Tropical Storm Fay: WorldANGLING Gets Whacked

Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson

On monday Tropical Storm Fay blew into Key West and dumped an impressive 8” of rain flooding my entire property, tackle room, Rathole Studio and screwing Mike Allen out of yet another scheduled fishing day.  And then…it sucker punched Dave up in Naples.  Not that he’d know as he was passed out after a long day backing up way too much computed crap.  Not to worry because he’s back at it after a quick phone call with me to discuss the entire future of World Angling, and few small things we should do to the website.  So… look for an entirely new homepage and layout sometime before the Drake Film Festival on September 14th.  We are planning on releasing our film on the website right before we head to the theater, so if you can’t make it out to see us in Denver you can certainly catch us right here at www.worldangling.com .
Speaking of catching… lately we’ve been catching up on some well deserved time off. Denny and I went to Chicago to connect with Gannon and see Rage Against The Machine, John Butler Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gnarles Barkley, G love and lots of others at Lollapalooza.  Since Key West doesn’t really attract those kinds of bands, it was great to get a chance to see them live in concert.  Capt. Bill Houze and I have been heading out spear fishing lately and we are working on putting together a film about what fly fishing guides do on their days off… Head out as far as the little skiffs can go and Kill Fish!   Besides sleeping in, shooting guns, and raging at concerts, I’ve also found some time to squeeze in a bit of the old buggy whipping.  Mike Allen and I stuck our redemption permit on Friday, a hefty 28# fish.  Finally the monkey is off our back as we turn our attention to the redbone.org Superfly and SLAM tourneys where we will be defending our title in the 1 day / 1 fly event, and looking to capture the overall grand championship title using only fly rods.  I had a very relaxing yet ultra productive day fishing with Rick Orcutt on Saturday.  Rick managed to catch his first ever grand slam!  After releasing a 20+ pound permit to complete the slam we both just stood there looking at each other thinking…did we just do that?  It was hard to believe considering that we didn’t see as many fish as you would think.  Congrats Rick!

Grand Bahama Bonefishing: Pesca Enferma A Cualquiera

Posted under fly fishing reports by Dave Teper

Recently our friend Carlos Cortez journeyed from Argentina to Grand Bahama to fish with Bernard Bevans.  I guess he got some good weather and fishing as he went way out of his way to send a report.

Thanks Carlos, I look forward to fishing with you soon.

