The fishing show season is upon us and Skinny Water Charters will be exhibiting and presenting at the New England Saltwater Fishing Show (http://www.nesaltwatershow.com/) being held at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence on 2/26-28. I will be sharing a booth with Capt. Bob Hines and Capt. John Lemont, my partners in the Rhode Island School of Fly Fishing. We will be distributing information about our respective charter fishing services in addition to information about the school. Additionally Bob and I will be presenting several PowerPoint seminars and conducting fly casting demonstrations. Rhode Island is blessed with two very strong angling opportunities on opposite sides of the fishing season. In May and early June we have our infamous worm hatches- shallow and protected water sight fishing for striped bass taking aquatic worms, and on the opposite end of the season we are blessed with a very strong September and October fishery- for Ocean Bonito and False Albacore. Both fisheries offer anglers plenty of opportunities to participate as both wading anglers as well as fishing from small and medium size boats. Our seminars are entitled Fishing the Rhode Island Cinder Worm Hatch, and False Albacore By Land and By Sea. These seminars will illustrate when and where you can jump in on the action. Additionally Bob will be conducting demonstrations on Saltwater Fly Casting for Beginners and I will be conducting demonstrations on  Advanced Saltwater Fly Casting.  We would love to see you if you can make the show.

Here's our schedule:

Friday-
1:30- Saltwater Fly Casting for Beginners- Capt. Bob Hines (Casting Lane)
3:30- Fishing the Rhode Island Cinder Worm Hatch-Capt. Jim Barr and Capt. Bob Hines (Seminar room)
4:30- Advanced Saltwater Fly Casting- Capt. Jim Barr (Casting Lane)
6:30- False Albacore By Land and By Sea- Capt. Bob Hines and Capt. Jim Barr (Seminar Room)

 

My Advanced Saltwater Fly Casting Demonstrations will cover the following:

Varying Length Fly Rods
- Longer rods for open area casting (beach, ledges) 9-14 ft
- Shorter rods for restricted casting such as from boats with obstructions (antennas, center console, other anglers) 8 ft- Sage Largemouth, Loomis Short-stix, TFO Hawgleg

Just a reminder, I give private and group fly casting lessons. I am a Certified Fly Casting Instructor with the International Federation of Fly Fishers. I continue to provide lessons through the winter months, primarily with anglers who are fortunate to be able to fly south and fish in the Keys, the Bahamas and points further south. We have quite a few nice days in Newport in our winter months, and with the appropriate clothing and footwear, can actually be quite comfortable. I give lessons primarily in Morton Park, Newport which is nicely protected from the breezes this time of year. Aside from the angler's who are heading south, I have quite a few clients that simply want to brush up on their casting skills or learn new types of casts to better position themselves for the coming season.

Typically I will bring to a lesson an assortment of fly rods and lines enabling the student to cast different weight rods and line combinations. Oftentimes students are using mismatched rods and lines and their casting suffers unnecessarily. By experimenting with different equipment we can typically find a better combination than what the student brings to the lesson. The chief reason fly anglers don't catch as many fish as they can with spinning equipment is due to their inability to cast accurately, quickly, longer distances and to their non-dominant side.  I can fix those issues over the course of several lessons. I recently purchased a GoPro Silver video camera that I set on a tripod to video the student's casting stroke. The video is then provided to the student along with commentary on how to improve various casting techniques.

For additional information on fly casting lessons click the following link to the Skinny Water Charters website.

http://www.skinnywaterchartersri.com/Casting-Lessons.html

Far be it from me to take credit for this but I must share a wonderful photograph of my friend and client, Dr. Frank Farraye, from Sharon, MA. Frank has been fishing with me for several years. I don't have another client who likes to fish as much as Frank. He is very proficient with light tackle, a very accurate caster and a guy that doesn't ever get tired of pursuing fish... any species. On very rare occasions Frank has picked up the fly rod but typically doesn't stick with it very long. Two weeks ago I received a text message from Frank who was holding this beautiful Bonefish that he caught with the flyrod he has cradled in his arms.

     His quote that came along with the photograph.... "Got a Bonefish today in Cayman. I got to buy myself a fly rod!"

Dr. Frank's net worth may have just slipped a percentage point...or two!

Congratulations mi amigo!