Every fishing trip should have a Plan C. On the 3rd Annual Boating/Orvis/Flies and Fins Bluefin Tuna Trip, ours saved the day. What has become one of my favorite trips of the year started three seasons ago when Jeremy and I exchanged emails about trying to catch bluefin tuna on fly. My brother and I trailered a boat up to Rhode Island to meet Jeremy, who had done all the advance scouting. He also recruitedTom Rosenbauer of Orvis to join us along with Mike Warecke, a fly guide out of Connecticut who’s dialed in to the tuna game. That year we struck gold. Longtime Flies and Fins readers will remember Jeremy’s awesome footage.This year the fleet expanded to three boats as Alex from Argentina, RhodieFlyGuy (Matt), and Enrico Puglisi joined in. We tried to time it to when the school bluefin might show up. They never did. But Jeremy, Tom, Alex, and Rhodie had done some scouting and were on the trail of some erratic bonito. They’d bagged one or two prior to the trip and it seemed like the boneheads would go off. They became plan A.My brother and I took a four hour boat ride from New York City to meet up with the crew chasing bonito around Block Island. We immediately ran into a pod of bonito just out of casting range of our boat. Of course, they went down before we could cast. That was the last good shot we had that day. As the afternoon sun started to wind down, we motored over to a rip with stripers busting on the surface during the outgoing tide. They crushed our flies. We left happy.The next day, we turned to blue sharks as Plan B. Jeremy and Capt. Mike had hooked up with them the day before by setting up chum slicks about six miles off Block Island. But to get to the shark grounds we had to suffer through 4-6 foot seas. We set up a slick offshore trying to lure in sharks to battle them on 12-weight fly rods. But the water was too cold and the sharks had skipped town. Then Rhodie’s boat broke down and we had to tow him in.Down to two boats, we chased the bonito around some more. Jeremy found a pod on the mainland of Rhode Island and hooked into one. We rushed over to get in on the action but so did a few other boats. Two clowns on one boat decided to troll through the pod with their fly rods, effectively shutting it down. If I had a gun I might be in jail right now.Thankfully, we had Plan C. We made it back to the same rip and watched as the stripers came up to eat on the surface as the tide started moving. Enrico generously divided his entire bag of flies between the two boats. We dialed it in. We’d useblack and purple peanut butter flies on sinking line and get a strike on almost every cast. Tom wanted to get surface takes so Enrico gave him an EP Floating Minnow he trimmed to match the hatch. Tom cast it, gave it one twitch, and let it sit on the surface like an injured baitfish. WHAM! The stripers murdered it. From that point on we took turns catching stripers until our arms hurt, one guy fishing deep and the other on the surface. We had double hook-ups going until dusk.And really, at the end of the day, with Alex cooking Argentine-style steaks on the grill and wine and beer going down too easily, and fishing stories going back and forth, all that everyone remembered was that we had a hell of a time fishing together. The bluefin tuna never showed, the sharks made a fleeting appearance, the bonito teased the hell out of us, but the stripers saved the day. Thank God for Plan C.
Sounds like it was a great time! Never been out in the salt flyfishing Some day though I want to get out there and try it.
Pete – Not much to say other than WHAT A TRIP! Our 3rd annual “Bluefin Tuna Trip” – and every year they get better and better and the crew seams to expand and get more fun every year! This trip has become my most favorite fly fishing trip that I look forward to every year. Sure it was great 3 years ago when the Bluefin Tuna showed in epic numbers – but what we don’t catch in Bluefin we make up for in FUN, adventure (broken bots etc..), laughter and better food and wine! The crew this year was just awesome! Thanks to Enrico for all the flies, Rhody for joining in with his boat, Tom for bringing all the Orvis Equipment, Captain Mike for the boat and his knowledge of fishing for sharks on the fly, Alex for cooking piles of steak Argentine style for all of us, your brother for bringing his passion for fly fishing and YOU for bringing the Boating Magazine boat and adding to the fun and excitement of the entire trip. Ok .. I am going to watch the video again and get ready to start planning for the “2009 4th Annual Bluefin Tuna Trip” .. Thanks everyone for great times and great memories .. (and for the massive PILE of EP flies that Enrico gave me)! It was my pleasure and honor to fly fish with such great fisherman and great guys – look forward to many more great year of fly fishing with you guys!
Great read and sweet vid. Looks like a wild trip. Everything under the sun eating you “FLY”
AWESOME story!! I gotta get try that sometime!! The sharks look like a helluva lot of fun, but to be honest I think I want to catch some tuna on the fly worse! (I have a weak spot for hardtails!) I would say plan C def. worked out.
By the looks of the video you found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
great story, got me all psyched about the coming season. can’t wait to chase the hardtails again. like in your story, though you need alternatives since the hard tails don’t show a lot more than they do as you know. good stuff!
pete
Great Story, I can`t imagine fly fishing and catching fish after fish till my arms hurt, but I can imagine its probably one of those rewarding soreness the day after, never really had the opportuntiy to go out into the sea and cast out from a boat, but by watching the vid it looks like one heck of a trip. What if Plan C failed to produce was there a Plan D ?
A trip to the package store?
I’m guessing if it got to Plan D stage Jeremy would have called all 1,742 contacts in his fishing rolodex until we found something.
great read and excellent video. really got ma amped up for RI this spring…loved the hookset at 3:53.
Super video!! and I love the click on the underlined names thing you have going on. It really gets you involved in the story and video. I like to do my clicking first and know who every one is and then watch the video, this way you no who’s, who in the Zoo!
Very racy fish porn!!
Wow, what an amazing trip we all had and it was a pleasure to meet and fish with the crew. The video is intense and brings back such incredible memories of open water and blues skies and big sharks…. I love the ending of the sound of the buey… intense…and just a beautiful song to go with it…Jer, l miss the weapon…
Hey Jeremy,
Some people want to know, is that song a Jeremy Cameron original? Can you download it?
Ya man — “Fly” in the music section.