Rathole Studios Has Reopened: Awaiting Key West March Permit

Posted under fly fishing reports by Dave Teper

The original Rathole Studios has reopened for business, not that we make any money doing this.  After resurrecting a dead Mac, I threw everything in my car and headed to Key West (Sugarloaf).  On the way down, I met up with my friend Jeremy Cameron, whom I haven’t fished with in close to 3 years.  There is a reason for the fact that we haven’t fished in a while.  I can’t keep up with the dude.  He knows his options, there are many, and he always wants to have the best odds, even if that means jumping in the car at noon to make a 4 hour drive somewhere to fish the last hour of light for gar.  This guy loves his fishing as much as anyone, and when something is actually caught, he truly understands and appreciates it.  It is tough down here.  Especially in the winter.

Jeremy and I spent a week bombing up and down the Keys searching for the best options.  The weather was anywhere from 40-80 degrees and dictated what we tried to target.  The warmer days were spent permit fishing, the cooler days were spent bonefishing, and the coldest days were spent cuda, jack, and shark fishing.  There was a lot of pressure to catch “a fish”.  We caught nothing, although the line came tight a couple times for both of us.

I needed some redemption.  After coming off of a couple months in Louisiana I was very used to catching fish, a lot of fish, and I needed a fix.  I got an offer to go fishing with a guy from Islamorada.  The guy seemed as if he had been fishing there for like 200 years, and knew everything there is to know about bonefishing.  It also sounded like he loves to teach his style of bonefishing, so I jumped aboard his skiff, it was 50 degrees outside, I was shivering.

Capt. George Wood is a salty motherfucker.  He is 61 years old and poles a boat around like he is 20.  He won’t lie to you, he was taught by the best.  I’m not going to go on and on about how much this guy knows about bonefish.  Just go to Islamorada and ask around.  You’ll get the same answer from everyone.  Needless to say, I got my fix, on a tough day.

Now, back in Sugarloaf I sit, working on the full version of Drum, and promotional materials for its release, awaiting some warmer weather and a few permit.  We’ll be in studio a lot, so if you are coming down the keys in the next couple months, let us know, stop by and check out the show.

Fly Fishing Louisiana Redfish: Notes From A Vanishing Marsh.

Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson

Down on the marsh the sun will hang in the afternoon and give the entire landscape a kind of eerie dark orange glow.  It’s beautiful.  There are fires that burn the marsh in the distance and a pile smoldering in the back yard.  Someone adds a burlap sack to the campfire to keep the bugs away while you get a beer.  Things are happening slow because you don’t want to get ahead of yourself.  The barbecue will be ready soon. Relax and let your shoulders down.   Picture the moment you saw the redfish glowing sideways, laying motionless.  Slow…Easy…Cast! 

When the weather gets right and the fishing turns on, the marsh comes to life.  Perfect weather to be filming and fishing for monster redfish.  Just ask Conway Bowman and Jose Wejebe who were hanging down on the bayou last week.  It was quite the scene down on Cappy’s dock in the afternoon when we all got off the water.  Big Bear, Travis and Greg Arnold orchestrated the event and I made some cornbread.

I can’t wait to show all of you this so you can see for yourself what Dave and I have been up to during the last month.  But you’ll have to wait until the Fly Fishing Film Tour to see WorldANGLING’S newest work.  Dave is chopping footage as I’m procrastinating by taking  some time off from trying to write something meaningful about Louisiana for the film.  It doesn’t help that on the monitor right next to me is endless fish porn and Capt. Jeff Legutki is laughing at his own reaction to his first monster red.  I think it’s time to take a break and make myself and sandwich. 

W

Oysters, Crabs & Redfish Son! Oh…Now you living on the bayou!

Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson

When oyster is king, Bozo’s the mayor, and Redfish look like big fat pumpkins, you know you’ve arrived at the End Of The World.  The marsh of southern Louisiana is essentially foreign.  A place lost in time.  Slowly it’s sinking into the Gulf.  As the people await an uncertain future time idles down the bayou.  On a clear quiet night in the marsh you can hear coyotes howling as they work together at night to chase down deer and boar.  It’s an eerie reminder that the land itself is being eaten by the ocean.  “This the marsh Son…ain’t no otha place like it nowhere.”  The terrain is immense, with corners that are hidden and hard to find. Mostly because they’re right next to you. Its natural bounty is incredibly rich, and its residents big and happy.  At least when the sun shines and the daytime temperatures climb above 55 degrees.  Winter is big bull redfish season in Louisiana and Dave and I have been chasing the ideal conditions between fronts looking for the opportunity to land seriously big Redfish sight fishing with a fly.  Although we’ve had shots at giants, we have yet to crack the 35 pound mark with a really big fish.  Right now we’re getting a front every 3-5 days.  The 48 hours leading up to the front usually see the winds go east then die.  Depending upon when the front pushes through we might get a day, day and a half if we’re lucky.  But when it goes off it’s a freekshow!  You might have to wait out clouds or bitter windy days but it’s all worth it when your arms hurt after pulling on monsters.  The crew at Maverick has loaned me a HPX-T to use this year which opened up so many places I wouldn’t think of going to before.  Tom Bie from the Drake just dropped in for a couple of days to check out some of the footage Dave and I are assembling for the upcoming Fly Fishing Film Tour.  He of course got to catch a few fish while he was in town but not before complaining about how cold it was.   He got to experience 35mph winds and 45 degree temps.  Pretty cold for flats fishing. So he decided to go home to Denver and show up at a very important meeting…Bad decision.  The weather broke and Bear said he knew a spot.  And when Bear tells you he knows a spot and wants to show you…you go.  But Tom would have been one photographer too many today as we fished alongside Tim Romano, and Roy Tanami of Field and Stream.   Bear captured the record for most cameras on board at a time and we caught the crap out of  redfish Son!
My arms are sore and my fingers tired of typing. Dave is telling me to just be done with it, but I’m pumped!  Maybe I’ll tie an even bigger fly and see if I can get them to eat it off the surface tomorrow.
W

