Hush, Hush: It’s A Small Fly Fishing World!

by | Salt Water

Albie Video

The world of fly fishing is very small. Last season, I was fly fishing for albies in Rhode Island with my friends Boz and Alex when Ryan showed up on the scene with fly rod in hand. Both Alex and Boz almost simultaneously said, “Hey Ryan, What’s up man?’ I was too amped up on the albies at the moment to pay much attention, but later came to realize that Both Alex and Boz knew Ryan from separate encounters. Boz had guided Ryan and his wife on a whitewater rafting trip in Maine and Alex had met Ryan several years ago while fly fishing for Salmon. Since that time, I kept crossing paths with Ryan online and on the water. I would see an article on some fly fishing website or in some magazine about Ryan Sansoucie and his “Hush Fly Fishing Company“and the stuff he does and then the next day we would pass each other on the flats or on the reefs. I knew that Ryan does a bit of a different gig than most guides in Rhode Island and that interested me. Ryan poles the many beautiful flats of Rhode Island in his flats boat sight casting to big and sometimes frustratingly tough to catch stripers. So, I was looking forward to having Ryan sight some fish for me and pole me along some of the flats where the Stripers had refused everything I had thrown at them. I had spent many days this season wading crystal clear flats and sight casting to big stripers, only to have them refuse everything in my box. I was dumb founded as to what I was doing wrong. Was it my fly, presentation or what? Either way, I was hoping that Ryan might be the answer to helping me seal the deal with one of these elusive, big and spooky stripers on the flats. In the past several years, I have acquired my own theory about flats fishing for any species. It may be wrong, but it’s what I believe. It goes something like this, “it’s not necessarily the species that are “tricky” it’s the environment.” I came to this personal realization when I noticed how species such as permit are “easy” to catch when they are off the flats. In fact they will take “almost anything” when they are in deeper water and not on the flats. But, they get on the flats and they are super spooky and certainly not “easy”. The same is true for Stripers. When stripers are eating in the deeper water off of the flats they can be relatively “easy” to catch. However, when a solo 40-50 inch striper is feeding in very shallow and crystal clear water it can be a very different experience. The stripers on the flats tend to be very spooky and often very picky. If they are feeding on micro baitfish and you are throwing a crab pattern, well … good luck. So anyway, I was looking forward to a flats fly fishing experience with Ryan but then the Albies showed up, big time. We decided to fly fish for Albies in the morning and pole the flats for stripers in the late morning when the tide was best and the sun was high. But, the Albie fishing was just too good and before we knew it the wind kicked up, the weather took a turn for the worse and we were still chasing Albies. I suppose their could be bigger problems, much bigger. So, I still am looking forward to fly fishing the flats with Ryan and hopefully sealing the deal with the big flats striper that has eluded me this season. The season ain’t over yet.

11 Comments

  1. alex on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    hey bro great video and music as always
    I love those fish… Alex

  2. jeremy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    yo alex … make it back to argentina safe and sound? … hope all is well, had a blast this season fly fishing the albies and bonito with you and ed .. already counting the days till you come back to usa next year … i am working on our hard tail video, we saw some amazing stuff out there (mega pods) and had an epic season … it will pop up on fliesandfins pretty soon, don’t worry! i know you love the hard tales as much as me …. and hopefully the video i am putting together will keep ya connected while in argentina … keep an eye peeled .. .. meanwhile i expect to see some of the big rainbows, browns and brookies coming from argentina this season … good luck down there … cya.

  3. waterwhippa on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Heaven is right…those fish are magical. Something about those hard tails that just gets in your head. Excellent guys!

  4. Austin on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    What great fish…. i loved how you captured the other boat hooking into fish as well! no other fish can make us do the things that that they make us do…..countless trips, sleepless nights, broken rods, bloody legs, tons of money spent on gas, food, etc…..cheers to such a great year in the salt. Awsome video!

  5. rhodyflyguy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Sick video, as usual. jeremy, you’re right, the season isn’t over, for bass or for albies.

  6. joey on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Cool stuff jbone. I always liked that tune. I remeber picking that in the “shack” Good times. Keep crushing the blues and get ready for the chrome. Think about western chrome in the new year,

  7. joe-m on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Can’t wait for the hard tails to get here in so fla. Should be real soon
    Nice Video as always.
    Hope to see all of you in steel country.
    Joe-m

  8. jeremy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    get your gear ready .. they are headin’ your way … nc already gettin a big push of ’em .. will be in naples in no time:) .. call me when they show … i’ll pay for gas! … i know they come very close to the beach down there, and if i recall correctly you have landed a couple and you and headrush chased them around on the beach off your house one day… would love to do that when they show up in those inshore waters this year ….. see ya soon

  9. Shaq on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Great Stuff! I can’t wait to be walking through the snowy woods in NY and see Jeremy coming at me. Always good to connect with friends especially when it’s random.

  10. Shaq on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Great footage by the way, looks like fun!

  11. jeremy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    ya, it’s bound to happen … you know there is an old saying … there are only 2 things for certain in life .. “death and taxes.” … for me there are 3 “death, taxes and when the seelhead arrive every year i will be somewhere around the great lakes and most likely NY” … i am sure that as always, we will cross paths … i will be sure to step back from your spey cast this year, so that my hat doesn’t go flying in the water 🙂 …. that was hilarious … i learned my lesson, don’t stand directly behind a guy who is demonstrating a spey cast for you …