One thing I want to do before I depart this mortal coil.
Lowcountry Reds from Neill on Vimeo.
Fishing the Salt Marshes around Charleston, SC on a warm January weekend.
One thing I want to do before I depart this mortal coil.
Lowcountry Reds from Neill on Vimeo.
Fishing the Salt Marshes around Charleston, SC on a warm January weekend.
Finding an accurate hook size chart has been difficult, many are wildly inaccurate, even from reputable manufacturers – but at last I found one.
I have just uploaded a PDF document of Tiemco fly and salt water hooks. The sizes appear to be fairly accurate, but only if you print the chart at 100%. Sizes on your screen are not accurate as they are distorted by the pixel setting your screen uses.
The hook styles and shapes do not cover all hooks, but all the basics are there, so it is an excellent overall guide.
For full run-down of hook information see this.
Saltwater fly-fishing gets a lot of press. An exciting branch of our sport it is too. Marlin on a fly rod - tuna, sharks and yellowtail kingfish too. But maybe all these stories of going toe to toe with big game fish on the specialist gear required, rather than encouraging people into this sport, has actually discouraged them?
This may be especially true when many articles talk about complicated leader set-ups and the like. Most of this stuff is about complying with the rules to register record fish. If you are not chasing records, or fishing in a contest, none of these rules apply.
Here is some good news – just as in all other aspects of fishing – there are horses for courses. Fact is the majority of fishermen have never, and may never, go fishing for big-game fish, whether with big-game fishing gear or on a fly rod.
In fact it is highly likely that the majority of big-game fishermen have never and will never chase big-game fish with a fly rod. Fishing for big-game fish with a fly rod is a specialised branch of a sport that is already specialised.
Salt water fly-fishing is not necessarily about catching big-game fish on fly rods: for most, it is about catching exciting fish like kahawai, trevally, snapper and smaller yellowtail kingfish on fly rods.
Here is some even better news – the gear for catching these exciting fish can be the same gear that you could use to catch trout as well.
Here is what you need to chase snapper, kahawai, small kingfish, trevally, and the like in salt water.