S6, Ep 80: Vineyard Adventures and Bluefish Battles: Captain David Blinken's Latest Report

Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,

Marvin: and we're back with another On the Salt with Captain David Blinken. David, how are you?

David: I'm great, Marvin. Missed your company the past few weeks.

Marvin: Yeah, it's kind of funny. It's been a month since we last spoke,

Marvin: and I've been traveling all over the place.

Marvin: I've been up in Virginia with family for the fourth.

Marvin: I was in an OWA event, and i was at icast last week but i think the last time

Marvin: we spoke you were getting ready to head up to martha's vineyard for the holiday weekend.

David: Yeah i headed up there um was up there with my wife and my best buddy and and

David: uh we had some some great great cooking some good wine,

David: and uh every morning i was uh taking walks along a flat there in martha's vineyard

David: and having some fun with some old friends called Striped Bass,

David: which we don't seem to have very many of them left here in Long Island.

Marvin: You were telling me that it's been since the end of June that you had a client

Marvin: on your boat catch a striper on the flats?

David: Yeah. I mean, it was the very end of June before I headed to the vineyard and

David: had a client out, got a really nice one, got a 30-inch plus a striper and about a foot of water.

David: It was quite exciting. We got to see quite a lot of backing get peeled off the reel.

David: But otherwise, we've seen a few bass since then in shallow water.

David: But, you know, as we all know in fly fishing, especially in saltwater,

David: it's kind of the law of averages.

David: And if you don't get a few shots a day, you know, it's really,

David: really hard to hook up a fish.

David: And when you're only seeing three, four fish a day in shallow water and you

David: don't know what direction they're coming from, it's kind of hard to,

David: it's kind of hard to, you know, you know, get them to, to eat,

David: you know, or get, or let alone get a cast to them.

Marvin: Yeah. And so have you been chasing other species on the flats or have you had

Marvin: to kind of go a little bit more offshore to get what you're looking for?

David: I'm going a little more afield. We've been having a lot of fun with bluefish,

David: and there's been some rather large ones.

David: I've been having days where we're catching blues from 30 inches to 36 inches,

David: and it's about all a 10-weight can handle.

David: Bluefish are really tenacious fighters.

Marvin: Yeah, you got to tell the client to hold on to the rod, right?

David: Oh, definitely. Hang on tight. and we've mostly been using small poppers and

David: gurglers which is a huge amount of fun. It's...

David: You know, nothing strikes it quite as viciously as a bluefish on top water. It's really fun.

Marvin: Got it. And so are they busting bait or are they being just attracted to the,

Marvin: to the gurgler or the popper?

David: They're, they're being attracted. And in fact, um, we're finding,

David: you know, these big, huge groups of laid up bluefish and you just see them kind

David: of finning with their, with their dorsals and tails out of the water,

David: swimming along or just kind of huddled up.

David: And, you know, you just kind of throw a fly right along the edge of them and

David: you just start pulling it and, uh, and don't just come up behind it and smack it.

David: And, uh, uh, today with a client, he just flopped a fly in the middle of him.

David: He didn't even get the first strip and a bluefish came up and hammered it. It was, it was great fun.

Marvin: Yeah, that's pretty neat. And got an interesting question for you.

Marvin: It seems to be kind of the time of year, you know, if you're a freshwater guy,

Marvin: you know, it's so hot, people are really concerned. But Brenner wanted to get

Marvin: your thoughts on tips for fighting and handling fish to keep them healthy once you release them.

David: Well, that's a great question. Let's start with the hook.

David: If you really want to handle your fish well, and if you want to make it easy

David: on the fish, let's all fish barbless.

David: That's that first and foremost. Yeah, you might lose the occasional fish,

David: but if you're maintaining pressure when you're reeling the fish in,

David: I think you won't lose too many fish.

David: So barbless is so important because when it comes time to release the fish,

David: the hook just slides right out.

David: So that's the first thing. The second thing is try to catch a fish with as heavy a line as possible.

David: The reason why is the sooner you get the fish in, the sooner you can release

David: it and the happier the fish is.

David: And when you're releasing your fish, try to release your fish while they're

David: in the water. And having a barbless hook certainly makes it easier to do that.

