Fish Tails

Interview with Capt. Joel Dickey

Another interview from readers suggestions. This time it is Capt. Joel Dickey, another Keys guide. Joel has been out with the Gink & Gasoline guys and knows one or two dozen good thing to know about fishing in the Keys.

How much of an off-season do you get down there in Florida and what do you do when
you aren’t guiding?

Well in my honest opinion there are great opportunities for fishing year round in the Keys. I would put it in that there is a “softer” season as opposed to an off season. The Keys is famous for tarpon season which runs from March until mid July. However some of the best opportunities for the “grand slam” is from late June till September. From September to mid November is spectacular bone fishing and permit fishing.. And yes there are still some tarpon around then too. as for the ” soft season ” I would say mid-November to the end of January. Don’t get me wrong though the big three can still be caught during these months the weather just has to be right. As far as what I do in the off season? Fish of course! What else is a guide to do? I also tie flies, come up with new patterns for the upcoming season. I also like to take photos during my trips and this is a time I can really edit photos. However this year I plan on hosting some trips to the Bahamas and other places for my clients. In the Keys you have shots at all of the Big 3.

Where do bonefish rank there for you and what do you like about them?

I don’t think I can really answer that one because there are aspects about all three that Ilove. That wouldn’t be very fair to the fish now would it lol. The sheer power of atarpon, the unbelievable speed of the bonefish and the stubbornness and craftiness ofthe permit are things that I highly respect of each and these traits give each auniqueness that everyone should experience. As far as bones though speed says it all.Pound for pound I don’t think there is a more explosive fish swimming. Just look at theway they are built.. The engineering from the Big Guy above is nothing less thanperfect. I also like their eagerness to eat a properly placed and fished fly. If your adecent angler the refusals are cut to a minimum. Lets not forget a lot of this happens inless than 10 in. of water so you can wade for these fish very easily which is a treat initself. But let’s be honest tarpon is what brought me down here as is with most everyone else!

Photo by Joel Dickey, and a nice photo it is.

Often times there are people who play a big part in our evolution as anglers. Is there someone that helped you become the angler or guide you are now?

To be fair, as you know “it takes a village” and I have been very fortunate to know some really respected guides and anglers in the industry. The people who have inspired me the most would first and foremost be my late brother Brett and my late grandfather who introduced Brett and I to fly fishing. Some of my favorite memories are when Brett would come home for college every weekend and as soon as he got home we would hit the river no matter the conditions. Even in the dead of winter in of which back then we didn’t have waders and wet waded a lot of times in 30-40 deg. temps. The fishing was so good on the Toccoa back then we hardly noticed the cold. It was his dream to become a guide and back then in North Georgia that was just unheard of especially a fly fishing guide. Of course I can’t forget to mention Lee Howard who gave me my first guide gig for a legit fly shop and who taught me a lot about all aspects of fishing. Last but not least Capt. Bruce Chard for pushing me daily to be the best guide I can be and helped get me established here in the Keys and in the fly fishing industry itself.

Guiding is not fishing. What do you think it takes to be a good guide that is different from
being a good angler?

First and foremost to be a good guide I feel as though one needs to be a superior angler and I do mean far superior than most. I think you need to have an understanding that is almost like ESP of what the fish are doing. Not only that you have to be able to teach this to your client. Now that sounds easy but really it’s not. You have to be able to convey the information not only as so your client can understand it but be able to perform what you explained when asked. A lot of guides can regurgitate information to clients but you also need the understanding of why you make a cast this way or fish a fly that way and teach the client why also. I cannot tell you how many times a client has thanked me for explaining why a particular flat is productive instead of just going to a flat and saying ok there are fish here. Why are the fish here? Where and what direction are they coming from? Why? These are simple questions a guide should explain. A lot don’t. To do this properly you need to read people and focus on the aspects of fly fishing they are good at and set up your fishing to enhance what they are good at and while doing that teach and work on the aspects they are lacking in. Let’s not forget to do all this in a way so they will enjoy it!( that was a mouthful). I also think that the better guides in the industry are the ones who can evolve to changes. Evolve in the changes of the fishery, flies, and techniques.

