S6, Ep 31: On the Salt with GotOne
Set sail with Marvin Cash and Captain David Blinken on the latest episode of The Articulate Fly's "On the Salt" series. As the cusp of the shoulder season approaches, Marvin and David discuss the transition from snowy slopes to salty shores, with David's upcoming Bahamas trip sparking excitement for the angling adventures ahead.
David shares his meticulous pre-trip preparations, ensuring his gear is primed for action. With a focus on early season expectations, he predicts encounters with juvenile stripers in the warming estuaries of Long Island.
Looking further ahead, David outlines his travel itinerary, with tarpon trips to Mexico and permit pursuits in Belize, promising a year brimming with international angling escapades. And as a nod to the community, Marvin announces the lucky winners of the listener engagement prizes, courtesy of Norvise and Rise Fishing Company.
Whether you're gearing up for your own saltwater season or simply love to live vicariously through the tales of seasoned captains, this episode is a treasure trove of tips, tales and tantalizing prospects. So, rig up your rods, refine your casts and join us for another informative and inspiring session on the salt. Tight lines, everyone!
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Speaker:
Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,
Speaker:
Marvin: and we're back with another On the Salt with Got One with Captain David Blinken. How are you, David?
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David: I'm great, Marvin. How are you today?
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Marvin: As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And you know,
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Marvin: you are on the precipice of the shoulder season because you had a ski boondoggle
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Marvin: this weekend, and you're going to be on the water in the next week to 10 days.
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David: Oh, I can't wait. I've got a group going down to the Bahamas right in the beginning
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David: of the second week of April.
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David: I'm really looking forward to it. And my biggest thing is I got to get out and
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David: do a little limbering up with my fly rod before I get down there.
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Marvin: Yeah, but we know from all of the episodes we've done before this that all of
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Marvin: your gear is washed, lines treated, the whole nine yards, boats ready to go
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Marvin: and everything, right? right?
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David: Oh my gosh. The bag is packed. Everything's ready to go. So I can just go on automatic.
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David: All I got to do is throw a couple of pairs of socks in the bag and I'm ready.
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Marvin: Yeah. And so the great thing is you come back and you're going to have your
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Marvin: first guide trip of the year out on Long Island.
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Marvin: What do you expect early season fishing?
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David: Well, yeah, I'm hoping to see stripers. You know, we do have a problem with
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David: the stripest population and I would personally love to see a moratorium I'm
Speaker:
David: not to be too political about bass,
Speaker:
David: but what I'm expecting to see is some smaller fish up in the estuaries as the water warms.
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David: So I'll be, you know, going way up into creeks and estuaries and little river
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David: systems, looking for stripers.
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David: And, you know, if we have a warm spring, I think I'll be finding them out on
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David: the sand earlier this year than usual.
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David: So we'll just see how the spring goes. March, the past few years,
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David: has tended to be a little colder than February, and that helps keep the water cool going into spring.
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David: So it's anyone's guess. And then I'm looking for bluefish coming in around the
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David: end of the second week, beginning of the third week of May.
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David: And the past couple seasons, that has been a really fun part of our fishery, and it's been big fish.
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David: So we go into those with 10-weight rods and shock tips and poppers and big squid
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David: flies and have a lot of fun with them on the flats.
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Marvin: Yeah, got it. And I assume that, you know, the reason that you're going to be
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Marvin: fishing for striper so close and, you know, up in the estuaries is because I
Speaker:
Marvin: guess you have to wait for the, you know, the more the water warms up,
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Marvin: the, I guess the more the, the, uh, the bait range is kind of out into the sound
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Marvin: and out into the ocean. Right.
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Marvin: So right now they're going where the water warms up pretty quickly.
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David: Yeah and and there tends to be more bait up
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David: in those creeks and estuaries early you know we'll be looking
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David: for um uh um spearing uh
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David: little crabs and uh grass shrimp and uh they like they like that cooler temperature
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David: so the bass will be up in there and uh getting into our first full moon in may
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David: uh you know we could very easily have a nice cinder worm hatch and and they
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David: really like like to focus on those.
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David: So, they'll stay up in the creeks and estuaries for that.
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David: And then after that first cinderworm hatch, they'll start to wander around a
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David: little more, especially as the water warms.
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Marvin: Got it. And I would imagine too, you know, if spring up on Long Island is anything
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Marvin: like spring down here in the southeast, it's going to be windy.
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Marvin: You know, what should folks expect on the casting front there?
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David: Well, you know, it depends on the time of day, it's really interesting.
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David: Sometimes you wake up in the spring and there's a north wind and you just kind
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David: of wait until like 10, 11 and it drops out.
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David: But the nice thing about having a skiff and having so many different bits and
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David: pieces of water on Long Island is I can always launch the boat in an area where
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David: we have a really good amount of lee.
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David: So the wind isn't always a problem in the springtime as much as it might be in the fall.
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David: Uh so it gives us opportunities
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David: to go hide um you know sometimes it shortens the day but um very often we'll
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David: go we'll go into a lee and the fish are all just kind of stacked up in the league
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David: because they don't want to be out in the noisy choppy water either so uh it
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David: can make for some really fun interesting fishing got.
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Marvin: It and of course later in the season you're gonna you know know,
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Marvin: put your, uh, your travel host back on, you've got a couple of destination trips too.
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David: Yes. So, so of course in April, I go to the Bahamas and then the end of April,
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David: I go to Belize for permit.
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David: And then in, um...
