Albie Video

You can buy fly rods, reels, fly line, flies and all that stuff. But, you can’t buy good friends. And when it comes to fly fishing for Tunoids, my network of friends is my most valuable asset. There is a relatively small and easy to miss sub-culture of saltwater fly fisherman on the Northeast coast. At first glance they look like the typical northeast saltwater fly fisherman, targeting Stripers and Bluefish. But, look closer on any break wall or random Jetty or beach and you will see the difference. Or, more likely, you won’t see these guys at all. These guys are looking for Albies, Bonito or anything in the Tuna family for that matter. They don’t want to catch the blitzing Stripers and certainly don’t want to cast to the troublesome Bluefish and risk losing their precious Albie flies. Don’t get me wrong, when targeting the Bluefish and Stripers in the early part of the season they have a blast casting to and catching them. But, by the time the Bonito and Albies arrive in early August these guys have had their fill of Stripers and Bluefish. When it comes to fly fishing for Albies and Bonito there is an unspoken but common understanding. It goes something like this. “An Albie from boat is just another Albie, But one Albie from shore is better than every Albie from a boat.” In fact, many of these guys consider fly fishing for Albies from a boat as “cheating”. When it comes to targeting Tunoids with the fly rod, yesterday’s news is old news. The hard-tales move and travel so fast that they make your head spin. One minute you are casting to a pod of fish and 10 minutes later that same pod of fish is 5 miles away. They are impossible fish to pattern. You can not count on them to do anything other than mess with your mind. They are infamous for spitting in the face of the best theories and analysis, breaking spirits and sending many of fly fisherman back to the easier to catch pods of Stripers and Bluefish. But the true Albie fly fishermen are not a fair-weather bunch. They put in their time, a lot of time, and they know that waiting is a huge part of the game. They willingly forgo Striper and Bluefish blitzes and stand with fly rod in hand looking and analyzing the water and trying to see the slightest hints of Albies in the mix or on the horizon. They are always watching and looking and analyzing from a 360 degree perspective. And, there is one thing that every Albie fly fisherman values. Information is gold. In order for an Albie fly fisherman to be truly efficient and effective he has to have access to credible, reliable and well rounded information. Fly shop reports and internet reports are typically outdated before they are even found. And, many times the information is bogus and purposfully posted as such in order to re-direct internet crowds from the true hot spots. I learned through experience that the only good information is first hand information and that has to come from fly fisherman I trust. So, during the Tunoid season, my cell phone is always burning up minutes with my Albie buddies either looking for or giving me information. It is without a doubt a give and take relationship and if someone were to abuse the information relationship that would not be good. My friends pound the water and they give me solid information and I return the favor. We all work together and monitor the waters of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and all of the rips and islands in between. My Albie network is priceless to me and working with these guys and trying to find the fish via information sharing is part of the fun. We all spend hours researching and chatting and culling through good and bad reports and sharing the good information as well as the bad information and often we get skunked but when we don’t it is a great feeling. Mark is one of my valued Albie fly fishing buddies. There are many others and I certainly don’t want to disrespect them (dan, greg snow, mark and his crew, mike etc…) but for simplicity sake I will use Mark to represent them all. Mark lives in Rhode Island and he is as hardcore of a fisherman as they come. He has been fly fishing for Albies for many years and he is a well known face on every Rhode Island break wall, beach and lighthouse. The funny thing is that I rarely see Mark in person. The majority of our time is spent on cell phones. I call him or he calls me and we exchange information. He fishes every weekday morning and every weekend. Whenever he is not working, he is fishing. That is more or less the Rhode Island way of life. Work, is just a means to an end. He is connected to the pulse of the Albie and Bonito scene and his Network of information is huge. He knows my calling schedule, what I am calling for and he can probably guess exactly when his cell phone will wring, on which days I will call and what I will say. It typically goes something like this, “Yo. Anything?” His response is, more often than not, “Nothing.” Or, “Just a few fish. Up then down.” I then go down to Rhode Island for a few days and my cell rings and it is Mark. He says, “Yo. Anything?” More often than not I reply, “Just Bluefish and Bass. Thought I saw a few fish but can’t say for sure.” This type of usually disappointing, no-fluff information transfer continues throughout the Tunoid season. Then it finally happens, and this year it went down like this. I was on Martha’s Vineyard singing the blues with every other pour Albie Soul on the Island. Not an Albie or Bonito in sight and terrible to say the least. I was standing at the Gut and the call came through from Mark. “Yo, it’s on. Lot’s of fish.” Coming from Mark, this was earth shattering information. Mark never inflates reports or conditions and for him to say it’s good, really means that it is epic. So, based solely on Mark’s information, I decided to pull the plug on the Vineyard. Cancel hotel, put car on Ferry and spend money on gas and whatnot to Get from Cape Cod to Rhode Island. The decision paid off and I had the best 2 days of my life, fly fishing for Albies on foot. Mark and Dan were there, which made the experience even better. The tide, the wind and the bait came together perfectly and I was there to fish with Mark on an Albie day like no other. At one point in the day, we had 2 solid hours of casting at greedy Albies feeding at our feet. This day would not have been possible without Mark. So this fish-tale serves as a tribute to everyone in my Albie network and especially Mark. If not for Mark, I would never have been at the right place at the right time this year. And, wouldn’t ya know it, after 2 epic days it all went to hell. The wind kicked up, the water got dirty and the seas got big. That’s the game. You’re either in the right place at the right time or not. Thank you, Mark.