Latest / The Articulate Fly / S6, Ep 109: Albie Adventures and Angling Tips: Captain David Blinken's Guide

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S6, Ep 109: Albie Adventures and Angling Tips: Captain David Blinken's Guide · The Articulate Fly

• 0:04
  Marvin Cash: Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the articulate fly. And we're
• 0:07
  back with another on the salt with Captain David Blinken.
• 0:09
  David, how are you?
• 0:11
  David Blinken: I'm good, Marvin. How are you doing this September
• 0:14
  evening?
• 0:15
  Marvin Cash: Uh, just trying to stay out of trouble. We're actually getting a couple inches of
• 0:17
  rain out of this, uh, hurricane tropical depression that
• 0:20
  moved its way up the gulf last week.
• 0:23
  David Blinken: Yeah, that unnamed storm. I heard parts of the
• 0:26
  Carolinas got 20 inches in one day.
• 0:29
  Incredible.
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  Marvin Cash: But it's kind of amazing. I mean, not as much as we got, I guess
• 0:35
  maybe six weeks ago with the other storm that came through and dumped like five
• 0:38
  inches. But interestingly enough for the trout people, if you're
• 0:41
  on the other side of the mountains in western north Carolina,
• 0:44
  uh, west of Asheville, they've gotten almost no rain in the last two
• 0:46
  months.
• 0:48
  David Blinken: Incredible. We've had a pretty good drought too in September.
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  We're well below our normal. But, uh, all
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  that's going to change. We're going to get the remnants of that
• 0:57
  Carolina storm on Wednesday, uh, through Friday.
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  So it, uh, should be interesting. No one's going to be
• 1:02
  fishing for a few days. Tell you that.
• 1:04
  Marvin Cash: Yeah. Which kind of works out because you were telling me the false albacore haven't
• 1:07
  showed up yet.
• 1:09
  David Blinken: No, they really haven't. Um. Um. I know there have been
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  some all through new. You know, up in eastern New England
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  and some down on the Jersey shore. And
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  um. Um. You know, if you go five
• 1:20
  to 10 miles out here, you can find a
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  few mixed in with whales and bluefin tuna. But really
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  they're. It's not the inshore fishing that we
• 1:29
  normally get. And, um. Um. The past two, three
• 1:32
  years they've been in early. But
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  they haven't really stuck around. So I'm hoping
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  after this full moon, which is another big
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  fish mover, I hope, uh. Once the storm
• 1:43
  clears, we, uh, find false albacore in our water
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  here. Hopefully.
• 1:47
  Marvin Cash: Yeah. And so, you know, to kind of get ready for false albacore, you know.
• 1:50
  What are your suggestions? Kind of on, uh, rod reel,
• 1:53
  terminal tackle and flies?
• 1:56
  David Blinken: Well, you know, um. Um. I think the
• 1:59
  ideal setup or the ideal rod for false
• 2:02
  albacore is ten weight. Uh. I don't like to go like eight or
• 2:04
  nine weight because they are tough fighting fish. And
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  you know, it's kind of cruel to take a long time to bring
• 2:11
  them in. So I like a ten weight. And uh. Uh,
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  my. My favorite line generally is a floating line because they
• 2:16
  are surface feeders. But, um. Um. But I don't have
• 2:19
  a floating line. Um. Um, I'll, I'll usually use, uh, uh,
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  like a sink tip, like a royal wolfen,
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  um, uh, uh, lost tip. And for my
• 2:27
  floating line, it would be a royal wolf Bermuda short
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  because just want to be able to load the line quick
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  and, and, uh, uh, and get it out there. You don't always
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  have a lot of time when the fast alba cords are feeding. They're,
• 2:39
  they're explosive and they're quick.
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  So, um, um, a line you can count on to load the rod
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  and shoot the line fast is, is pretty
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  ideal. And, um, um,
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  leader wise, I usually, I'm
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  usually either 20 or 25 pound,
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  uh, for my tippet. Um, they're not.
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  Albees are not particularly picky. I mean,
• 3:01
  you do have those moments when they are. And maybe I'll drop down to
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  20. But, um, for the most
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  part, uh, you know, I'm fishing nine to ten foot leaders
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  and, uh, usually terminating at
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  20 or 25.
• 3:14
  Marvin Cash: Got it. And then, you know, fishing what, poppers,
• 3:17
  game changers, deceivers, things like that.
• 3:20
  David Blinken: Well, yeah, um, a lot of people really dig
• 3:23
  epoxy flies. I'm using, uh, I'm using
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  acrylic that you dry with uv,
• 3:29
  uh, lights and or blue light.
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  And, um, you know, other things. Uh,
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  um, um, um. Johnny King's who
• 3:37
  fly is really great. And I type why I called the
• 3:40
  jellyfish that I tied a masters of the fly a few
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  seasons ago that you can look at.
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  The small, uh, klausiers are great bunny
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  flies. I mean, there's a lot, um, you know,
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  sometimes the albies will eat bigger things, um,
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  and sometimes lead smaller. I know people who only fish for them
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  with chartreuse deceivers, but probably smaller
• 4:00
  ones. Um, but I like,
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  you know, slightly off white things like, uh,
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  creamy color or kind
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  of tan with maybe, uh,
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  a little bit of peacock curl down the back or just
• 4:15
  a, uh, you know, little dark green flash.
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  Um, and uh, and uh, I like
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  splayed feathers on my flies a lot, especially for albies,
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  as opposed to feathers that are mended together as
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  a traditional, uh, deceivers. Uh,
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  have. And, um.
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  That's it. You don't need a lot. And occasionally,
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  um, you can get them on white or chartreuse,
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  uh, gurglers, which is a huge amount of fun.
