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

• 0:03
  Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,
• 0:06
  Marvin: and we're back with another On the Salt with Captain David Blinken. David, how are you?
• 0:11
  David: I'm great, Marvin. Missed your company the past few weeks.
• 0:15
  Marvin: Yeah, it's kind of funny. It's been a month since we last spoke,
• 0:18
  Marvin: and I've been traveling all over the place.
• 0:20
  Marvin: I've been up in Virginia with family for the fourth.
• 0:23
  Marvin: I was in an OWA event, and i was at icast last week but i think the last time
• 0:27
  Marvin: we spoke you were getting ready to head up to martha's vineyard for the holiday weekend.
• 0:32
  David: Yeah i headed up there um was up there with my wife and my best buddy and and
• 0:40
  David: uh we had some some great great cooking some good wine,
• 0:44
  David: and uh every morning i was uh taking walks along a flat there in martha's vineyard
• 0:50
  David: and having some fun with some old friends called Striped Bass,
• 0:53
  David: which we don't seem to have very many of them left here in Long Island.
• 0:59
  Marvin: You were telling me that it's been since the end of June that you had a client
• 1:04
  Marvin: on your boat catch a striper on the flats?
• 1:09
  David: Yeah. I mean, it was the very end of June before I headed to the vineyard and
• 1:12
  David: had a client out, got a really nice one, got a 30-inch plus a striper and about a foot of water.
• 1:19
  David: It was quite exciting. We got to see quite a lot of backing get peeled off the reel.
• 1:24
  David: But otherwise, we've seen a few bass since then in shallow water.
• 1:30
  David: But, you know, as we all know in fly fishing, especially in saltwater,
• 1:34
  David: it's kind of the law of averages.
• 1:36
  David: And if you don't get a few shots a day, you know, it's really,
• 1:40
  David: really hard to hook up a fish.
• 1:42
  David: And when you're only seeing three, four fish a day in shallow water and you
• 1:48
  David: don't know what direction they're coming from, it's kind of hard to,
• 1:51
  David: it's kind of hard to, you know, you know, get them to, to eat,
• 1:55
  David: you know, or get, or let alone get a cast to them.
• 1:58
  Marvin: Yeah. And so have you been chasing other species on the flats or have you had
• 2:03
  Marvin: to kind of go a little bit more offshore to get what you're looking for?
• 2:07
  David: I'm going a little more afield. We've been having a lot of fun with bluefish,
• 2:12
  David: and there's been some rather large ones.
• 2:15
  David: I've been having days where we're catching blues from 30 inches to 36 inches,
• 2:21
  David: and it's about all a 10-weight can handle.
• 2:26
  David: Bluefish are really tenacious fighters.
• 2:28
  Marvin: Yeah, you got to tell the client to hold on to the rod, right?
• 2:31
  David: Oh, definitely. Hang on tight. and we've mostly been using small poppers and
• 2:37
  David: gurglers which is a huge amount of fun. It's...
• 2:41
  David: You know, nothing strikes it quite as viciously as a bluefish on top water. It's really fun.
• 2:46
  Marvin: Got it. And so are they busting bait or are they being just attracted to the,
• 2:51
  Marvin: to the gurgler or the popper?
• 2:53
  David: They're, they're being attracted. And in fact, um, we're finding,
• 2:56
  David: you know, these big, huge groups of laid up bluefish and you just see them kind
• 3:01
  David: of finning with their, with their dorsals and tails out of the water,
• 3:04
  David: swimming along or just kind of huddled up.
• 3:06
  David: And, you know, you just kind of throw a fly right along the edge of them and
• 3:11
  David: you just start pulling it and, uh, and don't just come up behind it and smack it.
• 3:16
  David: And, uh, uh, today with a client, he just flopped a fly in the middle of him.
• 3:21
  David: He didn't even get the first strip and a bluefish came up and hammered it. It was, it was great fun.
• 3:25
  Marvin: Yeah, that's pretty neat. And got an interesting question for you.
• 3:28
  Marvin: It seems to be kind of the time of year, you know, if you're a freshwater guy,
• 3:31
  Marvin: you know, it's so hot, people are really concerned. But Brenner wanted to get
• 3:35
  Marvin: your thoughts on tips for fighting and handling fish to keep them healthy once you release them.
• 3:42
  David: Well, that's a great question. Let's start with the hook.
• 3:47
  David: If you really want to handle your fish well, and if you want to make it easy
• 3:53
  David: on the fish, let's all fish barbless.
• 3:56
  David: That's that first and foremost. Yeah, you might lose the occasional fish,
• 4:01
  David: but if you're maintaining pressure when you're reeling the fish in,
• 4:04
  David: I think you won't lose too many fish.
• 4:07
  David: So barbless is so important because when it comes time to release the fish,
• 4:11
  David: the hook just slides right out.
• 4:13
  David: So that's the first thing. The second thing is try to catch a fish with as heavy a line as possible.
• 4:21
  David: The reason why is the sooner you get the fish in, the sooner you can release
• 4:26
  David: it and the happier the fish is.
• 4:29
  David: And when you're releasing your fish, try to release your fish while they're
• 4:33
  David: in the water. And having a barbless hook certainly makes it easier to do that.
