Saltwater Freestyle Angling In Maine!!!
Before I get to Freestyle fishing...let me first again touch on the following important issue:
For those of you who are staying current with this blog...you know that there is some contentious rule making proposed for Striped Bass fishing on the Kennebec...There are basically Three factions that are fighting tooth and nail over what the right way is to manage this once world class fishery...Standing on one point of the triangle is a group Fly Fishermen...They are mostly a level headed group of guys that stand fast to their convictions...Whats not to respect about that? Next we have a group of anglers that fish bait...again...a group of level headed guys that for the most part are also advocates of catch & release...Scientific evidence has proven that the use of circle hooks has resulted in levels of release mortality are far below what is the accepted norm...based on those facts...this group has decided to support the regulation amendments...One shaky argument to that fact is that additional pressure from anglers fishing with bait will result in additional release mortality...It's hard to present an argument to a tough administration about fish that might or might not be caught....So far, I can see that both sides have some very valid arguments...The first two groups are the kind of guys that you can get together with at the end of the day for a few cold beers and you can actually have a good productive discussion...Last but not least we have a group of guys that are pretty mixed up & over the top....we have the small contingent of EXTREMIST conservation zealots that would like to see nothing less than the entire coast shut down to all fishing...those guys can go pound sand as far as i'm concerned!!! and the other group & I hate to lump these guys in this group but there is no other place to put them...this group has their tails between there legs and don't know if they are coming or going.. With their puppet master pulling the strings this small band of puppets publicly rail against the regulation change that would make using using bait on circle hooks in May/June possible yet their actions on the water speak differently....Some would say that the pen is mightier than the sword...Well I say that actions speak louder than words!!! As much as I hate to say it...Fishing is still considered a blood sport...even though we can choose to release our catch to fight again it doesn't always work out the best for the fish, regardless of the methods used...It's important that we use gear that keeps release mortality to a minimum...Crushing barbs on hooks is a good idea for the fish and the angler...Circle hooks have come a long way...
If you ask me, I can present a pretty compelling arguments for either side...I can certainly just as easily present the argument that saltwater fly fishing can be just as destructive a method as any other method..The hooks are are often just as large and the other end of the spectrum, tiny flies can easily be sucked into the vital throat,gills area of a fish...I've seen too many overly aggressive fish that have been hooked in the throat, gills, eyes etc...I've been there & done that...Between 1977 when I was just a 5 year old boy fishing among the rocks and sand at Ft Popham to the present day where I am a full time saltwater fishing guide, I have seen striper & bluefish blitzes on the kennebec that have lasted all day long without a lull...In that 30+ year span I've seen alot...I have seen the up & down fluctuations in fish numbers...In the late 1990's early 2000's I had more 100+ fish days on fly rod than I can count, I feel that makes me more than qualified to speak about it...
DEADLINE FOR WRITTEN COMMENTS: April 14, 2011
CONTACT PERSONS: Bruce Joule (207-633-9505) or Pat Keliher (207-287-9973)
For more information: Online the web link for a copy of the proposed rules is: http://www.maine.gov/dmr/rulemaking/
Or, to obtain a hardcopy by US mail write: Dept. of Marine Resources, attn: L. Churchill, PO Box 8, West Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04575-0008 TEL: 207-633-9584, or
EMAIL: laurice.churchill@maine.gov, FAX: (207) 633-9579 or TTY: (207) 633-9500
Now back to
Freestyle Angling There is quite a bit of name calling between the above groups...lots of silly labels being thrown around...Fly rod dweebs, bait draggers etc...we've all heard the various terms. What category do I fall into??? ..The answer...
ALL OF THEM!!! Here is where the term
Freestyle Fishing comes in
To me
Freestyle Fishing means not following a traditional path...I am not a purist of any one discipline. Rather I consider myself a purist of all disciplines...which in my mind makes me a true fishing purist hahaha!!!Depending on the conditions I can be found using a variety of techniques....some of them are quite unorthodox by local standards...techniques that have been adapted from other fisheries from all around the world. I won't go into them in detail here because much of what we do is what makes us unique...It's not rare that I'll have a guy in the bow of the boat casting a fly rod with an angler in the stern drifting a livie or skipping a jig off the bottom. I have learned so much about fly presentation, by also fishing bait...case in point was a fly fishing tournament that was held last year on the Kennebec river...A tournament that had a very poor turnout as far as landings were concerned...It was downright horrible actually...Only two fish were boated during the entire 6hr event...that's why they call it fishing!!!...We left the dock at 6:00 am to fish the last of the out going tide...then with what I can only attribute to poor planning by tourney officials(nobody looked at the tide chart...lol), we were faced with a long slack tide period before the incoming tide built enough steam to overcome the natural flow of the river. A hot summer had left the water temps astronomically high so the fish were holding & feeding in the deeper, cooler waters, water much deeper than whats normally conducive to fly-fishing....I put together a strong game plan and had some very skilled fly anglers aboard to execute it...based on that game plan and chatting with some of the other teams about their gameplans over many beers, I knew that we would probably be the front runners...
Prior to the tourney I had spent the last several weeks carolina rigging live baits in the cooler water over deep ledges...we were catching very good numbers..Once the tide started to rip inbound...I ran to a spot that holds fish all season long..I had my anglers switch to the heaviest sinking lines that we had onboard....600 grains or so.....The first drifts my anglers didn't have the feel for it...getting a fly down deep in all that current and being able to stay in contact with your fly is extremely difficult but after some coaching they were able to get their flies to tick off the bottom and occasionally snag structure...It was then that I became confident that If we could keep this presentation up during the peak flow of the incoming tide, that we would most likely win the tourney. The rest of the tourny fleet was also present in the area but after watching the frequent casting and fast cadence retrieves of the anglers on most the other boats I knew that they couldn't possibly be letting their flies get deep enough into the crush zone...I'm used to setting the boat up to have the tide pull us along specific current seams and tide rips...knowing how water behaves as it flows over structure is very important when making presentations in deep water...we used that to our advantage, It took us several long, slow methodical drifts, dredging our flies over a ledge in 25' of water but we ended up sticking the winning fish...This most likely never would have happened had I not been experienced in carolina rigging...we presented our flies in such a way that they almost exactly mimicked that of a carolina rigged livie...the long heavy sinking head fly line played the part of the egg sinker...the black "snakefly" tied to a 4' stubby leader played the part of a live eel to perfection!!!....The other fish was landed by team "Fly by Knight" these guys fish with me alot each season and are from the same school of
Freestyling as i am. This is only one small example of the things that I have learned about fly presentation from my time spent using live baits.....Many days we incorporate fly, artificial lures and livebaits all at the same time...I could go on and on with enough info to fill whole volumes of encyclopedias with crossover techniques...It's nice to have a fat playbook to utilize...I laugh to myself every time I hear a fly fisherman proclaim that bait fishing is not really fishing...I guess that can be their own little secret...lol....I'm pretty sure that I could teach those guys a few valuable lessons about their own game on their own turf...but why bother....ignorance is bliss...lol
If you want to become a more efficient angler and are interested in learning more about
Freestyle Fishing please give us a shout to arrange a trip... 207-691-0745
Maine' Premier Saltwater Fishing Guide Service
Super Fly Charters
Capt. George Harris
207-691-0745
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www.superfly-charters.com
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