Flyfishing on Billfish by Andrew Ferguson

[Mike Fisher]

Hey Mike,

Jason and I had a blast fishing aboard the Shekinah with Manuel and Catch! Looking forward to coming back to the D.R. and fishing with you in the future! May 5: Both of us hungover and tired so we decided to "take it easy" the first day of fishing due to wind and sea conditions. We boated 2 dolphin fish and 2 albacore in the first 4 hours. We raised 2 white marlin and hooked 1 on a "skipped" ballyhoo! Jason was able to subdue and land the 80lb white in under 20 minutes with a "quick release" completed boatside by mate Catch! Fished for several more hours before calling it due to wind/seas. May 6: With absolute ideal sea conditions we decided to target white marlin with flyfishing tackle. Ran "hookless" teasers of skirted ballyhoo on both flat lines, a daisy chain of squid on center line and pulled the fender teaser off left transom. Raised 4 white marlin throughout the day and Catch successfully "teased" one close enough for a "bait and switch" with a Cam Sigler Parrot fly. Fish peeled off close to 400 yards of fly backing with initial run and only jumped once! Made a total of 3 runs, but mostly stayed down about 50 feet and sulked. With constant pressure and retrieve it took me about 30 minutes to get the 100lb fish boatside for another "quick release" by mate Catch! Many thanks to Mike, Manuel and Catch and the entire support staff of Mike's Marina for a memorable experience aboard the Shekinah!

Best wishes,
Andrew

[pingu]

nice report and pics there


dave