Got out on a favorite sweet water spot for some good old fashion fun. Bass were on the bite. Had a nice 5 lb class fish fly out of the water and miss the fly. Had at least a dozen Bass and countless pumpkin seeds.  ..read more

Hey all - I am looking for a suggestion for a WF 11 intermediate line. I have been using airflo cold water for years and love it, but they do not make an 11 weight line. I have CTS affinity X 9ft 10wt that the airflo is just not enough to turn the fly over on any day with even a bit of wind. I am looking for something with a heavier front, the airflo 10wt comes in at 297 grains. There are few good options out there for tropical lines, but worry they would be a bit too stiff in colder weather since I live in MA. Any input appreciated!   Thanks ..read more

I have a Mancini Signature Series ECF-X Ti FR10810-4 :  9ft 10wt 4 pc fly rod. Which I picked up at a fly fishing show probably 15 years ago. the company was eastcoastfisherman.com - I heard that the guy was a designer at Loomis and had these rods made to the yet to be put loomis modal. The rod is very light and is an absolute cannon - it throws a line a country mile, faster action and casts farther than my loomis crosscurrent. .   Anybody else have one of this rods or know more of the story of Mancini.            ..read more

I try to get a few hours in on my days off and a little time after work/gym during the week. I’m using lawn signs for targets, this set up is ~60’, 70’, 80’ & 75’ R-L. I can also vary where I stand to change things up as well and every few days I’ll change the course up.    I’m using the exact set-ups as I would use when fishing - 12’ tapered leader & practice fly (a fly that I would use with the hook cut off). Right now, I’m just using 9wts, three rods, each with a different line (SA Grand Slam, SA Infinity, SA Bone+). I’ll add an 11wt with a SA Big Water soon. I use 6” of l ..read more

I visited River Bay Outfitters today, in Baldwin, NY, out of curiosity. One of the brands of rod that Mr. McCain likes is "Douglas," made in NY. Any familiarity with these?   ..read more

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Just a quick pic, my son landed this yesterday, 130# tarpon after a brutal 30 minute fight.  Not on a fly rod, but amazing nonetheless to watch him cast, work the lure and feed the tarpon then proceed to go toe-to-toe with the fish and get her to boat side.  He's a PITA teenager but we love to fish, hunt, scuba and spar together and so cool he loves to fight big fish too.  ..read more

Situation #1 is a hilarious one my friend got pulled in the drink when he tried to be a ninja @ 73 yrs ,instead of coming down he decided to try out his balance on the gunnel while this beast was on turbo berserk mode, well he efd around and found out lol! Was not hurt and even landed the catch.  #2 was for research and development who would've thought about feeding these poons a worm fly in the middle of July for north bounders with multiple hookups well we Efd around and  found out it worked! Second to last Pic you can clearly see the fly sticking out her mug.   ..read more

For multiple reasons, I’ve decided it was time to change things up and move on from Key West. I can probably only get one trip in next spring and I decided I wanted tarpon. After some looking around I decided to book a week with one of the guides at Shallow Water Expeditions, which is David Mangum’s guide service. I’ll being fishing the Mexico Beach/Port St Joe area in mid June. That’s up on the panhandle. Hopefully, that will be more productive vs Key West ..read more

I ‘needed' 1 more 9wt so I stopped by the Compleat Angler today. I also wanted to add the Sextant to the above mix but that was out. I was leaning towards that one since I had thrown it before and came close to picking it up. I currently have an Asquith, so that wasn’t in the mix today. I didn’t bother with the Sage Salt R8, I’ve thrown it and do not like it at all. I threw two lines: SA Bone+ & SA Infinity, with the Infinity being the line that I really wanted to match to. I spent a good bit of time with all of them. The NRX was out first, I didn’t really like it at all. The remaining thr ..read more