Photo by Joel Dickey.

What is your go-to rod/reel for bonefishing? For tarpon?

Well my favorite bone fish set up is the Thomas and Thomas TNT 7wt with a Hatch 7+ reel.
My fav tarpon set up is Thomas and Thomas TNT 11wt with a Hatch 11+ reel.

Everyone tells me there will come a time when I embrace permit. That hasn’t happened yet. The pace just is too slow for me. What’s your take on permit?

Well permit for sure is a different animal and not for the faint of heart. I like most have a love hate relationship with permit. Love seeing them, love hooking and landing them but absolutely hate getting denied time after time by them. However, I personally think that most people fish for the wrong fish.. To elaborate more on what I mean I think there are a few types of permit that come onto the flats and which type a guide targets has a determining factor to how successful the angler is. There are tons of flats that you can take a client where there are plenty of permit “cruising” but not really eating. The chances of hooking these fish are extremely low no matter how good the cast is. Then there are flats where fish are actually there to eat. They move slowly and methodically looking for the opportunity to pounce. I think the shallower the flat the more likely to hook one. Then there are tailing and mudding fish who are in the process of eating in of which your chances go way up with a properly placed cast. The point of this is the permit most anglers see are the “cruising” type and they get frustrated when they don’t eat. Thing is they might not have eating on their mind when they are in the “cruising” state of mind so we tend to be too hard on ourselves. What you have to do is find the last two types with of course the tailing and mudding being the best shot at getting one to take a fly.

Permit and photo by Joel Dickey.

I’ve heard stories about incredible fishing that can take place after a hurricane. Have you had any post-hurricane fishing experiences and if so, how did they compare?

I have and yes it can be off the chart.. The reason being is when a hurricane comes through an area it is obviously the strongest system in the region and acts like a vacuum cleaner and sucks every other cloud and pollution in the air up and takes it along with it in which ever direction it goes. So that means the next few days are the absolute most clear and beautiful days for visibility you will ever have and in sight fishing when you can see it further away the better the chances are to catch it. Not only that, but think about being hunkered down in a channel for a few days with nothing to eat. You would be hungry too! So now you have the best of both worlds it’s as if the planets align, you have great visibility, weather and really hungry fish.

All the other stuff / Fish Tails — 2 Comments
18
Feb 13

Interview with Dylan Rose

I first heard about Dylan Rose from his days blogging. These days he can be found at Fly Water Travel. I’ll actually be seeing him in Pleasanton here next weekend at the Fly Fishing Show. He answered some questions about his salty experiences here.

Nice.

You are now at Fly Water Travel. How did you end up there and what has been the best part of the job so far?

Honestly, how I ended up at Fly Water is a pretty long and sordid tale! I suppose the path started as a toddler fishing off of my parent’s small sailboat in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. Even at that early age of 2 or 3, I was fascinated by fish and trying to catch them by any means possible.

With my finger nails caked with bits of herring, tube worms, crab guts, or shrimp that my brother and I would catch with our hands off of a dock, I’d fish for everything and anything. The addiction only grew from there leading to a job at a local fly shop, guiding, teaching, repping, e-commerce, blogging and now travel. I’ve seen and experienced a lot in my 16 year career in the fly fishing industry and it definitely has not all been easy.

I really feel like my varied experiences in all sorts of fly fishing related gigs has perfectly trained me for a job at Fly Water Travel. The pains and gains I’ve been through along the way have prepared me for what I consider to be the best job in the business. I work with an amazingly talented crew every single day and get to be part of a highly successful small business with great clients. The opportunity to travel the world and experience the best saltwater fisheries on planet (and call it work!) isn’t too shabby either. It doesn’t better than that for me and I feel truly fortunate and blessed.

How do you set expectations for a trip so that someone isn’t disappointed?