Despues de ver y leer mucho tiempo sobre Bonefishing decidí ir a probar suerte, doble propósito, darme el gusto y llevar a mi familia a la playa, cosa que por mis preferencias ( flyfishing y snowboarding ) no hago frecuentemente. El lugar elegido fue Grand Bahama, a priori buenas posibilidades de pesca, buenas playas y no tan costoso.
La isla es bastante agreste, mucha naturaleza, poca ( o casi nada… ) vida de ciudad, para mí “el paraíso”. La capital se llama Freeport y si bien tiene cierta oferta hotelera no es un lugar de turismo masivo, ni cerca de ello, poco shopping…
Alquilamos una casa que estaba a 40 minutos del aeropuerto, 30 minutos del supermercado y 30 minutos del lugar donde nos embarcabamos para ir a pescar. Contraté guía para 6 jornadas de medio día de pesca.
El día de pesca empezaba a las 8 am y terminaba a las 13:30 promedio, el guía espectacular, muy conocedor, buen tipo y además nos pescaba “la cena”, de 6 a 8 langostas por día a requerimiento!!!
La pesca del bonefish es como la describen en cuanto material se lee, es un pez que entra a alimentarse en grupos ( schools ) con la marea y siempre está en constante movimiento, pues es cazador y presa a la vez… el guía detecta cuando se está acercando y empieza a dar indicaciones de lanzamiento, la proa se toma como referencia ( 12:00 del reloj ) para guiarnos en el cast poque al principio no los ves ni cuando están a tiro!!!!
Start casting to 9… longer… longer… more to right…. more to right… left… let it fall !!! let it fall !!!
Comienza a castear a las 9… más largo… más largo… más a la derecha… más a la derecha… izquierda… déjala caer… déjala caer… mientras piensa: BURRRROOOOO!!!!! te dije que la dejes caer!!!!!  ANIMAL!!! los espantaste!!!
Como no sabés a que le estás tirando ni donde están, lo más probable es que les castees arriba de la cabeza y salgan como flechas hacia todos lados… y en unos segundos están a 200 mts…otra vez a empezar a buscarlos…
Después de un par de días los empezás a ver ( sólo después que te dice hacia adonde mirar y a que distancia ) y la cosa cambia por completo… tenés que tener  velocidad y precisión en el cast… sólo una o a lo sumo dos oportunidades para tentarlos antes de que se asusten… son muy sensibles… sobre todo si hay tiburones y barracudas cerca…
Cuando lograste hacer un buen cast, el guía ve absolutamente todos los movimientos del pez, entonces también te dice cuando tenés que recoger y cuando parar… y cuando te dice que claves… clavá aunque no sientas ni veas nada… el tipo sabe que tiene la mosca en la boca!!!
La clavada es otra historia, si el débil se te desenganchan en la primer corrida, si es brusca o hacés presión un instante de más de lo debido es corte seguro… un bonefish de 1 kg y monedas te corta tippet de 13lbs de resistencia como si fuera hilo de coser!!!
Ahora, lograste hacer un cast rápido y bastante preciso, lo tentaste y lo clavaste… la primer corrida es impresionante, mínimo 50 o 60 m !!! y si estás cerca de mangroves, seguro que va hacia ellos y empieza a hacer zigzag, en ese momento tenés que aflojar el freno totalmente y cuando para, después de sacarte 40 o 50 mts de backing entre esas plantas, hay que empezar a seguir la línea caminando y ver si te cortó o te enderezó el anzuelo o si se enredo y lográs sacarlo !!!
En algunos momentos, cuando la marea está entrando o saliendo, podés pescarlos en flats más libres de vegetación y la pelea es más limpia.
El promedio en este lugar es de 2 a 4 libras pero vimos de más de 10 libras!!! como siempre, los más grandes se van… tuve 4 piques importantes, 1 me cortó al entrar a los mangroves, 2 me dejaron el anzuelo abierto en los mismos y el otro me lo abrió haciendo el mismo zigzag pero en los arrecifes de los flats oceánicosa…
Pero si todo esto no te sale, no hay que preocuparse, a fin del día te lleva al “mud” o mancha que es el lugar que eligen para comer en tránsito, con más profundidad, de 1 a 2 mts, y los detectás porque levantan sedimento y el agua cambia de color, allí tirás a esta mancha, dejás profundizar y tenés pique seguro… no es muy lindo el proceso de conseguir que pique pero la lucha es igual de entretenida.
Podría seguir escribiendo un par de días más, contando anécdotas y sensaciones, pero no quiero aburrir, sencillamente les aseguro que esta pesca enferma a cualquiera!!!
Abrazo,
Carlos 

Missed Summer Slams: Permit aren’t the hard part.

Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson

Don’t tell that to Dave and Jeff!  Poor guys have been trying to catch a permit for 13 days now and haven’t quite got there.  Everything that can happen has happened to these two guys.  Out for the first time trying to find fish and trying to get all the angles right is hard work.  Dave and Jeff have 2 more days until their summer vacation is over and I’m hoping they make good on their promise to bring one home and nail it to my front door!  Maybe they’re pissing off the gods with their insincere rhetoric. I don’t know but they need to follow the Bear around and watch while he slays perms.  The brothers Holeman have posted an astonishing 8 for 10 in the last 2 days.  I hope Bear’s luck stays with him through the 2008 Del Brown Permit Tournament, which happens next week.  Looks like the weather is going to hold out for the show.  It’s all up to the fish now to show up and put their tails in the air.  I wanted to share a report that my client Dan Hall recently submitted about our recent fishing trip together.  
June 30 Key West Report.  I just spent 4 days fishing off Key West with Capt. Will Benson , my second trip with him.  My first day with him last year yielded 3 permit on the fly, after which Willy told me I ought to quit right there because it would never get any better.  I was dying to get back and see if he was right…  I have now officially caught the permit bug!
Day one sucked… a big storm system to the west kept us off the water the first half of the day, and when we finally got out, the permit were very shy about tailing.  Their tails would pop up once or twice and then vanish.  We got on a few fish, but never really got the feeling they were eager to eat anything.  Also, since I moved away from Hawaii, my saltwater fly fishing has dropped from 100 days a year to about 5.   Talk about being a bit rusty!
Day two was a bit better from a weather standpoint but the fish didn’t quite seem to be “on” yet.  We had some rolling tarpon and some tailing permit, as well as “laid up” permit, but I pretty much couldn’t put things together and the few times I was close, the fish weren’t interested.   Needless to say, casting to Key West permit and tarpon is a bit different than casting to Hawaii bonefish.  Not necessarily harder or easier, just different.
Day three we found a few nice schools of tarpon in 10-15 feet of water with 2 foot seas and lots of wind.  Will got a nice workout there.  The first fish to eat unfortunately ate the fly in plain sight, and of course I set the hook so fast I pulled it out of his mouth even before his lips were closed.  Number two fish yanked on the fly line and came undone before I had a chance to set the hook.  Permit were around in nice numbers… but still too much rust.  Note to self…  listen to what Capt. Willy says.  Note number 2 to self…  you can’t be shy when casting to permit!!!  OK, so finally we get to day number 4!  Once again, pretty rough water at the deeper tarpon spot from the day before, so we tried inside for one quick drift, no fish around.  Will limbers up his sore muscles and sends the boat back into the deep water and waves, and with my lucky Key West permit hat on for the first time this trip, I promise to catch a fish out of the first school so we can get back in the calm water.  And that is exactly what happened!  Right off the bat we see a nice school of fish and I manage to hook and land about a 45 pound fish.  What a rush!  This guy jumped and jumped until we finally set him free.  Knowing that we had been seeing lots of permit, we decided to hit one bonefish spot really quit just in case we wanted to complete a slam.  We did see two bones there, but no luck as I tried my “permit cast” on them.  A little too aggressive!  We quickly crossed a channel and here comes a school of permit.  OK, time to use the permit cast.  Drop the freakin fly on his head…strip twice and connect.  Sure enough, it works! 1 permit in the boat.  It is amazing how good Capt. Will is at this, and it is amazing how good the whole thing works when you listen to what he says!  So, now we have a permit and a tarpon landed, and the day has barely started.  Do we go looking for bones, or do we keep on the permit, knowing full well we have seen lots of permit here in the last few days.  Easy decision actually, we had a great feeling about the permit and decided to stick with them.  Good thing too, because I managed to land two more permit and one more tarpon in the next few hours. When the tide ran out, we made a final 20 plus mile run at top speed to take on last look for bones, but didn’t see any.  What a great day.  I am now a hooked permit angler.  The best thing about permit fishing is this- when you and the guide do EVERYTHING right in casting to active fish, the fish will eat the fly without hesitation.  If you do anything wrong, it won’t.  Pretty simple.  In Hawaii I have had plenty of bonefish just flat out refuse perfectly presented flies, and have caught quite a few with just stupid luck.  Permit aren’t that way.  Whether you catch a fish or not seems to be almost entirely based on whether you can do everything right or not.  Obviously there are times when they won’t eat, but so far I can pretty much blame myself for the missed fish, and thank myself (and Capt. Will even more) for the caught ones.  What is really amazing is Capt. Will’s attention to every single detail in the game, from the way he holds his hand on the push pole, to the way you turn your wrist on the cast, to the exact color of the hackle on the fly, to the way in which you crouch on the boat deck… just amazing.  After every single blown shot, Will (politely) gave advice on the next minute detail I needed to work on to get to the top of my game.  And every now and then, when I really needed it, he told me in a not so polite way!  After a few days it paid off in a big way with a 3 permit, 2 tarpon day.  What a trip!

