Albacore on NC outer banks

Hi All,

I spent last week on the NC coast fly fishing for "False
Albacore/Bonito/Little Tunny" (
http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=161 ) at Cape Lookout.

We fished out of Harker's Island with a great fly fishing/light tackle
guide, Sarah Gardner, who uses a 21' Jones Brothers (built off the "Sea Ox"
mound) wide center console with a 150hp high pressure injected Yamaha 2
stroke. It was my first time fly fishing the east coast salt water so I
learned a lot. Sarah chases these big schools of albacore that are busting
baitfish on the surface from about mid-October to the end of November in
that area. Most of the rest of the year she guides out of Nags Head, NC. Her
husband Brian Horsley is also a world class fishing guide. They also write
articles and take people on exotic hosted trips like to Costa Rica in the
winter to fly fish for billfish.

http://www.outerbanksflyfishing.com/


We fished almost all day long with the aid of others on the VHF radio and
cell phones too. Sarah uses her fish locator/bottom sounder to find
structure like off shore wrecks and man made reefs. She also uses it to find
schools of bait fish and game fish too. A GPS is also a great tool for
finding previously located structure. We fished as far as 20 miles off shore
and ran as far as 100 miles in a day looking for fish. At times it was like
off shore racing.

I really enjoyed seeing so many fantastic boats. Jones Brothers Boats and
Parker Boats are two very popular fishing boats on the east coast.

This was not a good season so far because it was still too warm, but it was
way better fishing than I have at home. The albacore run 5 to 25 pounds
according to Sarah. We used 9/10 weight rods with full floating weight
forward fly lines most of the time because all the action was on top. We
did use Rio Deep Sea 400 extra fast sinking lines for wreck fishing.

I was invited to go on this trip by my good friend Paul Johnson, marketing
director for Sage Fly Rod Company in Washington state. It is called the
"writer's weekend" because it is a tradition started about 5 or more years
ago by Lefty Kreh, Tom Earnhardt, Jones Brothers Boats and others.

There are parties almost every night.

On Friday night, "Calico Jack's Inn & Marina" on Harker's Island put on a
"boil" which was made up of chunks of corn on the cob, cut up large sausage
and fresh jumbo shrimp plus home made pie and cheese cake. It was a
wonderful evening right on the water and I can't thank them enough.

http://www.visitnc.com/cst/cst_relat...ropertyID=8378

On Saturday night there was a real big outdoor feed at retired attorney,
famous coastal fly fisherman and outdoor writer, Tom Earnhardt's house on
the water. They had roast pig, roast chicken, hush puppies, potato salad,
cole slaw and deserts. Lots of noted fly fishermen, outdoor writers, fly
fishing tackle manufacturers, magazine staff, fly fishing guides, boat
manufacturers and "would be" fly fisherman like me. There were lots of
interesting people like Lefty Kreh, Bruce Richards(3M/SA), Steve
Rajeff(G.Loomis), Raz Reed(Sage Rep), Henry Cowen(GA striper guide) Buz
Bryson (outdoor writer) to mention a few.

For me it was one of my most enjoyable trips and I hope to return some day.

--
Bill Kiene

Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, CA
www.kiene.com