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I hope you enjoy this month's newsletter.

In all the years I've fished the fall run of False Albacore and Ocean Bonito, this year was unquestionably the best, I mean the Best...Ever! Last year, the Bonito hardly showed and False Albacore fishing was even worse. Why was 2014 so good?, who knows, but for me the bite started on September 1st in the Sakonnet River with sustained top water catching with essentially no other boats to contend with. As of just a week ago, anglers in the Watch Hill area (Westerly, RI) were still hammering them- that's almost a full eight weeks- wonderful!. Most of those fish have now left Rhode Island waters and are currently going nuts at Montauk and points south.

Fly patterns were from my perspective generally unimportant, most anything small was working- from Deceivers, to Clousers, to small Sand Eel patterns, and of course the traditional Bay Anchovy and Silverside patterns- it didn't seem to matter. If the tunoids spotted your pattern amongst the bait, it was game on. Also, the fish seemed to be larger on average than in prior years.

Oftentimes stripers and blues were mixed-in with the bonito and albies so you never really knew what ate your fly, until of course you were either cut off by a blue, dogged by a heavy striper or if it was a bonito or albie, they emptied your reel of fly line in seconds and you were staring at your backing as you watched your rod bend deeply and felt the tuna's lightning run vibrate into the rod handle.... exciting stuff! This was a knuckle busting fall run for a lot of anglers... from the shore as well as from boats.

For anglers using light tackle the most effective hardware were the traditional metals (Krocodiles, Deadly Dicks, Kastmasters), fly patterns and small Sluggos and Red Gills fished using the casting egg method, small topwater hardbaits such as the 4 1/2" Bomber Windcheaters and just for fun several freshwater hardbaits such as the Flatfish and Jitterbug retrofitted with heavier hardware. They all worked- it was Crazy!  We can only hope that next fall will be half as good as 2014.  

Bonito Slicing through Bait

Dr. Frank Farraye

 After the albies and bonito left Newport waters, we continued so see wonderful top water blitzes of striped bass. Generally these were not big fish, but your average 20-26" school fish, but there were some bigger fish in the mix as well. Again, the action was in a lot of our near-shore waters stretching from Ft. Adams in Newport Harbor, along the ledges to Castle Hill and onto the Brenton Reef, and all along the shallow waters east to Sachusest Point. November should continue to offer excellent top water striper and bluefish opportunities all along Rhode Island's south coast beaches as these fish continue their journey south. November has traditionally been a great month to fish the Narrow River in Narragansett, Potter Pond, the Charlestown Breachway as well as the Watch Hill reef when weather and sea state conditions permit. Many of Rhode Island's smaller waters that have immediate access to the ocean are wonderful places to fish when the coastal areas are too rough and windy.

It ain't over yet folks! 

Alex Key

John Porter

As a guide, I spend a lot of time tying on flies and lures to a variety of lines from monofilament, to fluorocarbon, to braid- in a wide variety of diameters and breaking strengths. Historically I have used a number of different line cutting tools to accomplish the retying process. Most of those tools have done a reasonably good job cutting monofilament and fluorocarbon, but I have been unable to find one that could also cut braid- easily and with no frayed ends. My Abel and Orvis pliers worked pretty good when the cutters were new, but they were always too cumbersome and in my experience their ability to cleanly cut braid just didn't measure up.  I was at LL Bean earlier this fall and was introduced to a new product manufactured by the Boomerang Tool Company. The salesman was confident that the "Snip" manufactured by Boomerang was the answer I was looking for.  I bought one and it worked great, but in short order the screws that held together the plastic halves of the tool body quickly degraded from exposure to salt water. I wasn't happy so I contacted the manufacturer about the corrosion problem. At first they seemed to push back claiming the screws were indeed made of stainless steel and they recommended that I needed to do a better job cleaning the tool after each use in saltwater and that the corrosion to the screws was mostly a cosmetic problem and didn't compromise the cutting ability of the tool. That frosted my butt! Although they never admitted it I think they designed the tool primarily for the freshwater Bass angler, and that it wasn't designed for saltwater fishing and especially for guides that really push all their equipment to the max.

