Saltwater fly fishing

You will probably notice that the majority of our fly fishing blogs are about fly fishing in rivers and lakes, although we have touched on other environments like the sea from time to time as well. Indeed you may prefer saltwater to freshwater fishing, or you might enjoy a mixture of both. In any case, let’s say a few words today about approaching your sport in saltwater.

Typically when fly fishing in saltwater you will use heavier tackle than you would for freshwater trout fishing. This is necessary both to handle the larger, more powerful fish, and to allow for the casting of larger and heavier flies. As a matter of course saltwater fly fishing employs the use of wet flies that resemble baitfish, crabs, shrimp and other forage. However, saltwater fish can also be caught with "poppers," and other surface lure very like those used for freshwater bass fishing, though they are much larger.

Saltwater species you can seek and catch with fly tackle include bonefish, redfish or red drum, permit, snook, spotted sea trout, tuna, dorado (mahi-mahi), sailfish, tarpon, striped bass, salmon and marlin. Again, the species available very much depend onthe part of the world you are in, though even domestic shores may turn up some interesting catches.

Offshore saltwater species are usually attracted to the fly by "chumming" with small baitfish. You can also “tease” the fish to the boat by trolling a large hookless lure (billfish, for example, are most often caught using this latter method). And if you haven’t previously tried fly fishing in saltwater, why not give it a go?