Fall Fishing Wrap Up: Big Keys Bonefish, Permit, and Tarpon…

Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson

Well, the 2008 flats season is coming to a close.  Despite a challenging season with tough conditions, long stretches of miserable weather, and less then enthusiastic critters on the flats, we still managed to end on an high note.  Mike Allen and I managed to eek out a couple final permit this November to finish the year with 36 together.  We were hoping for more, but never had the consistent fishing to make it happen.  Frank Smith had another very successful outing landing several good bonefish with me over the course of 5 days.  We didn’t manage a permit but we did find a fly line that we had lost the day before to a very big bone.  It was intact with fly and all!  Thanks to Mitchell at the Saltwater Angler for keeping us rigged in the meantime.  Jim Schneider and Pat Cummings were the beneficiaries of some late season tarpon action as they combined to jump 20 over 4 days.  Some of these were babies, but some were big boys.  For a couple of hours a day, and for a stretch of 4 days, large schools of resident fish were swimming for us just like they do in May!  It made me excited to see this again and kept the anticipation for next season high.  Then, just when I was really pumped, I managed to cut my foot wide open.  Damn rod holders!  No worries though, my neighbor, the good Dr. Burton came in on a Sunday night and put 12 stitches in me.  Many thanks to him and my charter Pat (with his Canadian survival kit), for taking care of my dumb-ass!  One day off then right back at it though.  My friend Dan Hall just finished fishing with me for 2 days and caught a tremendous bonefish.  Since my boat was in the shop at Murry Marine having a tune up done, I fished out of the Captain’s skiff and convinced him to come along for the day.  Turned out to be a pretty good idea as we landed this great bonefish, and managed to wrestle a few redfish, which is always fun.  I’m headed north next week to meet Dave and begin shooting a jungle snook piece, which we’re all really excited to put together.  Word on the street is the big boys are beginning to show.  Stay tuned…

The Seychelles: Alphonse Island “Jeets”, Airflo Fly Lines

Posted under fly fishing reports by Dave Teper

Travis Rummel was nice enough to introduce us to some of his friends this September out in Denver.  One of those friends, Gareth Jones from Airflo Fly Lines sent us this report of a recent trip to the Seychelles.  He also sent us a bunch of lines.  Guess what we will be fishing with this year…thats right…AIRFLO.

Flying into this remote atoll it was easy to see why Alphonse is without doubt one of the greatest bonefish destinations discovered to date.  Miles and miles of brilliant white sand flats and clouds (I kid you not) of bonefish eager to take the fly – as long as it hit the deck, these fish don’t look up.  To say I hooked 50 bonefish in the first morning is no exaggeration, I needed to get it out of my system and laughed with my Dad as we weaved in and out of each others lines with double hook up after double hook up. Needless to say, with that craziness out of the way, it was time to move onto something else – GT’s or JEETS as the locals call them, regularly cross the finger flats as they head from one area of blue water to another.  There are no push poles here, instead the guide’s idle you gently along the edge of the flat searching for the tell tale black shape of a big GT.  Once located it’s out of the boat with the 12# ready to cast large black or tan Sempher patterns tied on 6/0 Gamakatsu’s.  The set-up is pretty fierce – 100lb straight fluorocarbon directly to the fly, the line – an Airflo GT’ special with a 50lb test core, loaded on a Hatch 12Plus with enough backing to make a your own personal driftnet should the conventional approach fail… The flies are not flashy by any means and provided they were cast with a decent 6′ lead, they were seized upon with some serious aggression – GT’s are in my limited experience, the most aggressive things I’ve ever cast flies at – including Hippos, buts that’s another story.  The pursuing fights were incredible – our party landed fish during the week up to 100lbs – that fish was an absolute bus, but larger were hooked during the week including one estimated at 140lb… GT’s weren’t the only company on the flats, the legendary Milkfish would regularly put in an appearance – some in the 30lb class – and were certainly not interested in taking my stuff, and needless to say I’ll be back.  What did surprise me were the amounts of Permit we ran into, even more surprising was the numbers of bonefish they lived with – usually they had they own personal ‘force field’ of bonefish that would happily test out my crab before the Permit could get an eyeful.  Alphonse is without doubt one of the greatest saltwater fly fishing lodges on the planet, from the sultry voice on the other end of your wake up call, to the exquisite food freshly prepared each evening – Alphonse is 5 star.