David: If you have a barb in the hook, then you've got to remove the fish from the

David: water. You've got to handle it a lot.

David: And that taking the fish out of the water is never that good for the fish.

David: So barbless hook, as heavy a line as possible, as heavy a rod as possible if you want to do that.

David: Who wants to catch a 20-pound bluefish on an 8-weight? That's just no fun because

David: then you have to baby the rod so you don't break it.

David: So if you're going for bluefish that you know are going to be 10 pounds and up, use a 10-weight.

David: Use a 10 weight use 25 or 30

David: pound test because they don't really they're not that they're not

David: leader shy at all get that fish in quick use a

David: barbless hook or popper and um and

David: release that fish from the water if you can uh there's

David: these uh great little tools that you

David: can use that uh you just slide the tool right

David: down the hook and you give it a little twist and out it comes and you're not

David: endangering your hand with a fish like a bluefish and if it's a striper you

David: can just keep them under the water uh you know put their thumb on the lower

David: jaw keep them in the water slide the hook out and just let them swim off and

David: you know there's so many different fish you can do that with yeah.

Marvin: And i was going to say too you know even though you may lose a few fish on barbless

Marvin: you get more hookups because you don't have to pull and set the hook hard enough

Marvin: to get the the barb to push through right.

David: It's very true uh as long as you maintain a really sharp point on your fly you're

David: going to get you're going to get much,

David: you're going to get penetration much more effectively because it doesn't have to go over that bump.

David: And so that's a very true statement.

David: And so you do get a lot more, you get easier hookups, certainly with barbless hooks.

Marvin: Yeah. And where you are, do you have to worry about sharks chasing things down

Marvin: like you would say in the Bahamas, where, you know, if you see a shark,

Marvin: you got to break the fish off?

David: Very very occasionally what i actually have

David: to worry about are these big gray seals and every

David: so often they get a little bit uh they get a little bit crazy and you'll be

David: reeling in a large bluefish and the fish is between you and the beach occasionally

David: gray seal seal will come along and just grab your fish and just swim off with

David: it um and uh we've learned just to instead of breaking

David: breaking the fish off or breaking the fly off and stuff we've learned to let

David: the gray seals just eat the fish and then when they're done eating the fish

David: they uh they spit out the head and you get your fly or your lure back if you're spin fishing,

David: and and over comes a nice head of whatever fish you just caught but at least

David: you get your tackle back um it doesn't happen that often but on occasion when

David: it does happen you just have to to kind of,

David: you know, kind of go with the flow, so to speak.

Marvin: Yeah. And, you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.

Marvin: You can email me or DM me on social media, try to make David's life easier, as I always say.

Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag,

Marvin: and we're going to enter a drawing for the Royal Wolf line of your choice.

Marvin: And I think if you go back and listen to the last report, David and I tell you

Marvin: guys how much we like fishing with Royal Wolf lines.

Marvin: And, you know, David, the next time we talk, you're actually going to be in

Marvin: Campeche, Mexico. We're going to try to make that work for everybody, right?

David: I am. I'm going to be in Campeche, Mexico, and I'll be there with Steve Ramirez,

David: who was one of your guests recently.

David: And maybe I'll bring Steve in on the call with us.

Marvin: Yeah, we'll see how good the internet is down in Mexico. And it's interesting, folks.

Marvin: We just released that interview with Steve. It's my second one that I've done

Marvin: with him about a week ago.

Marvin: You should check it out. We really spent about an hour just talking about lessons

Marvin: from the river or the ocean too.

Marvin: But I always love my conversations with Steve, and I hope you enjoyed that one.

Marvin: So you ought to check it out.

David: Yeah, it's a really good one. I got to go back and listen to it again.

Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, I wish you safe travels. You know, I'm just,

Marvin: I knock on wood, I got home on Friday with the computer bug.

Marvin: So hopefully everything goes smoothly for you and Steve down in Mexico,

Marvin: and we'll be able to have that call.

Marvin: And, you know, folks, as I always say, you owe it yourself to get out there and catch a few.

Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, David.

David: Tight lines.