The Blitz – Fly Fishing Blogs

It’s been about four months since Cheeky sent me a Sighter 350 to test out. When it arrived, I paired it with my 10’6” three weight and got ready to put it to work in a range of scenarios across my home state of Pennsylvania.... read the full review by two-time world youth medalist and former captain of the U.S. Youth Fly Fishing Team, Mike Komara.

Over the years fly fishing for musky has gained a ton of popularity, as these toothy predators have slowly garnered the imagination and attention of thrill seekers looking to throw giant flies in hopes of hooking the fish of a lifetime. You also don't have to travel half way around the globe to catch one.

If there’s one tip you glean from this article, I hope it’s this: strip-set, and strip-set hard! Lifting your rod, as you would for trout, won’t work here. Instead, grab the line with your stripping hand, and pull it towards, then past, your body in a fast, smooth motion with considerable power. Snakehead have hard, bony mouths, which don’t pair well with half-assed hooksets. If you think the first attempt might not have done the trick, do it again, and again if needed. Hell, I’ll strip-set multiple times on the same fish to ensure I’m in the money. Better safe than sorry.

I’ve gotten to know the folks at Cheeky over the past few years.  In addition to being a member of the Thomas and Thomas Ambassador program, I’m a biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.   Recently, I was discussing some recent field work with Peter Vandergrift of Cheeky and he asked I share what it is we do on Resource Assessment and why.

So enough of taking that same shot.... Instead I think I’ll try asking one of the greatest fly fishing photographers of all time how he’s able to get fabulous photos like this!  

Team Cheeky Fishes the Great North Woods

 Team Cheeky takes a few days off for a team retreat in the Maine woods and were treated with heavy rains and a shower of fish. As we prepared for our annual team retreat, the only person who really knew what to expect was founder and CEO Ted Upton who has fished the Magalloway River for most of his life. Thank you to Wendy and Mike of Bosebuck camps for being such wonderful hosts.

“How can we catch two dozen species in a weekend?” This message from my teammate, Beck, popped into my inbox a few weeks before we headed to Maine for the Oxbow Brewing All Species Tournament. The Tournament offers prizes, including Cheeky reels to anglers catching the most species and the largest of a few key fish types.

False Albacore, aka Little Tunny, Fat Albert, Tuna Mac or just simply knuckle busters are tons of fun from Florida to Maine. But, currently, they are an unmanaged species giving them little to no protection from over harvesting. Luckily, good management and good science are on the horizon, thanks to the American Saltwater Guides Association (ASGA). Team Cheeky sat down with ASGA VP and Policy Director, Tony Friedrich recently, to talk about their exciting False Albacore tagging project, which Cheeky is sponsoring, and to find out what anglers can do to help.

 

They swim shallow, are hard to feed a fly, are hardy in warm water, and are beautiful in their own right. You don’t like them? Great. More flats for me! I have fished carp for three decades and have caught them from West Coast to East Coast and even a few in Europe where they have quite a different reputation.

Since the company first proposed this mine, Montana Trout Unlimited along with partners (Trout Unlimited, EarthWorks, MEIC, American Rivers and EarthJustice) have been battling to protect the Smith from the risks of the mine. After the state’s mine permitting agency, the Department of Environmental Quality, permitted the Black Butte Copper Mine, failing to heed the comments of more than 12,000 Montanans opposing this mine, as well as the extensive independent research that we provided that shows the risks this mine poses to the river and fishery, MTU and partners filed a lawsuit in the Meagher County District Court challenging the mine permit.

One of the redeemable qualities about striped bass is that, when they are plentiful, these fish are incredibly accessible.  We fish for them on foot in downtown Boston, from quiet beaches in Rhode Island, in the brackish water of the Chesapeake Bay, and by boat all the way from North Carolina to Maine.  In fact, data from 2017 shows that almost 18 million angler fishing trips were taken in pursuit of stripers.