Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Fishing a vacation-first trip starts with research rather than gear: road atlases and mapping apps, water temperatures, local fish markets to see what is being sold, and asking local children, who explore constantly and will tell you where fish are. Then work estuaries and access points by trial and error with a single versatile rod.
Stratton Hunter guides for musky and wild trout in Western North Carolina and has twice traveled around the world on a backpacker's budget with fly fishing as the secondary priority.
Also on Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube
How do you find fishable water somewhere you have never been?
The research pattern is the same abroad and at home: maps first, both digital mapping apps and a full-sized road atlas, then water temperatures, then local fish markets to see what species are actually being caught and sold. Local children turn out to be the best human source, because they explore constantly and will happily point out where the fish are. From there it is walking basic estuaries and access points and sorting out by trial and error which ones fish. The same habit produced three new brook trout streams at 5,000 to 5,500 feet after a storm blew out the lower water at home - species preferences narrow the search dramatically, since brook trout want clean, cool, high-elevation water.
What single rod should you pack when fishing is not the point of the trip?
The first year-long trip covered 19 countries with one five weight and a floating line, chosen for the creeks and rivers expected in New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia and Europe. The second trip, ten years later, was built around flats and saltwater, so it went out with a nine weight and an extra spool - a floating line and a sinking line - so deeper channels could be blind cast when nothing was visible. Flies are the hardest thing to replace on the road, so one box crammed full on both sides covers the trip.
How do you build a DIY flats leader without buying tapered leaders?
Tapered leaders are expensive enough that a long trip goes better with two spools: straight 20 pound and straight 10 pound, joined with a blood knot. That setup can be shortened or lengthened depending on the target - a full 12 to 14 foot leader for bonefish and permit, and about five feet for tarpon with a 40-20-40 bite leader arrangement. Running slightly heavier tippet than a guided day makes sense on a DIY trip, because anything can swim by and there is no guide steering you toward one species.
How do you keep saltwater flies from rusting on a long trip?
Salt water destroys hooks over an extended trip, and the worst habit is cramming wet flies back into the box. A large safety pin clipped to a shirt solves it: each fly that comes off the tippet goes onto the pin to dry through the day. At the end of the day the flies go back into the box dry, and the pin doubles as a record of exactly which patterns were fished and which never came out.
What do you look for on an unfamiliar saltwater flat?
Tide charts exist for essentially any water in the world, so the tide window comes first, then weather - the flats need sun to spot fish, which is the opposite of what a musky day wants. On the flat itself, the visual cues are puffs and holes in the mud where bonefish have been feeding, which mark either present fish or fish that were there recently and can be blind cast. Stingrays are worth targeting because bonefish, and sometimes permit and snook, follow them for what gets stirred up. A four to five inch streamer on a wire leader turns barracuda into a target when they move in to hunt.
Where do musky sit in a river and how do you fish them?
A musky's dorsal fin sits far back near the tail, so the fish is not built to hold in current. They sit in slow, almost pond-like sections and eddies and ambush from beneath submerged trees, picking a moment to pounce and then returning to the same lie. A 400 grain sinking line gets the fly down fast, and the retrieve has to start immediately or the fly ends up in the snags. The fly should be working the instant it lands, since strikes come on the first strip within feet of the bank and again right at the boat.
Why does the boat-side figure eight fail so often?
Most anglers start the figure eight while already looking downstream for the next cast, so they miss the fish that rolls up behind the fly, then pull the fly out of the water - and musky rarely come back after that. The correction is asking for a full circle at minimum and preferably two figure eights, and watching the shadows five feet behind the fly rather than watching the fly itself. If a fish shows, the fly goes straight back down and the figure eight keeps going.
Key takeaways
- Research a new destination through maps, water temperatures and local fish markets before you ever rig a rod.
- Ask local children where the fish are - they explore constantly and will tell you.
- One five weight with a floating line covers freshwater travel; a nine weight with a spare sinking spool covers flats travel.
- Build a DIY leader from straight 20 pound and 10 pound spools joined with a blood knot: 12 to 14 feet for bonefish and permit, about five feet for tarpon.
- Clip used saltwater flies to a large safety pin on your shirt to dry them through the day instead of putting a wet box away.
- Cast to stingrays on the flat - bonefish, permit and snook follow them for what gets stirred up.
- Watch the shadows behind the fly during the figure eight, and put the fly back down immediately if a musky shows.
