooked, turn on the afterburners. I broke a 6wt in two places trying to play the light tackle card, so take at least an 8wt, 9 or 10 is even better. The fishing can get so intense, older fellas have had heart attacks while fishing for them! I came across one school that would have caused one if I was 30 years older. It was incredible. It was hard to guage, but it looked like half a football field sized school of Albies and Bluefin in the 130lb range. I was smack in the middle of it all. Fish were busting everywhere, baitfish balls were rapidly disappearing, and one 120lb Bluefin almost landed in my boat while chasing a 10lb Albie. In about 4ft of water, the fish were all on top of each other, right off of Cape Lookout. It all looked like something out of a fictional book, but all too real. I was able to contain myself long enough to wait for a pod of larger Albies to cruise within range and pick off the lead fish, that 18lber, then some even bigger ones appeared right after the hookup. I'll never forget that afternoon! If those fish didn't run so long and fast, I could have filled the boat with them, but with only so much daylight left in the day, I went home having landed 15 Albies all over 12lbs, one of my best Albie days ever. No matter where I end up in the future, I will always make my way to Cape Lookout for the Albie runs, Albie fever is really in my blood now!!

 

 

[Joe Hard 0]

I have yet to catch a striper on a fly, this summer it is one of my goals. Mackeral, halibut, bluefish, tuna, and differnt shark species are here and I would like to fish for them as well.

[terrapinted 0]

I fish in southern New England.

If the Good Lord restricted me to only one fish to catch it would be Bluefish. I lived through the striped bass moratorium of the eighties. At that time, stripers were so rare new fisherman wondered if they would ever see one. Bluefish were our salvation. At times Bluefish are easy to catch, at other times they are very difficult to fool. Catch a five pound Blue in the shallows and you'll see your backing. Catch a ten pounder in a kayak and have it tow you all over the place. Bluefish in the fifteen pound range can bite an adult bunker in half. I have met fishermen with missing fingers from Bluefish. Any fish that can bite back is a worthy opponet.

 

I am pessimistic about the condition of Striped bass. Hope the Blues will hold their own.

 

Ted

[travbass2 0]

Don't know about the striper population coinditions up that way, but they are doing very, very well here in the Chesapeake and in NC. So well, they have allowed us to keep them for several years now...not that I do... those big ones are females with tons of eggs and take a long time to get big, so they all go back when I catch them.