I exchanged several emails with their Global Sales Director, a decent guy once I got to know him better and after he realized I wasn't looking for a handout. I could have easily returned the tool to Bean's given their "no questions asked" return policy but I liked it's functionality and was only trying to provide a helpful product evaluation that might help the manufacturer to make some improvements. As a result of the back and forth, they took my recommendations in good faith and are on a course of continuous improvement to make the Snip even better. (I gave them several other ideas besides the fastener issue but they have to balance the cost of the improvement with profitability- I understand that).

During our discussion their Sales Director introduced me to another product that is essentially the same tool, but larger and beefed up for heavier use, particularly in salt water. (Why didn't the Bean sales guy tell me about that?... well because their purchasing guy wasn't aware of it as it turns out.) OK, this is getting a bit drawn out and I apologize for that but the long and short of the story is that Boomerang sent me (unsolicited I repeat) their "Salty Dog" version of the Snip. It is an Awesome cutter and I highly recommend it for anyone who is fishing a lot in the saltwater switching back and forth between mono, fluoro and braided line.

Highlights:

• All molding and assembly is done in the U.S. (not abroad like the Snip)
• It's larger and heavier duty than the Snip and fits the hand better
• The lanyard that clips to your tool belt is made of Kevlar with a 300 lb. tether strength
• It cuts up to 250 lb of monofilament and Fluorocarbon and 100 to 150 lb braided line interchangeably and consistently
• The body halves are sonically welded together, eliminating corroding fasteners
• The cutting blades easily close when not in use to prevent injury, and are easy to open and close by simply sliding the spring handles... with one hand.
• $25 retail... worth every penny

Check out the following links to learn more about this tool.

http://www.boomerangtool.com/#!product/prd1/2855305771/btc-205-big-snip--salty-dog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWcl4n4Gd0A 

Fly anglers should always thoroughly wash down their fly rods and reels following an outing in the salt water. Most of us do this if we fish from our boats because typically when we get home we spray down the boat and run fresh water through the engine... so our water source is handy for cleaning our fishing rods etc. From my experience, few anglers who carry their rods to the saltwater in their vehicles do the requisite wash-down because a hose is not so handy or we come in late after an evening outing. 

Generally a quick spray to the rod is easy enough to do, paying close attention to the guides, the reel seat and the up-locking threaded rings that hold the foot of the fly reel onto the reel seat. An old toothbrush dipped in a liquid detergent works great for getting the salt off the critical point.

As respects the reel, a gentle spraying of the reel is generally good enough. Do not hit it hard with high water pressure from your hose. Many drag systems are sealed, however some are not and you can damage the reel by infusing water into it's innards.

You should always remove the spool from the frame and give it a spray as well, to remove all salt residue that will later crystallize and potentially initiate the corrosion process.

The biggy that very few anglers bother with is properly cleaning their fly line. Regular line cleaning significantly prolongs the life of your fly lines. After every use it's best to strip all the fly line from the spool (not including the backing). Pile the line in loose coils on the grass and give it a good dousing with fresh water, dry the line with a clean cloth as you wind it back onto the spool. Do this for all the lines you used on that outing. (Periodically also clean the line with soapy water and occasionally apply a line dressing, allowing it to dry and then a good polishing.) Salt deposits and it abrasive nature will very quickly dry out the plastic coating on all fly lines resulting in premature cracking. Once a fly line begins to develop very minor cracks, it won't be long before those hairline cracks will widen and sections of the coating will break off, and you are on your way to dumping another $70 for a replacement line.

