Fishing dry flies in the salt
It is summer. The evening hot and humid and almost no wind. The people camping on the beach or close wears appropriate clothing bikinis and shorts and I think twice before I pull my waders on. Breatheable, right...
Summer
A t-shirt and a small chestpack with an extra leader one box of flies and 2 spools of tippet material. I stroll along the beach and smell the grills and barbeques from all over. After half a kilometer I am my starting point interrupting a young couple who were a bit further than their starting point. In a rush they grab their clothes and half naked run giggeling for their tent.
I tie on a Red Tag Palmer size 10 and the class 5 rod sends it right away. A big fish breaks the surface and shows a broad back. It's only 15 meters away. The fly is lifted from the surface and sent the right direction when another fish breaks the calm surface just where my fly was.
Trout
Two good trout taking something in the surface and in saltwater. Brilliant. I had been reading about in magazines but never had the chance to see big trout behave that way.
I rub the Red Tag hackles against my nose to grease it a bit. It doesn't float, but lies just in the surface giving absolutely no interest to the fish. I pull it back in, slowly at first but my impationce speeds it up when suddenly a fish strike the fly. It is heavy and not very trout-like. An ide shows golden scales in the last sun light. What an extremely beautiful fish - and challenging. I release and it swim back crossing a sandy area. I continue fishing and find out that the best fly is a klinkhamer, a foram beetle and a gammarus imitation (not dry). When they top feeding at the surface I tie on a small brownish gammarus imitation. Really simple. Just crystal chenille and a back shield of clear shell back. I get one more when all arounf 2-3 kilos but there are bigger ones. I have seen them. But they have become big because they take their precautions. I start to fish for them. Focus more and more and finally after more than one hour, in the last light I feel a good fish takes the small fly. This is strong and fight much better than the smaller ides. When it passes me the first time I can see it's an ide silver colored and with black spots. A sea trout close to 70 cm. Fat as they should be in the late summer. As I want to fight it quick, I might have put too much pressure in the class 5 set-up and the hook suddenly come loose and I never get the fish to my hands. Well, I would have released it anyway,
What an evening.
Garfish
Garfish are not the most difficult fish to catch. Using small orange flies with some flash as tail you may on the right days catch 100, yes a hundred!
What is the challenge then? Of course to get one over a kilo, but that is more a coinsidence than any thing else, as you nomally fish to a school of fish and not for specific individuals.
Some years ago I read a short article about dry fly fishing for garfish. That was new and that was a challenge. Especially to get the photos of beaks in the surface hunting the little red Rackelhane.
Just fish the Rackelhane streaking and popping the surface. Watch the beaks from several garfish hunt the little fly like dancing narwhals and a whole other way of fishing garfish is a reality.
- Log in to post comments
