Albacore

It’s been a couple of busy weeks for the fly fishing community. On the east coast, my friend, Jake Jordan, helped sponsor the Cape Lookout Albacore Festival. All proceeds go to Project Healing Waters—a most deserving organization that helps veterans refocus their lives through fishing. Jake is a specialist for Albacore, especially on the fly rod, and everyone at the Festival caught fish and experienced a truly fun time.

Capt’n Jake and his anglers got into Albacore right away by heading out to where trawlers were culling their day’s catch.

Uninvited guests–sharks–are prevalent in these waters, and often a fly rodder loses a fish to one of these toothy torpedoes.

Stripers

Back from fishing with Jake Jordan for Stripers, my friend, Chuck Furimsky, began exploring for fall stripers with our good friend from Holland, Theo Bakelaar. Theo introduced gold beads into the US in 1994, when I first met him, and is always coming up with unique fly tying and angling ideas. The open ocean has been a bit too rough for easy access, so Chuck and Theo have been fishing the bay at Ocean City, NJ. They have found a few small foish, but the other day, Chuck found this beauty. Only hit he had all day, but I’d say it was well worth waiting for.

I’ll take every striper of this size that I can find!

Cohos

A bit further west, on the west side of Lake Michigan, as a matter of fact, another long-time fishing companion, John Beth, hit the Wisconsin tributaries at exactly the right time—when they were not flowing swollen and muddy well over their banks. The king run was over—having been buried in the high water—but the cohos were in. And were they ever. John took this 35 inch beast—his best ever in Wisconsin—and several others that day. He and a friend saw a couple of browns, too, so they may be poised to run soon, too. Get a couple for me, John.

Only an inch short of a yard. That’s quite a fine coho!

Rainbows

My long time friend, Marc Williamson, managed to get out the other day and explore a nearby Oregon lake. This 24 inch bulky critter found his fly. Mighty fine rainbow, I’d say.

A great fall day with a great fish.

King and Lahontan

Another friend, blues guitar maestro, Keith Scott, has been playing at venues across the Pacific Northwest—and of course taking advantage of the fishing here. He took a lovely, chrome-bright king salmon on the Hook and then headed for Omak Lake to hunt for Lahontan cutthroats, where he found the beauty below.

king salmon with a king guitar blues man.

Lahontans get big–as you can see here.