The following link will take you to the RIO Products website where you can view the correct process of maintaining your fly lines.

 http://www.rioproducts.com/fishing-tips/cleaning-fly-lines/

Many fly anglers don't like to fish with sinking lines, whether they are the full-sink variety (fading quickly in popularity), or the sinking-head variety (in a wide variety of sink rates). This is too bad because in most instances when we are fishing in salt water, the faster sinking lines are going to get your fly in front of more fish that your intermediate sinking line. Of course there are exceptions to this, such as when fishing the worm hatch when all the action is on the surface or when fish are feeding very high in the water column, or when you are fishing very shallow water and a sinking line is going to have you hanging up frequently on structure or weed. Much of the time when we are fishing in saltwater we are not sight casting, rather we are prospecting for fish that we know or we suspect are in our waters. If you spend the lions share of your time casting floating and intermediate sinking lines (1.5 inches/second), you become very comfortable with the pickup process, and the timing delays in your forward and backcasts that you need to employ to get the line to roll out properly in preparation for a the next false or actual cast.  

When your guide suggests you switch to a rod with a sinking line, you immediately say to yourself... "aw crap", and in short order your casting gets clunky and you remember how much you hate sinking lines. I think as saltwater anglers we gravitate toward the floating and intermediate lines because they are easier to cast, and we want to catch our fish on top. We want to see the water blow up on the take, or the big swirl as we turn the fish. The fact of the matter is, not unlike the Iceberg theory where 80% of the iceberg is below the water line and never seen, ocean fishing for any of our local (New England) species is largely a sub-surface game. So, my recommendation is if you want to catch more fish, particularly from a boat- make the sinking line your friend. Practice casting it!

Picking up the Sinking Line

Picking up your floating and also your intermediate line in preparation for your next cast is generally a piece of cake. If you can roll cast first, then pick up the line using a single haul, the process of delivering your next cast becomes much easier. If you use a haul on the pickup to get the line moving more quickly, on your backstroke you can also slip line to quickly get more line airborne, then drift a bit at the end of your backcast stroke before you come forward and shoot line (what the hell is this guy talking about!), then you're in fat city.

However, when we cast with any of the sinking lines, a few things have to change to get it right. For the sake of discussion let's start with the scenario where our line is already in the water at some depth and we are stripping in line getting ready to pick up for our next cast. If we are using one of the heavier grain sinking lines, considerable line may be at a deep and steep angle into the water column. You can be Charles Atlas yet still be unable to pick up the entire line that's beyond the tip top of your fly rod in preparation for your back cast.  So, the pickup for the back cast needs to be done in stages in order to get all or most of the fly line (or nearly so) on top of the water's surface so you are positioned to execute the backcast. How we do this is pretty easy.

Employ the Roll Cast Pickup

Recall the Roll-Cast you use when casting in fresh water when you have no backcast room due to some type of natural obstruction (river bank, bush, tree). If we slowly haul with our line hand as we raise the rod to a high position (so the reel is level with our ear), then execute the roll cast- this gets the line moving towards the surface. We may have to execute that same roll cast stroke again and if the line is still deep, perhaps even a third time. Each time we execute this maneuver we continue to reposition our sinking line closer to the water's surface. The last roll cast should have the line on top. As soon as the line lays out, you start your back cast with a Water Haul which is "fly cast speak" for simply allowing the surface tension of the water acting on the fly line to provide resistance against being picked up by the fly rod. As you initiate the back cast the rod loads (bends) beautifully, the water finally gives up it's grip on the fly line and you are into your backcast. If you can employ another haul as you finally pull the line from the water, then give line back as the rod travels in the backcast, you slip a little line (allow the weight of the line to pull extra line through your line hand), then pinch it, drift backwards slightly, then start your forward cast with another haul-and let 'er fly. Whew!

As you read this you're probably now thoroughly convinced you hate fly casting, particularly with a sinking line. I realize this may be difficult to visualize, but thirty minutes with a qualified fly casting instructor will enable you to use this casting technique, that can also be employed with your floating and intermediate lines. The roll cast used to reposition the fly line has many applications that can be utilized in virtually all your fly fishing presentations.

Roll- Cast Pickup Video Demonstration

My friend Peter Kutzer of the Orvis Fly Fishing School in Manchester, VT is featured in the following video executing the Roll Cast Pickup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_YZERIyPWY 

Six Tips for Casting Sinking Lines- Tom Rosenbauer/Orvis

The following link will take you to the Orvis website for additional information on using sinking lines. 

http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/Sinking-Line/