Catching Up On Catching Poon: Tarpon Season In A Nutshell

Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson

Wow!  Where has all the time gone?  Consumed by 12-16 hour days, 4:00 AM wake up calls and a hazy recollection of giant schools of tarpon, aggressive permit and the always elusive bonefish to complete the grand slam…I seemed to have forgotten to post a fishing report.  Darn!  The fishing this season would be best described as intense.  It never seemed to want to settle into its’ normal rhythm.  We worked hard for the fish we caught…and oh yes, we did catch!
Late April brought some terrific tarpon action and we fished a mix of backcountry fish and ocean side swimmers.  Dale Dashiel finally landed his beast after hooking many with me over the last couple of years.  Then, he did it again the next day! Watching his buddy Jim Schneider land so many monsters year after year finally pissed him off enough to get one.  Congrats Dale!  Now you have to catch a permit.  Speaking of which, Cliff Snydor landed his first ever on fly with me in early May.  We had just released a tarpon moments before hooking the permit so a slam was certainly on the table.  About an hour later cliff and I were celebrating the first slam of the year! Then the fishing got tough…My longest clients and best buds George Haley and John Davis had true technical fishing.  The waters out west shut down and we were confined to Confrontation Basin off Sugarloaf and my home waters out back.  Although we did manage to hook and land fish the difficulty and patience level was much increased from  early Mays of past.  The whole week culminated on the last day when J.D. finally managed to wiggle a fly seductively enough to feed a fish that clearly didn’t really want to eat.  We all screamed very loudly and thanked the Gods for blessing us.  Mike Allen and I had some good fishing wading for tarpon and permit.  We almost had a slam but couldn’t stay glued to the tarpon.
For 2 weeks every year I live and work aboard the mothership Outpost.  Fred and Penny Wheeler own and run this terrific operation here in the keys as well as in the Bahamas.  If you’re really serious about your fishing this is the way to do it.  Contact the Outpost at www.outpostexpeditions.com for more details.  On week 1 I fished with Woody Woods and his buddy Bobby Strawbridge who was guided by the talented Capt. Scott Irvine.  The week was terrific.  Woody set yet another high for most fish jumped in a single week.  Last year during this time we experienced some of the worst weather I’ve ever seen during the month of May.  Thankfully the gods took piety and the seas smoothed to bring some really impressive schools of fish.  On week 2 I fished with the fly guru Peter Smith and his cousin Frank.  Although the weather wasn’t quite as good as the previous week there were still plenty of fish to be caught.  Peter and I had our annual sit down on the skiff where we looked over flies and talked about what the next generation tarpon flies are going to look like.  We’re hoping to have some to try out by the fall but, as Peter tells me, it’s quite a bit more complicated than just putting the materials on a hook and trying it out. I hope all the great ideas we have come together because the next generation flies are going to take the whole game to another level.  You can check out the best flies in the world at www.ssflies.com .  The 2 weeks ended for me with another near miss on a grand slam as Frank Smith broke off a permit and missed another eat to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  I fished with Jim Nichols during the first 2 days of June and again we nearly missed a slam as the permit mysteriously got off while Jim was clearing the line.  All that came to a screeching halt on Thursday June 5th as Mike Allen and I proceed to set another personal best for permit on fly.  Mike hooked 6 and landed 5 and yours truly stepped up to the plate and hooked one while Mike was fighting his fish off the front.  The incredible part is we could have hooked more fish!  It was one of those magical days when all the conditions come together and the permit decide to inhale anything that crosses their path…so long as it’s the secret pattern!  No pressure for Cort Dehart the next day as we set out to post as many points as possible in the annual Broken Oar fishing tourney. We had a great day hooking and landing 3 tarpon, loosing a couple of bones and barely missing several permit.  The guide competition was fierce with Capt. Jeffery Cardenas and I neck and neck on day three.  Then, from out  of nowhere, my buddy Capt. Aaron Snell posts a monster score to eclipse every record for the tourney and take home the prize.  Congrats Aaron!  Remind me to kick your ass next time I see you at the Parrot.  The good Dr. Gannon Dudlar and Dr Bill McCoy rounded out the month of June so far.  As always Gannon and I managed to hook a few fish to keep things interesting; including a very big permit in skinny water and some other cookie cutter sized fish that were schooled up.   Dr Bill and I closed out our season with some great eats from singles off David’s Island and a fine tequila with salt and lime; the traditional reposado of “El Pescador.”   I’m looking forward to some time off and a chance to try out my new underwater housing for the HD camcorder.  We are taking a trip to Fort Jefferson on Friday aboard the Yankee Freedom II with some friends of ours from Indy and their 2 boys Ron and Reese, who have just finished watching Tarpon Season and now want to see one close up. Lets hope I can make it happen.

Guatemala Sailfish On Fly: Sailfish Bay Lodge

Posted under fly fishing reports by Gregg Arnold

Guatemala Sailfish on fly

Capt Gregg Arnold, our new member of World Angling Crew submits this report about a recent trip he took to Guatemala to fish for Pacific sailfish on fly.
We flew into Guatemala City and took a 90 minute limo ride to Sail Fish Bay Lodge located near Iztapa.  The resort is located on a barrier Island near the Chiquimulia Canal.  Our rooms were first class, and the food was excellent.  Boats and Captains all first class!  I went with Jack & Chris Bookout. The fishing started out pretty fast and furious the first morning as we all hooked up in the first 4 hours. This picture represents the size of the fish that we caught although there were others much larger to be had.  This fish is about 9′ long and roughly 110 lbs.  The gear I used was a Scott 14wt. with a Tibor Pacific with 50# braid backing below 60 # high vis mono that was attached to my fly line.  The fly line had been shortened to about 60′.  I used a 5′ section of 60# as the butt and attached it to the 20# Bimini and Cam Ziegler Squid Fly.  No nonsense rig that did the trick.  Plenty of fish and good times.  The boats are well kept and suited for this kind of fishing including a well stocked cooler with sandwiches and beer.  In the evenings we shared stories, dinner, and adult beverages with the other anglers that were at the lodge. The view was exceptional and the pool just right after a long day fighting fish.

Gregg