01.27.14 "Forgive me Father for I have sinned......"

     Okay, here we go. Let me first say the title of the blog post in no way is meant to offend those of the Catholic faith. Those words are the words we use when we enter the confessional to ask the priest for forgiveness of our sins, but, its the way I felt when I sat at the round table at TK's bar on Friday night.

So here's my story.



     It was Friday night in the DoubleTree Hotel following a good first day of the Fly Fishing Show in Somerset. I had joined some friends for drinks and dinner at booth in the bar. As we finished up Dick Dennis told me him and Bob Popovic's had a table near the bar and I should stop over. At one point I saw Bob's hand raise up and give me the wave so I told my boys I would be right back. By then, I was probably over the legal drinking limit if I was driving, maybe way over.

So a little background to this all.

     As you know I run walk and wade and boat charters along the Jersey Shore fly fishing for striped bass, bluefish, flounder, weakfish, and false albacore, basically anything that will eat a fly and that I and my boat can be in range for. My charters are fly fishing, catch and release only for stripers, and using barbless or pinched down barbed hooks. That gives me a very small window of prospective clients that will appeal to my business. Most fly guides are fly and light tackle. If the fly isn't working because the fish aren't up or eating flies then they will go with conventional tackle using metal, plugs, plastics, bait, umbrella rigs, whatever it takes to get their clients onto and into fish. Or they start off with conventional tackle and break out the fly rods when conditions are good or to introduce clients to the sport.

Capt Jason Dapra

     Since I have known him my friend Captain Jason Dapra of BlitzBound Guide Service has asked, told, pleaded, and begged me to learn and incorporate spin fishing into my business. He does this as a friend, mentor, and experienced guide. He says it will lead to more business and more successful days on the water for my clients. To this day I haven't taken his advice.

     So one day a few years back I saw an article in a fly fishing magazine of guys fly fishing for halibut in Alaska. Don't hold me to the actual facts but I remember it like this. They were using 20 weight rods, will 1,000 grain line, with 2 pounds of bullet sinkers, fishing in 200 feet of water catching 125 pound halibut. Now, my numbers may be off, but that's how I remember it.
   
     As a fly fisherman I have spent numerous days on the beach, and boat, where the spin anglers just were killing it. Either casting plugs or needles or metal a mile off the groins and jetties and boats and getting to the fish that I couldn't reach, or get down into. Hint, hint.



    I thought to myself of nymph fishing we do for trout in the freshwater. Either weighted flies, weighted fly lines, or using lead wire wraps or sinkers to get the fly down and keep it in the water column where the fish are looking and eating. Then the idea hit me. I obviously didn't invent the idea, but I thought I could introduce weight above my fly and dredge up those stripers on the fly that weren't up and eating.

I told Jason about it.

He made fun of me.

    He told me I might as well have a spinning rod and jig. He told me it wasn't fly fishing. He again asked me to come over and he would introduce me to the other side......

    There's nothing like coming around the Hook or inlet and seeing birds working over breaking fish. Or seeing subtle swirls that indicate fish are eating below the surface. Or watching the screen light up when fish are moving under the boat. Sometimes the fishing is just tough, just because they are there doesn't mean they will eat. Sometimes you have to put your fly right on their nose. I knew how I would do it.

                                 I would use some weight. And that's where it all began.



     So as I sat there in the crowded and loud bar with Dick and Bob talking about striped bass and fly fishing I brought up boat fishing. I had Bobs full attention. I told him that, at times, I use a drail, which is a tolling sinker, or other weights, to get the fly down, way down, to where the bass are, and I had had good success with it. A lob cast, feeding out the 650 grain fly line, and using a strip retrieve, then release, then a strip retrieve, then release, works the fly steady at a depth where the bass are. I even told him sometimes you can see it all on the screen depending on the boats drift and where the fly is in relation to the boat.

   I watched as the color left Bob's face and the look of disappointment set in. I new I was in trouble.

                                     He said to me, " I thought you were different."

                          

     By chance, and with just my luck, there were a few fly fishing captains standing in earshot. So Bob summoned over Gene Quigley, Paul Dixon, Jamie Boyle, and Steve Bechard, and maybe a few others and asked me to repeat what I had just said. Well, game, set, match. Thankfully I had my boy Charlie Limpert with me, but at times, even he joined in on the roast.

     So, the roast lasted a while and it was another great, long, and a too-much-to-drink-at Somerset-Friday-night. It seemed I have violated a fly fishing rule, one that I am still trying to wrap my hands around. Is using weight not fly fishing? Is weight in or on the fly okay? Is it all about the fly cast? (When fishing three miles out in 55 foot of water?) Is it okay only in freshwater but not saltwater?

                        

    While walking the show floor on Sunday I saw Jason and filled him in the roast. He laughed and said, "I f'in told you dude". He was kind if like, "Sure, don't listen to me when I tell you." He then asked me the question, " So, will you ever have a drail on your boat again?" And I answered, "Absolutely not!"

                          But I thought about it all weekend, and even now as I write.

To me, fly fishing is using a fly rod and reel, fly line and a leader and tippet, and a fly made of fur or feathers (and these days a multitude of "other" materials), and yes, even at times, some weight to get down to where the fish are...........

So, if Jason asked me today, even with Bob standing there, " Will I have a drail on the boat this year..?"

I might have to be honest and say, "Yes".