Setting expectations is really at the crux of what we do here. It’s about being totally honest (sometimes brutally so) with our clients. Sometimes that means telling a client that a trip is just not right for them.

Luckily, Fly Water has been around working hard for so long that we are not starved to make a booking. It’s not uncommon to send a perspective client elsewhere if it just feels like their expectations are not in line with what we can offer them. There’s not pressure to sell someone on a destination just to make a sale.

So it’s actually very easy to be totally honest, unbiased and just tell anglers like it is. As long as I come to work each day and am honest about my impressions of an operation or fishery and communicate that effectively to our clients, I feel like I’ve done my job.

You’ve caught GT’s… I long to do it. If someone has that on their bucket list, what is the best, fastest, cheapest way to make that bit of that magic happen?

Compared to the Indian Ocean, Christmas Island is really accessible, affordable and relatively easy to get to. I’ve just returned from my second trip to the island and without a doubt, it’s the closest and easiest way for one to have an encounter with a GT. The guides at Christmas Island Outfitters are simply fantastic at putting you into the best situation to make it happen. Of course, it can be pretty easy when conditions are right and they’re able to chum them in, but they are also great at putting you on a productive bonefish flat that at the same time houses big GT’s roaming the edges.

There is simply nothing like happily fishing along a flat and turning to see a 70lb GT crashing bait with a foot of its back out of the water. As you throw your 8wt down on the flat and reach for the 12, there is a split second that you find yourself hoping that it doesn’t decide to just swim over and take a chunk out of your calf. They are easily and without a doubt the most savage fish I have ever encountered.

That look says it all.

Where does fly fishing fit in your life priorities?

Fly Fishing is a huge part of my life. It’s my both my work and my recreation, but it’s not so much just about the fishing for me anymore. It’s just a great excuse to travel, to spend time with friends and family, and just enjoy the splendor of our natural surroundings. What other excuse could you possibly come up with to creep around a flat in the tropics, soak in the environment, observing everything and just taking in the incredible beauty of our planet?

Do you have a saltwater mentor and if so, what has that person taught you?

Without a doubt, Brian Gies who is part owner and co-founder here at Fly Water is my biggest saltwater mentor. It’s just great to have him around every day to bounce ideas off of and his experience fishing the best saltwater destinations around the world is extremely valuable for me.

Ken Morrish, who is also part owner/co-founder here, is another huge influence. His knowledge of fly pattern design, mechanics and philosophy is truly mind boggling. His incredible creativity at the vise is a huge inspiration for me and his patterns from trout to bonefish to steelhead are the most instantly fishy right out of a fly shop bin of any I’ve ever seen.

We also have some clients that are truly remarkable anglers and that I would certainly consider mentors. I am humbled and learn something new every day in this job, whether on location or in the office.

Trips involve a lot more than just fishing. What is something non-fishing that you particularly love about chasing saltwater species?

I really enjoy looking at life through the lens of those folks living and fishing in far off saltwater destinations. I have met some amazing people through my travels that I keep in regular contact with. Whether it’s the guides, the owner/operators or simply members of the crew, it’s remarkable to compare contrast how folks live in other less fortunate parts of the world. It provides a lot perspective and that’s one of great things about traveling that I look forward to.

I fear that many traveling anglers do not take the time to really find out about the people that work and live in the far away areas where our beloved saltwater species live. Doing so can provide a great clarity for what’s truly important in life and can provide opportunities for laughter and joy when cultural differences are embraced and explored.

What is the set-up you use for bonefishing? (Rod/reel)

I’ve been an R.L. Winston man for quite a while. Happiness is a warm 8wt 9’ Boron-IIX, although I would love a BIIIX, a Bauer M5 and a Rio Tropical Clouser (which has become the Saltwater taper as of this year, I believe…).

Mexico Bonefish and Dylan.

If you had to spend money on a rod or reel for bones, where would you put more emphasis and why?

