July 18, 2004 Newsletter

 

Periods of boredom – moments of pandemonium!  After just returning from our initial ‘offshore’ fly fishing adventures this past Monday and Tuesday, much was learned by yours truly, the boat captains and our fishers, and the knowledge gained WILL be put to good use on future trips.  I cannot say enough good things about Capt Glasier and Capt Jamison, the TEAM NAVY boat and the equipment on board – first class tournament rigged!  The ride at 50 mph in 3 foot seas is an eye opener to say the least!

 

The first day out four fly fishers and myself made the long, long run out to the Gulf Stream where the waters are incredibly blue and deep, and as I like to say, is where the ‘old ones go to die’, but unfortunately are nearly 70 miles straight out from Port Aransas.  Upon arrival Capt Jamison (Kevin) went about setting out teasers after removing the hooks from traditional plastic’s and rigged two outrigger rods with traditional trolling gear.  We just started trolling with Kevin still rigging a second teaser and Mike Smith tieing a fly on a 12 weight, not 7 or 8 minutes time elapsed, when a White Marlin of maybe 50 to 70 pounds was in the ‘spread’!  Pandemonium!  The fish followed us for maybe 200 yards going from outrigger to teaser, back and forth.  Mike got the fly out in the vicinity of the fish but in the excitement, the boat wasn’t taken out of gear and the fly was being trolled instead of falling as it should have been simulating bait the Marlin would have killed with his bill, and with the other rigs still not in the boat to focus his attention on the fly, not the plastic’s, the Marlin lost interest and disappeared.  I am convinced had the Marlin appeared 15 minutes into our fishing and not immediately as he did, we would have had a chance to go over the routine and everyone aboard knowing what to do.  Ah, well.  Close but no cigar!

 

We continued to troll for maybe an hour to an hour and a half with no further action in the spread and the guys were cranked to catch something on the fly, so we began searching for grass and rip lines where the currents may hold fish, but found the grass lines to be scattered and not held together by the currents.  We then decided to fish some of the ‘rigs’ where several species of smaller fish were caught but nothing of consequence, but it was noted by yours truly, the difficulty in four guys fly casting at the same time from the boat with antennas, outriggers, getting in the way.

 

The second day Capt Glasier (Jeff) and I thought it more prudent to fish some of the rigs going out and let two of the gals aboard catch some bait fish for trolling later and the guys could fly cast with ease off the bow and stern.  This seemed to work well with several baits caught and a few snapper.  We then went further out to the ‘blue water’ but stopped far short of the East Breaks (Gulf Stream) and found several weed lines where the weeds had bunched up into patches.  About the third patch a Dolphin (fish) came out and Doug put a fly in front of him and had an immediate hook up, I then  saw a hoard of ‘Chicken’ Dolphin come out from under the patch of grass and everyone was hooked up!  Once again, pandemonium!  Pieces of chum held the fish around the boat for a considerable time and when the fish finally tired of our game, the boat looked as though a grenade went off in someone’s pocket, a bloody mess!  We repeated this scenario later and I believe 28 Dolphin fish were in the box weighing between 3 to 8 pounds with numerous sightings of the ‘Rooster’ Dolphin (those from 10 to 15 pounds) sighted below the fish we were catching.  We suspected a ‘Bull’ Dolphin (20 pounds and up) was in the area as the chicken would disappear in the blink of an eye at various times.  Our difficulty was getting a fly deep enough for the larger Dolphin before the smaller ones would attack.  Another lesson was learned by yours truly; only two should fly cast and two could fish off the boat from the center on both sides with medium weight spinning gear!  The fishermen could alternate between fly and spinning the grass lines and under rigs.

 

I have scheduled two make-up trips for the trips that were cancelled the week previous on Saturday and Sunday July 17^th and 18^th.  In the future I would like to maintain a ‘short’ list of names of fishers who would be able to go at the drop of a hat – I asked Jeff to call me before 2 p.m. the day before a trip going out at 6: a.m., when conditions are good, weed lines are prevalent, Dolphin and Tuna abound.  This would be very short notice but a trip with a high degree of success.  I am also going to maintain a separate list of those interested in Bill Fish only trips (on Fly) to the Gulf Stream.  Because of the fuel consumed and time involved, these trips will cost $900 and I would love to see two fishers serious about teasing up a Bill Fish, make this trip.  In my opinion, four fishers would become bored with the hours of trolling required for the moments of pandemonium!

The costs for the ‘regular’ 12 hour offshore trip will be $750 direct through the Team Navy folks, an incredible deal.  I can provide you with the phone numbers and email address to reserve your own space and will help you fill out the trip with additional fishers, as you would need.  I simply don’t have the time to plan trips and make arrangements in the future and now that Captains Glasier and Jamison know what we expect of them, and I know the equipment, flies, leaders that are required, as well as the performance of the boat, I will concentrate on acquiring and building the necessary equipment.  I would hope you would keep me in mind should you require 10 – 13 weight rods of which I have the blanks in stock etc. etc. The boat is owned by the U. S. Navy and the crew are active duty Navy servicemen with the monies over and above fuel costs going into a fund to take military personnel out fishing with many of them just returning from actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, at even more affordable costs.  Good idea. . . . . . !

 

Happy father’s day to all you dads. 

 

Dennis O. Freeman

RODMAKERS

13457 Blanco Road

San Antonio, TX. 78216

210-479-3477

rodmaker@rod-makers.com