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David: The beginning of august uh in november and december we're doing tarpon trips down in mexico,
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David: and uh it's for for smaller tarpon which
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David: is so much fun uh because you know
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David: they jump like crazy you can get them to the boat pretty quick and you're
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David: on to the next one and uh august is pretty
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David: special because uh that trip
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David: you can really get huge numbers of tarpon and and
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David: it's a relative thing you know on any given day you can jump
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David: 15 or 20 and you can land you know you know
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David: half that and and that's a huge amount of fun
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David: um and then in in uh the the november trip i said march i think but in the november
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David: and december trips we tend to find the bigger tarpon come into mexico um you
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David: know some some of them exceeding 50 pounds and and that's a lot of fun so uh
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David: we look forward to all all those trips.
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Marvin: Yeah, it sounds like it's going to be a good 2024 for you. And I want to thank
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Marvin: our friends at Norvice for sponsoring the series.
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Marvin: And I know Tim and the rest of the Norvice team are kind of winding up the travel
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Marvin: schedule, but you know it to yourself to head over to www.nor-vice.com to check
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Marvin: out the Norvice, everything that they have to offer.
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Marvin: There might be a couple of shows left, maybe out West, maybe in Utah.
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Marvin: If you check on the website and And you live out there, you might still have
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Marvin: a chance to actually see the Norvice
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Marvin: in action. Otherwise, you're going to probably have to wait until 2025.
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Marvin: And, you know, I know everyone's been waiting. You know, we had two great prizes
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Marvin: to kind of encourage people to listen and engage with us.
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Marvin: And, you know, the first prize was a RISE Fishing Company rod.
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Marvin: And that was from everyone that sent questions in. And we really appreciate that.
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Marvin: And the winner of that prize is Brenner Johnson.
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Marvin: And Brenner is a frequent question asker on lots of our shows.
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Marvin: So congratulations, Brenner. You've got a Rise Fishing Company rod.
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Marvin: If you'll reach out to me, I will get you in touch with David,
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Marvin: and we'll get you in touch with the folks at Rise.
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Marvin: And then, of course, the grand prize for all the questions that we use during
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Marvin: the series is a Norvice tying system.
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Marvin: And that grand prize winner is Brent Taylor. So congratulations, Brent.
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David: Well, that's exciting. These two guys, uh, won all this stuff.
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David: So, uh, so, uh, I hope they get a chance to use it a lot this year.
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Marvin: Yeah, absolutely. That's a, it's going to make a, it's like,
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Marvin: it's like having the fly fishing Easter bunny come to your house.
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David: It kind of is. It's really exciting. I mean, uh, that the Norvice is going to
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David: be a lot of fun to use and, and certainly the rise rod is going to be awesome.
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David: Them and you know i hope those guys after they uh they land some fish with their
Speaker:
David: rod and flies uh you know record them on on the got one app.
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Marvin: Yeah there you go and you know we were talking you know last i guess was it
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Marvin: last weekend you had blind chocolate on for your last official event in masters
Speaker:
Marvin: of the fly but you're telling me that uh you and lou yin have some things planned
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Marvin: to kind of keep the content coming kind of throughout 2024 yeah.
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David: We're going to try to shoot some content over the summer and put it out as well
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David: as have maybe one or two shows,
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David: definitely one show over the summer with a guest, and hopefully it will be a casting show.
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David: So we're looking forward to that and keeping everyone engaged throughout.
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David: And next year will be our fifth year.
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David: And, you know, we're also thinking, you know, finally of possibly,
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David: you know, developing some things so you can show your colors,
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David: like some hats or sweaters or something. So that might be coming.
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Marvin: Yeah, schwag, as they like to say in the business. Yeah. Yeah.
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Marvin: And so what should folks be on the lookout for on the Got One front?
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David: Front well you know they're
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David: always making improvements and i think ai is
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David: going to be a big contributor to what's
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David: going to be going on with got one and um and
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David: uh you know when you photograph and record your fish
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David: you know each fish has a unique scale and stripe pattern uh not unlike fingerprints
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David: on a human hand so you know there's going to be a wonderful way to identify
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David: your fish and certainly measuring your fish is going to be very important too and and um,
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David: it'll you know one it'll help you you know
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David: when you're when you're catching fish keeping track but
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David: two if you want to open up your data to scientists um
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David: and of course they don't they're not going to blab your spots or anything they
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David: just need it for data collection it's certainly going to help those scientists
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David: do their job so they can better understand um the needs of the various various
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David: fisheries and what we can do to protect what we all hold so dear.
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Marvin: Very, very neat. You know, folks, it's so great. I always get excited at the
Speaker:
Marvin: beginning of every fishing season.
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Marvin: You know, get your gear ready, take all the advice we've given you,
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Marvin: and have a great season on the salt in 2024.
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Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, David.
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David: You too.
David Blinken
Guide
David Blinken owner and guide has taken the time to observe the environment in which he guides, and he sees things that others might not, this ability is what separates him from the pack. His clients benefit from this, which allows David to provide them with an experience that they can take home and remember until their next trip.
North flats began as an idea in David’s discussions with friends, “why get trapped in an office” they used to tell him, you need to explore and make your passion your business.
Davids’s passion and desire are what allows him to give people a lasting and fun experience that not only connects them with fish but to the environment in which they live. This not only gives his clients a better understanding of where to find the fish but also a better appreciation of their environment and how to preserve the very thing they love, flyfishing
There is not just great fishing to experience but a passion that brings people together, which is why people keep coming back year after year.
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