It would definitely be the reel in my opinion. A reel is certainly more susceptible to salt corrosion. The salt can play hell on a reel. In the salt, with hard running powerful fish, nothing is more frustrating than a reel that doesn’t perform. On a flats trip, you’re traveling so far and spending so much money that a cheap reel will just cause nothing but headaches and heartbreak. Get a good reel, take care of it, treat it right and you’ll be happier for it.

Thanks Dylan and hope to see you soon.

Fish Tails / Gear / Locations — No Comments
12
Feb 13

Interview Captain Tim Mahaffey

When I asked for anglers to interview about bonefish, Capt. Tim Mahaffey’s (www.flatshead.com) name came up quickly and, after looking over what he has to share, I can see why. He’s got a long and distinguished track record where it concerns the Grey Ghost (the guy has won the Islamorada Spring & Fall Bonefish Fly Invitationals 6 time) and he even wrote this article about hunting for big fish. Tim has some good stories to share.

That is just massive.

You have a pretty impressive tournament resume. For a West Coast trout guy like myself, tournaments aren’t something that really exist. What is it that you like about fishing tournaments, what makes you keep coming back?

It is like any other sport, competition raises skill level, and it makes you work harder and prepare longer. I started fly fishing at a very young age, 5, and it has been my life’s passion ever since. Tournament fishing pushed me to get better and to take my fishing to a level I didn’t know existed. It’s really the great thing about fishing which is somewhat unlike other sports – it can be enjoyed by everyone no matter your skill level. Fishing from a bridge, or competing at the highest levels in Islamorada chasing downtown bonefish. It is all fun.

When you are on the water a lot, you see really interesting things that most folks probably don’t know about. Is there something particularly interesting you’ve seen out on the water?

Since I concentrate most of my bonefishing chasing the huge, downtown fish of Islamorada, I certainly see some bonefish behavior that you don’t see in the Bahamas or even in Biscayne Bay. One of the funnier things is what we call the “positive confirmation”. Many times when we spook these giant bones, and I’m talking about fish 10-15 lbs, they don’t tear off the flat looking for deeper water. They come to the boat and look at us, not in panic, but in confident posture, taking that “positive confirmation” of “oh yes, that is that idiot in the white Maverick Mirage who just hit me in the head with his pathetic shrimp imitation”. I’ve seen this over and over again and clearly it is an evolved behavior inherent in these older, mature fish.

Florida has a reputation for being a tough place to fish, for being a place where bonefish are really hard to catch. How deserved is that reputation?

It is deserved for the big fish for sure, but well worth the effort since many days we’re casting to world record caliber fish. I wrote an article about fishing for giant bonefish quite some time ago (see below), and really nothing has changed. There are very specific techniques as to how you feed these fish, unlike anywhere else I have fished. You have to slow down, less is better, in how you strip, how close you throw to the fish, etc. I use the heaviest fly possible for the situation, they want it hopped short and quick and on the bottom. Most of the big fish we catch when the fly is not moving. The bottom line is that they are very catchable, but you have to do everything right and do it the way they want it. There is no room for error.

Is there a fish that you lost that haunts you?

Yes there are a few. It’s funny, combined I’ve won the Islamorada Spring & Fall Bonefish Fly Invitationals 6 times, but I lost a significant fish in 3 other tournaments that easily would have been enough to win those too. One was in Biscayne Bay, and I hooked this giant, single mudding bone in 5 feet of water, and he literally screamed drag off to the bottom of my reel. We had to start the motor and give chase. At the end of the second run the line went slack, and when I pulled in the fly I discovered he had completely crushed the fly closed. I’ve landed 3 bones over 14 lbs in my life, and this fish was in that class and perhaps a pound or two more. It seems I remember those lost more than those caught.

Is there something happening conservation wise that has you hopeful about the fate of bonefish there in FL? Is there something that has you concerned?