• 4:38
  David: If you have a barb in the hook, then you've got to remove the fish from the
• 4:41
  David: water. You've got to handle it a lot.
• 4:44
  David: And that taking the fish out of the water is never that good for the fish.
• 4:51
  David: So barbless hook, as heavy a line as possible, as heavy a rod as possible if you want to do that.
• 4:58
  David: Who wants to catch a 20-pound bluefish on an 8-weight? That's just no fun because
• 5:03
  David: then you have to baby the rod so you don't break it.
• 5:06
  David: So if you're going for bluefish that you know are going to be 10 pounds and up, use a 10-weight.
• 5:13
  David: Use a 10 weight use 25 or 30
• 5:16
  David: pound test because they don't really they're not that they're not
• 5:19
  David: leader shy at all get that fish in quick use a
• 5:23
  David: barbless hook or popper and um and
• 5:26
  David: release that fish from the water if you can uh there's
• 5:29
  David: these uh great little tools that you
• 5:33
  David: can use that uh you just slide the tool right
• 5:36
  David: down the hook and you give it a little twist and out it comes and you're not
• 5:38
  David: endangering your hand with a fish like a bluefish and if it's a striper you
• 5:42
  David: can just keep them under the water uh you know put their thumb on the lower
• 5:46
  David: jaw keep them in the water slide the hook out and just let them swim off and
• 5:50
  David: you know there's so many different fish you can do that with yeah.
• 5:54
  Marvin: And i was going to say too you know even though you may lose a few fish on barbless
• 5:57
  Marvin: you get more hookups because you don't have to pull and set the hook hard enough
• 6:01
  Marvin: to get the the barb to push through right.
• 6:03
  David: It's very true uh as long as you maintain a really sharp point on your fly you're
• 6:09
  David: going to get you're going to get much,
• 6:12
  David: you're going to get penetration much more effectively because it doesn't have to go over that bump.
• 6:18
  David: And so that's a very true statement.
• 6:22
  David: And so you do get a lot more, you get easier hookups, certainly with barbless hooks.
• 6:28
  Marvin: Yeah. And where you are, do you have to worry about sharks chasing things down
• 6:33
  Marvin: like you would say in the Bahamas, where, you know, if you see a shark,
• 6:36
  Marvin: you got to break the fish off?
• 6:38
  David: Very very occasionally what i actually have
• 6:41
  David: to worry about are these big gray seals and every
• 6:44
  David: so often they get a little bit uh they get a little bit crazy and you'll be
• 6:47
  David: reeling in a large bluefish and the fish is between you and the beach occasionally
• 6:52
  David: gray seal seal will come along and just grab your fish and just swim off with
• 6:57
  David: it um and uh we've learned just to instead of breaking
• 7:03
  David: breaking the fish off or breaking the fly off and stuff we've learned to let
• 7:08
  David: the gray seals just eat the fish and then when they're done eating the fish
• 7:12
  David: they uh they spit out the head and you get your fly or your lure back if you're spin fishing,
• 7:20
  David: and and over comes a nice head of whatever fish you just caught but at least
• 7:26
  David: you get your tackle back um it doesn't happen that often but on occasion when
• 7:30
  David: it does happen you just have to to kind of,
• 7:33
  David: you know, kind of go with the flow, so to speak.
• 7:36
  Marvin: Yeah. And, you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.
• 7:39
  Marvin: You can email me or DM me on social media, try to make David's life easier, as I always say.
• 7:44
  Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag,
• 7:47
  Marvin: and we're going to enter a drawing for the Royal Wolf line of your choice.
• 7:51
  Marvin: And I think if you go back and listen to the last report, David and I tell you
• 7:55
  Marvin: guys how much we like fishing with Royal Wolf lines.
• 7:58
  Marvin: And, you know, David, the next time we talk, you're actually going to be in
• 8:01
  Marvin: Campeche, Mexico. We're going to try to make that work for everybody, right?
• 8:05
  David: I am. I'm going to be in Campeche, Mexico, and I'll be there with Steve Ramirez,
• 8:09
  David: who was one of your guests recently.
• 8:11
  David: And maybe I'll bring Steve in on the call with us.
• 8:14
  Marvin: Yeah, we'll see how good the internet is down in Mexico. And it's interesting, folks.
• 8:19
  Marvin: We just released that interview with Steve. It's my second one that I've done
• 8:23
  Marvin: with him about a week ago.
• 8:24
  Marvin: You should check it out. We really spent about an hour just talking about lessons
• 8:28
  Marvin: from the river or the ocean too.
• 8:31
  Marvin: But I always love my conversations with Steve, and I hope you enjoyed that one.
• 8:35
  Marvin: So you ought to check it out.
• 8:37
  David: Yeah, it's a really good one. I got to go back and listen to it again.
• 8:42
  Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, I wish you safe travels. You know, I'm just,
• 8:46
  Marvin: I knock on wood, I got home on Friday with the computer bug.
• 8:49
  Marvin: So hopefully everything goes smoothly for you and Steve down in Mexico,
• 8:53
  Marvin: and we'll be able to have that call.
• 8:54
  Marvin: And, you know, folks, as I always say, you owe it yourself to get out there and catch a few.
• 8:58
  Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, David.
• 9:01
  David: Tight lines.