Sheer insanity….. That’s what I was thinking last night standing in the rain, this place is sheer insanity. I’d flown clear across the country to stand in the intermittent rain waving a 10 wt hoping to catch some fish. The inlet I was fishing along with seven other guys was only about seventy-five yards across and maybe one hundred yards between the the very protected bay it connected to a slightly less protected, larger bay. I hadn’t had much sleep over the last 24 hrs, an hour or so on the red eye flight and maybe another hour and a half waiting for the Orvis store to open up so I could grab the two new H2 10wt rods they’d shipped there for me to use. I don’t sleep much anyway so that didn’t bother me. It was the fact that I’d spent the last six of those hours casting into darkness waiting for a strike that hadn’t come yet that bothered me. When the strike finally did come It was a cocktail blue of about three pounds that spent more time out of the water than in. The best part, is that there was actually a break in the clouds and a big enough moon to watch the whole spectacle.
Today was a lot nicer both in terms of weather and numbers of fish. We’d booked a guide for the day so that we could get off the beach and hopefully get into the false albacore. Within minutes of leaving the harbor it was obvious that we had made a solid decision. The fish were everywhere! Albies are tuna shaped speedsters with the annoying habit of not eating your fly when you think they ought to. Thankfully, no one had told these fish that and after laughing at the initial trout set by one of the guys we managed to get the fishing off to a good start by each hooking into and landing fish as our turns came up. One of the guys on this trip is from Missouri and doesn’t get to do much saltwater fishing so it was good to see his face light up more with each fish.
Albies are known tackle breakers and the smooth nature of the start of the outing should have foreshadowed what was to come. let’s just say that we are now two flylines and one 9 wt short of what we started the day with. I always get laughed at and harassed for being a gear whore and bringing too much stuff along but as the day wore on my obsession seemed to be less of a burden and more of a saving grace.
I’ve got more to say but I have to be up in 4 hrs to go at it again and even I’m feeling a little beat after working the fish over and getting worked over a bit myself.