Just like everything else, we always say it’s not like it used to be. But sometimes it is, which gives us hope. Some days they are there, in great numbers and the shot count exceeds 30 and it is like nothing ever happened. So the hope is that yes, the fish are still there and when conditions dictate we have great days. The elimination of septic sewage in the Keys brings us hope for the future, and continual policing of our flats to be marked as no motor zones I believe helps ensure our fishery will survive and thrive.

What is your go-to rod/reel set up?

For Downtown Islamorada bonefish, I use Loomis GLX Classic 9 weight 2 piece rods with Abel 4N reels. On big windy days I pull out the 10 weights.

Yup… another big, big fish.

Did you learn how to be a guide through a culmination of experience or did someone teach you how to be a guide and what do you think is the key attribute a guide should have?

Being a competitive angler / paying customer on the bow of several great guides’ boats for many years helps you understand the expectation of a client and what is going through their head. There are several key attributes. First and foremost, the job is to provide opportunities to catch the fish. You have to have the knowledge to be able to do that under all conditions and seasons. Secondly, you want your customer to not only catch fish, but have fun doing it. Guides sometimes lose themselves in the catching part, and forget about the fun part. I want my customers walking away wanting more, more casts, more fun. Lastly, you have to enjoy teaching and coaching, and be willing to do it all day every day. I find beginners and experts alike all want to learn more and improve, and they are looking to walk away from the day thinking, “I got better today, wow I learned something today”. Understanding the customer’s expectations is so important and adjusting your style to that is extremely critical. The way I fish and coach one guy may be totally different than the next based on what they want out of the day.

The Bahamas has Kalik. What do you drink after a long day on the water?

Two gallons of water a day on the boat, but, once home, Ron Zacapa 23 Year Old Centenario Rum – the best rum in the world.

Do you have any superstitions on your boat?

Not really, I’ve tried them all and they don’t work!

Thanks for your time and attention to the answers here Tim. Cheers!

Fish Tails — 1 Comment
10
Feb 13

New Water, Old Water

I had a day to fish today. I handed my daughter over to her mom this morning and then I got to go fishing. First, I had to get a license… yes, it is February and I didn’t have a license yet. So sad.

I started off in San Lorenzo at a little city park. The visibility was just about zero and there were about a million birds. No luck. Might have seen one carp-caused boil, but that was it.

Lots and lots of birds.

Left there and headed to Lake Elizabeth in Fremont. I wanted to fish this because it is IN Fremont, where I now live. I didn’t want to fish it because it shares a name with my ex-wife. In the end the lake gave me just about as much encouragement as my ex-wife. Lots of folks out and a really large number of elderly Asian men with lines in the water/bells on their rods. No love and I moved on.

I headed toward water I used to fish when I lived in the San Ho. Calero Reservoir is south of the city and, really, kind of pretty. There was as stiff wind when I got there and the water was a bit churned up. I saw no waving carp tails. I saw no breaching fish. I saw nothing. I ended up just blind casting into likely places with a fly I tied last night.

From the vice

Persistence paid off, kind of.

A crappie. It counts.

Well… at least I’m in the books for 2013 with a fly caught fish. Good to see some new waters, check on other options and good to be able to fall back on some old water to find a fish.

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07
Feb 13

Winning Story at Deneki

Deneki had a contest where they asked for a story about bonefishing. They have a winner. (Have to say, I love this kind of stuff)

We hadn’t expected him. I had called to cancel the bonefishing trip. The night before an intruder had robbed us. We had no money, no passports. I’d spent the last three hours cancelling credit cards.

Now Ansil Saunders stood before us – a wiry brown man with white, white teeth and strong hands. He smiled showing all of his teeth and brushed the events away with a swish of his hand.

“I will take you for free.”

Bone.

Fish Tails / Locations — 1 Comment
22
Oct 12

Permit, with Yellow Dog

I know those Yellow Dog guys are kind of crazy for permit. I have yet to come down with that particular bug. Everyone tells me that I really should be crazy for permit and maybe someday I will be, but for now, I still have bonefish on the brain (and a bit of an interest in tarpon).