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  Uh, one of my most favorite ways to get them when they're,
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  when they're looking up top, you know, throwing a gurgler
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  is a blast. And they'll, they hit them so hard, they come right
• 4:50
  out of the water. It's fun.
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  Marvin Cash: Very, ah, neat. And, you know, it's funny, you were talking about looking for lines
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  that allow you to, uh, uh, to load and cast
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  quickly. You know, it is really kind of run and gun fishing and
• 5:00
  kind of a slightly different amount of time pressure, uh, uh, than
• 5:03
  some folks are probably used to, you know. Any tips for people to
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  kind of get that timing down to not false cast 20 times
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  before they get the fly out there?
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  David Blinken: Well, here's the thing. Try not
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  to run and gun, because
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  run and gun means your line gets tangled
• 5:20
  up on the deck from the breeze of running and gunning. Try to
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  get an area where they keep coming up and
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  just set yourself up, up in a long
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  drift and wait till you can see the fish
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  starting to pop or wait till a group of them come up.
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  These false albums like Bonito, they. They're not up and
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  down. No, though they'll feed along certain
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  alleyways, especially if the bait's there,
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  and take your time with the cast. I mean,
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  when they are up, they're quick. But, but
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  you can. You can get yourself set up in a drift. I mean,
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  sometimes you're gonna have to move here and there. But I wouldn't,
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  I wouldn't run a gun. I might more,
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  uh, appropriately call it putter.
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  You know, putter around. And. And
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  then when you see a group of fish, you know, just
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  shut down and start casting. I think that's the
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  best way to do it. And, and, uh, I fish
• 6:12
  albee's a couple different ways. I'll fish them very often out of my
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  skiff where we might pull around shallow water for
• 6:18
  striper in the middle of the day. And then at the early part
• 6:21
  of the day and the late part of the day, we'll, we'll alpi fish when. When
• 6:24
  the light is no good. Um, um,
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  and fishing them out of the skiff is very nice because I'm fishing them
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  usually in the western bays where there's not a lot of
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  boats, so we can just take our time. And other times, I'm
• 6:36
  fishing out of my larger boat out in the ocean.
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  And, um, you just. You go in areas where
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  you keep seeing these big schools, maybe rushing bait
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  or you look for baitball and just kind of hang around
• 6:47
  and, you know, hope the, the albies will come up
• 6:50
  through. And that's sort of my,
• 6:53
  my basic set of tactics.
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  Marvin Cash: Yeah. So we'll say running, uh, gun, but with a zen
• 6:57
  flare.
• 6:59
  David Blinken: Yeah, yeah. And I got to tell you, a lot of.
• 7:03
  I understand, um, um, how
• 7:05
  the weaker warriors are. They want to get to the albees. First, they only have
• 7:08
  a couple days a week to fish, and they run and come. But
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  it's, in a way, with all due respect to them,
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  and I respect the fact that they want to be out there fishing,
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  it can put the fish down running and cunning. It's
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  better if you just, you know, get to the fish
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  slowly and. And. And kind of
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  study the area. You're fishing really methodically, so you can
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  get to a group of albies and. And have them stay
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  up. You know, you might not be the first one there,
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  but, you know, you'll. You're gonna. You'll get your
• 7:37
  shots, and if you don't run and gun, you have
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  a better chance of them staying up, you know, feeding,
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  feeding nicely on the bait, and it'll
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  give you a chance to get to them without having to
• 7:49
  really rush your cast, so to speak.
• 7:51
  Marvin Cash: Ah, got it. And, you know, folks, we love questions at the articulate
• 7:54
  fly. You can email me or dm me on social media.
• 7:57
  And actually, if you go to, uh, my Instagram profile, I
• 8:00
  just added a link where you can actually records your question.
• 8:03
  And we may actually play it, uh, on the
• 8:06
  phishing report. Um, but we love questions. And
• 8:09
  if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag. And
• 8:12
  they're going to enter a drawing for a royal wolf line of your choice.
• 8:14
  And, uh, David, before I let you go, you want to let folks
• 8:17
  know, uh, where they can catch up with you if they want to get on your boat.
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  Or you may. I can't remember if you've got any open
• 8:23
  slots in any of your trips, uh, kind of this late fall
• 8:26
  winter, but let folks know about those, too.
• 8:28
  David Blinken: I have one open slot for a Mexico trip
• 8:31
  leaving on November 9 for Tarpon. It's a four
• 8:34
  day tarpon trip in compee, and it's a
• 8:37
  great time here to go. We start seeing slightly larger
• 8:40
  fish. Then, um, and people can reach me. They
• 8:43
  could just go to my website at david
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  blanket.com, and, uh, my phone
• 8:48
  number will be there. Or they could just email me at david
• 8:51
  blanketmail.com dot. And,
• 8:54
  uh, and, you know, we can. We'll try to slip
• 8:57
  you in, and, uh,
• 8:59
  that's the easiest way to, uh, get in touch with me.
• 9:02
  Marvin Cash: Yeah. And then, you know, for folks that don't know, you're an Eagles fan, so
• 9:05
  who knew?
• 9:08
  David Blinken: Don't care. For us giants
• 9:11
  fans take homage to that.
• 9:13
  Marvin Cash: Yeah.
• 9:15
  David Blinken: I don't know. Might have to. Might have to come down there and make fun of
• 9:18
  your panthers.
• 9:19
  Marvin Cash: Oh, well, I'm not a Panthers fan. I never have been.
• 9:22
  Uh, but the, uh. That's a topic for the next
• 9:25
  time. Time. Uh, but, folks, as I always
• 9:28
  say, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight
• 9:31
  lines, everybody. Tight lines.
• 9:32
  David Blinken: David, tight lines. Marvin.