You Know You Want to Try It!:
On The Fly Setup
On The Fly Setup
Bluewater fly fishing is a young sport that poses a special set of problems for skiff fishermen. Here are some ideas and suggestions on how to set up your skiff to maximum effectiveness, and minimize pain.
Scott Jaunich and his 86 lb YFT on fly
courtesy Scott Jaunich
For fishermen, there's nothing more heartbreaking than losing a large fish right at boatside. The pain is especially bad if you had the fish close to the boat several times during the fight, but were unable to move it the last few feet for a clean release or capture.
There is no question that a fly rod's length works against the fishermen when it comes to landing a heavy, active fish. To avoid blowing up a fly rod by "high sticking" a fish (raising the rod to a sharp angle relative to the line), the fisherman has to keep the rod at a relatively low angle. But in this position, the rod is sometimes over half the length of a skiff!
Moving a fish those last 15 feet is sometimes the most difficult part of the
fight. With conventional gear, especially if a wind-on
leader is used, the process is fairly straightforward.
That's not to say that once you leader a fish, everything is a piece of
cake. It's still a risky process, but at least with conventional
gear you have around 20' or more of heavy material to work with. With
a fly rod, it's only 12 inches.
This implies that you will have to fight fish on fly gear until they are more tired than they would be on conventional gear. This makes it more difficult to release the fish in good condition.
Once a fish is next to the boat, the fisherman needs to back up and give the person playing deckhand some room (this is generally true, even with conventional gear). It's tempting to try to get close to see the fish, but with the extra length of the fly rod, this can lead to "high-sticking" a rod, with disastrous consequences. The best approach is to back away from the person landing the fish. On a skiff, this could put you almost half-way to the other end of the boat.
For really big fish, not being able to use a flying gaff can be a major problem. We have heard of some prototype fixed-head gaffs that have handles sticking out at right angles from the main shaft. This allows the deckhand to hold on to the gaff more easily if the fish pulls away, resulting in an increase in the gaffer's ability to control a hot fish. But it's still a difficult and dangerous task.
Being able to put more pressure on a fixed head gaff means an increase in the
possibility of being pulled over the side. If that's a concern,
it would be a good idea to look at some of the mate safety
harnesses, such as the Mate-Saver from Gameface Gear.
So there it is...some ideas on how to make your skiff and your techniques more effective when you fly fish offshore. Hopefully, you've gotten some interesting and useful ideas. Offshore fly fishing is a difficult sport, but it can be a lot of fun. If you have any other ideas you would like to share, please post them to our forums!
We would like to thank A. Steve Cali and Scott Jaunich for their time, comments and some of the photos that went into this story. Steve also gratefully acknowledged the mentoring he's received over the years from Capt. Grant Hartman, of Baja Anglers, Dave Sellers and Stan Pleskunas.
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