People will go to great lengths to chase after permit. It seems to be a deeper sort of infection. It would have to be. Permit make bonefish look plentiful and crazily easy. Permit anglers are destined to fail way, way more often than they succeed. You don’t go out to catch permit, you go out to find them and have a shot.

I’m not there yet.

This post from the Yellow Dog blog will give you a bit of a sense of the permit angler.

The black tail.

All the other stuff / Fish Tails — 3 Comments
20
Oct 12

Feeling my age

I am really feeling my age right now. Bonefishing may be more challenging than trout fishing, but it is not more demanding. Today was demanding, physically, and right now I’m more than a tad sore. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

A lot of time on the tracks today, walking

I fished for something like 9 hours today. This was in a tight river canyon, walking the tracks, wading, climbing up banks, down embankments… physical stuff. Hard stuff.

I wobbled a few times, skating off rocks only to catch myself just at the last second, except for once, when I didn’t and got a nice refreshing October bath in the river, water down the waders all the way to my feet, which got to stay wet for the next 4 hours.

I caught fish… a lot of fish really. I caught more than most people ever catch here, but then most people don’t fish it right, don’t cover enough water, don’t push as hard as they need to. I had 22 fish in the net or to hand. For me it was a decent day, but it could have been better. There were stretches without fish and there were probably 15 or more fish that didn’t stay hooked. This river and I go way back, it produces for me.

One of many.

Right now, now I feel my age. I feel the strain in my shoulder from high sticking and the dull throb in my knees from climbing and hiking and falling. My whole back is sore and I am exhausted. There was a time I wouldn’t have felt too bad after a day getting after it like this, but those days were years ago. Now, now I am in some pain, although blunted by the three beers with dinner at the Dunsmuir Brewery Works.

It is harder to catch a bonefish than a trout, but I’m going to say it is harder, physically, to catch 20 trout than to catch 20 bonefish. To catch 20 bonefish you have to find happy fish and a lot of them, which sometimes happens. To catch 20 trout you have to climb and wade and walk and keep casting, casting, casting. You have to be relentless in your pursuit of the fish.

Good for about 5 fish. This riffle is one of my favorite places, anywhere.

I’m glad I was out there and I hope I have many, many more days like this in my future. Out there, all by myself, just the river, the fish and me, it is strangely peaceful. The aches, though, I could do without the aches.

All the other stuff / Fish Tails — 3 Comments
19
Oct 12

My Parent River

I know it sounds ridiculous to say that the river was upset with me. It can’t really get upset at me, it isn’t a thing capable of carrying a grudge.

However, the river was upset with me and it was carrying a grudge.

It was never my river, not really. I fished it a bit over the span of a couple of years and got to know it a little bit, like a second cousin. The river is big and broad, cold and fast. The trout are unreasonably large and the river is open all year long. The only thing the river lacks is a really dependable and prodigious hatch, the kind that people come for from around the world. It doesn’t have that, not really.

The Lower Sacramento. Big, broad, fast.

It has a hatch, a massive hatch, the Mother’s Day Caddis Hatch. I’ve seen millions in the air at one time, rafts of caddis floating down the river and not a single nose poking up to take them off the surface. The fish eat nymphs all year and eggs, when that sort of thing is happening.

Now, that sort of thing is happening.

Me.

As I walked out into the water at the Posse Grounds I could see salmon. Living, swimming, powerful and full of rot and fungus. These fish are near the end of their journey, but they still have a redd to make, a mate to find and then there is the dying. Where there are salmon, there are salmon eggs and trout that eat salmon eggs get large… really large.

But, as I mentioned, the river was upset. I haven’t visited this river in a few years and it has been keeping track. I fished for three hours and only touched one fish, a salmon, snagged, which I quickly popped off. The river was clearly giving me the cold shoulder. It wasn’t going to give it up.

I had my choice of water, I had flies that have worked there before, the rig has worked there many, many times. My casting was looking pretty good as I pounded out cast after cast after cast, Nothing.

“Too little, too late.”

