The Net’s Most Wanteds

Most fly fishermen get started fishing freshwater and many never give saltwater a shot. Saltwater fly fishing is growing increasingly popular and is one of the most exciting types of fishing that one can engage in. One of the reasons that I like fly fishing saltwater is that lots of the time you never know what you are going to catch. When fishing a freshwater trout stream, you pretty well know what you will be hooking into. In the ocean, anything can happen.

Many species of saltwater fish can successfully be pursued on fly rod, from marlin to redfish to shark. Lots of the time one will be fishing a flashy streamer fly that imitates a swimming baitfish. To cast such a large streamer and to handle such large feisty fish one will need a heavy rod (9 weight or higher), a reel with really smooth drag, lots of backing and sinking fly line.

If you are used to freshwater fly fishing then be ready for the fight of your life when you head out to saltwater for the first time. I remember my first ever saltwater fly fishing experience in Cabo San Lucas. I paid a local $25 to take me out for a little while in his ratty little charter boat. A while later I hooked into the fish of my life. I was stripping in my streamer and felt a huge tug. Then this whale of a fish just took off. Seriously, it was like my rod was on fire! It was a monster dorado, probably about four and a half feet long. The fish jumped out of the water ferociously and took out tons of line. After an extremely long and tiring battle I finally got the enormous fish right next to the boat. The guide who took me out on the boat reached down to grab the fish but he broke it off. I was heartbroken at first, but in hindsight I am glad it happened. There is no way that that poor Mexican man would have let me release a fish like that, and I am glad that the fish got to live to swim another day. I sure wouldn’t have minded some sweet fishing pictures of that monster dorado, however.