Fly Fishing Offshore Series 4 of 4

This last series will consist of a few techniques used when you are fishing offshore. The most popular is probably bait and switch. This is a common technique when trolling for billfish but can be used on other fish. Its a two person technique, angler 1 will cast a piece of bait out to the targeted fish, he'll use the bait to get the fish excited and into a feeding mood. When the fish is about eat the bait, the fly angler will cast the fly towards the fish and drag it in front the fish while at the same time the angler with the bait will pull the bait away from the fish leaving the fish only the fly to eat.

Another option is chumming. Chumming with cut bait around weed beds can be very productive. Some of these weed beds can be huge and fish, especially mahi mahi are attracted to them. They also attract and hold a lot of bait fish which in the end also attracts bigger fish. By chumming around the edges of these weed beds which can be up to a football size of nothing but clumped together floating sargasum will draw any fish out from under the weed bed into casting range of the boat.

Anchoring up and chumming over wrecks and structure can also be very good. By starting a chum line behind the anchored boat the chum drifts over the underwater structure and draws fish up. It is the best way to thoroughly work over a wreck or structure. it seems we have had the best luck on king fish with this technique.

If conditions don't let you anchor the boat up the last technique is  to drift fish. This can be very good around shrimp boats. It is believed that fish will follow shrimp boats for days. So by getting behind a actively trolling shrimp boat and drifting with flies on sinking lines or drifting around an anchored up shrimp boat can be very productive. You can also drift over wrecks and underwater structure. But typically you only get one or two shots at those fish before you have drifted to far from the structure/wreck.