My go to flies part 1 - mackerel flies

I had to set my beer down while I took the picture and it looked good in the shot so I left it. Help me name this fly.

I have decided that since I have this avenue to share information I am going to let you in on a few of my favorite flies. I will try and do this over the next week or so, but I will start with a mackerel fly since it’s winter and the mackerel are swarming the beaches right now. Let me start by saying that mackerel will eat any fly if it is stripped fast enough, but there are a few elements to a mackerel fly that are essential to optimizing your time chasing them. First they must be durable those critters have the nastiest teeth around. Secondly, it must have some flash, they are like women they love shinny things. The last thing to consider is weight, now I love catching these guys on crease flies, but the reality of it is, if the fly is down you will get more strikes. My last bit of advice is, keep it simple, you will go through loads of these flies in a day. Remember on a good day you will hook over a 100 fish. Even if it is durable it will still only last for 15 or so fish. So here is how I incorporated these elements into my fly design, sorry I have not named it. First the fly is tied with a super hair tail and it is tied halfway back on the hook shank, this allows me to use lighter leaders, 50 to 60 pound, without getting bit off. The super hair is very durable against their sharp teeth and comes in a variety of colors, I like bright colors. This ties into my next element, they like bright colors and flash, so I use a product from Orvis called Holographic & Tri-Lobal Hackle. This is the same as a longer Estaz or ice chenille, and I palmer the body of the fly and trim it to my desired length. You could use a shorter Estaz and I don’t think it would matter, just keep it bright. The last element I factor in is weight, I tie on dumbbell eyes and I use a clear intermediate line. Be creative and design your own simple, bright, durable mackerel fly, they are the most fun you can have while keeping your flip flops on.

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Holy Mackerel

I bet who ever coined the term "Holy Mackerel!" was fishing in Stuart, Florida during the winter. You see every winter spanish mackerel move into an area on our beaches that is known as Peck's Lake, or just simply the mackerel hole. I have been told that this is the largest concentration of spanish mackerel in the country, and since I have been fishing the hole for over 20 years I personally would agree. Now this is no secret among locals, you will be fishing among hundreds of boats, some trolling (who knows why?), some throwing jigs, some flyfishing, and even plenty of commercial boats throwing cast nets on them. Yes, that is how many mackerel are there. It is not uncommon to catch over a hundred fish on flies or jigs in a single morning, and the commercial guys may pull in 1500lbs. a day on a good day. Now to some of you reading this it may not seem like fun being surrounded by boats catching mackerel, but anyone who has done it will disagree. This morning on my charter I fished with a good client of mine Ken Stockwell and 3 of his friends, all are from Michigan, we needed two boats so I asked my friend Capt. Scott Cormier to help me with the charter. I had Ken and his friend Kirk Squiers on my boat, now Ken has fished the mackerel hole with me in years past and as soon as he knew the ocean was calm today he knew he wanted to head down to the mackerel hole. We had one of those mornings, when I say we hooked them on every cast, I say it without exaggeration. When we were on top of the fish we hooked them on fly and jigs every cast! If you fly fish no matter what level caster you are you owe it to yourself to fish Peck's Lake at least once in your life. I am sorry I do not have any photos to post, but there is no way for me to take pictures while chartering for mackerel. I am too busy landing fish, rigging rods, and cleaning the boat, not to mention that there is no way I am touching my Nikon D300 with mackerel scales all over my hands. I will do my best to head out one day with a friend and just take pictures so you can see for yourself what the mackerel hole is all about. Thanks for reading,
John
http://stuartflyfishing.com/ - fishing
http://pbase.com/stuartflyfishing - photography