Three hours of standing there watching the water go by and I decided to head back to the river that really is mine. My river is a few miles upstream, the same river, but also totally different. This one I know. This one is like a parent. This river has taught me so much, has been there for me through good and bad and has so often given up the goods. I’ve put my time in on this river and it wasn’t going to be angry. This river loves me like a child, always and forever no matter how long it goes between calls.

The tracks and the river. Companions.

It wasn’t angry. An hour of fishing brought four trout to hand as the sun, already hidden by clouds, slid behind the Western rim of the canyon. I picked apart one run of nice pocket water, fishing a short line, which always seems to find the fish. Wading knee deep and sometimes deeper, I moved slowly and surely so as not to orphan my child or widow my wife. Studs and a wading staff help.

Hello lover.

Upper Sacramento Sunset

Then, I was done. I had caught fish, the sun was down and it was time to go.

This river still loved me.

Fish Tails — 3 Comments
18
Oct 12

I’m doing it right

There may be no greater feeling than hooking and landing a fish while your 5 year old jumps around in excitement. It is bliss. It brings out the kid in me to see her so excited about the natural world.

After admitting that I had some learning to do about pier fishing and the SF Bay, I sought out someone who could help. I went to Walton’s Pond in San Lorenzo and talked to Jon. Jon knew exactly what I needed to do. He gave me some sound advice (turns out I wasn’t far off the mark) and sold me exactly what I needed and nothing more. I tried to look for things I might need, but it turns out I didn’t really need that much. The total bill came to $9-something. I can’t think of the last time I made it out of a fly shop for under $25. That was not lost on Jon. We talked a little bit about the economics of bait shops and fly shops while two locals sat at the counter and discussed how stupid liberals were and how the earth was made in 6 days. Jon was solid. I’ll be back. I just won’t talk politics with the regulars.

I picked up the girl from school a little bit early and we rushed home to get the gear and head back to the pier. We were the only ones there. It felt like our own private paradise.

All to ourselves

The current was ripping but the Bay was glassy flat. We could see a seal about 300 yards away. There were all manner of birds flying around and the steady hum of traffic from the Dumbarton bridge, whose shadow we were fishing under.

10 minutes. It took all of about ten minutes for the rod to start bouncing around and I was fast to the first fish of the evening. It was a leopard shark, about 3 feet long, but it got off before I could haul it up on the pier, but not before my daughter saw it. She was impressed.

A dry spell ended after I checked the bait and found nothing there. Once I recast with fresh squid we quickly had our first shark to hand. Not big, but very cool. My girl was beside herself.

Then, a slightly bigger shark, a leopard we got up on the pier. Leopard sharks are just profoundly beautiful animals. No way around it.

Somehow my weights fell off and it was time to go after the leopard, but we left on a high note.

The Leopard

The way back to the car my little girl talked about how much fun she had had, asking me to make sure we came back every day I had her, every weekend, every day after school.

She wants to tag the sharks. She wants to read about sharks. She wants to see as many as possible and she wants to do it with me, her dad.

This is pretty much as good as it gets.

Sure, I’d like to be fly fishing instead of flinging bait, but I wouldn’t trade this evening for anything. I had my girl outside, handling sharks, releasing them back into the Bay. She wasn’t plugged into the TV and she wasn’t in Time Out and I wasn’t surfing the web or watching the MLB Playoffs. I was outside with my girl on an amazingly beautiful October day, catching sharks.

I’m doing it right.

Fish Tails / Locations — 2 Comments
17
Oct 12

Geofish is out… and it looks awesome.

I met the Geofish team at the Costa booth in Reno and I got to hear them talking about the journey, the time spent, the sacrifices and the passion they had for this project. It made me want to see this movie really, really badly. It’s here now and it looks… A-MAZE-ING.

One of the key characters isn’t even a person, it is Jay’s beard. That beard is epic.

The Beard.

This whole project is something that Costa got behind in a really big way. Impressive to see a company support a project like this so hard. Way to go Costa.

Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).