# My First False Albacore



## BGBrown311 (Feb 15, 2016)

I started to get serious about Fly Fishing late last year and haven't caught much other than 3lb Bluefish. Here on Long Island in New York our fall run is really starting to get in full swing so that means blitzes of False Albacore, Bluefish and Striped Bass.
I took the boat for a spin even though the wind was blowing 20 out of the SW and brought spinning rods as well as some fly rods. When we got to the inlet there were fish breaking everywhere. With the wind being so strong and being so exposed I used the spinning rod and caught an Albie on the first cast. After several fish on spinning tackle I broke out my 9wt. My Boss who hopped on the boat with me positioned me perfectly for the next blitz. After a few short strips, I was hooked up to a small speed demon. After landing my first fish, I stepped down to my 8wt, again first cast and I was hooked up.
So at this point I was feeling super confident, I hooked two and landed two. This is easy. I then took out my 6wt. Some would say I was way under gunned for these fish. Very quickly I was hooked up again, only this time as I was clearing my fly line, I noticed a tangled birds nest. There was no way to untangle as the fish was quickly taking my line so I held the fly line and popped him off. Oh well, a little humility never hurt. I got back to it and soon I was smashing my knuckles as my line was again being run off my line at a speed I have never seen or experienced. Very quickly I was down into the backing and thinking that this was an awesome way to fish. After several very long runs in fairly shallow water, I landed my third Albie of the day!
With the wind blowing so strong and the blitzes slowing down, we called it a day. Such an awesome display of power by these little Tuna and I can't wait to get back at it tomorrow.


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## BGBrown311 (Feb 15, 2016)




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## texasag07 (Nov 11, 2014)

Very nice. If I could find jacks and Bonita/Albie's/little tunny every day I might not ever chase redfish again.

They are so much fun.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Here's a tip that works surprisingly well when you have a hot fish on -and your line is tangled.... It simply won't go through the guides like that.... unless...

Here's the trick when you see that tangle immediately invert your rod so the reel and guides are on the top of the rod. Many times the fact that snake guides are open at the bottom will actually allow a tangle to make it through (if it's not too big...). My anglers have actually successfully fought big tarpon (100+ lbs) that way and each time I was able to untangle the line after it had been through the guides, tangle and all - several times.

Hope this helps - and aren't those little tunnies some hot runners !


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## Finn Maccumhail (Apr 9, 2010)

texasag07 said:


> Very nice. If I could find jacks and Bonita/Albie's/little tunny every day I might not ever chase redfish again.
> 
> They are so much fun.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

BGBrown311 said:


>


Oh yer done now!


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## eightwt (May 11, 2017)

Backwater said:


> Oh yer done now!


Down the rabbit hole you go!


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## fishicaltherapist (Mar 9, 2013)

Your friends will wonder what that "far away" look you now have, for the rest of your life, is all about !!  Congrats !


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

Congrats, they are a blast - you cannot strip fast enough for them. The double hand strip works the best. They do destroy flies though.


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## Danny Moody (Jan 22, 2016)

Congrats!

If you get the chance, fish them off SE Florida from May - Aug. we get some big ones. My daughter learned how to manage an 11wt this summer on them.


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## BGBrown311 (Feb 15, 2016)

Wow, thats some fish. I'm really hoping to head to NC and fish for them this fall. I will then hopefully get to target some Jacks in February when I am in Naples for a long weekend. Thanks for all the kind words.


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## Finn Maccumhail (Apr 9, 2010)

texasag07 said:


> Very nice. If I could find jacks and Bonita/Albie's/little tunny every day I might not ever chase redfish again.
> 
> They are so much fun.


In all seriousness, I doubt I'd consider giving up redfish. There's just something about dropping a fly in front of a tailing red and watching him inhale it.

However, I absolutely love to catch jacks and bonita(are bonita fish big Robert?)/false albies/little tunny. 

We get monster jacks all the time here in Texas, in fact I'm hoping to get into some later this week. They're just an awesome fish. They hit hard, run like hell, and just don't quit. I firmly believe that if they were more particular about eating flies they'd be a premier target.

As for the albies, I wish we had a more consistent fishery for them here in Texas. Rarely have I ever seen them really go nuts here in Texas the way they seem to do all over the Florida coast. This albie was one of the most memorable eats I've ever had from any sort of fish. A couple years ago we had one of the cleanest tides I've ever seen on the middle coast- we're talking 20'+ of visibility at the jetties. Anyway, the albies are blitzing all over and we're chasing them all over- the bait soakers are ignoring them because they're not great to eat. The trolling motor was busted so we'd idle over, shut it down, and drift into the blitz. Later in the day they quit working so much and would often go down before we got in position to make a cast so I decided to tie on a popper. We drift over after a school went down and I make the longest cast I can. Pop it once, twice, and then suddenly this greenish blur comes streaking up from out of the blue water and absolutely hammers the popper as it launches into the air, and promptly runs into my backing. For scale, I'm 6'3" and well over 3-bills in this picture.


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## texasag07 (Nov 11, 2014)

Today was horrible 5 hours of whacking beach footballs the went inside and threw at a few reds.

Interesting on the Bonita were how they were feeding today.

We have a bunch of
Moon jellyfish on the beachfront the past 3-4 weeks. There are lots of small bait under the jelly's. The bobo's are running in 3-10 fishgroups and one of them will tail slap or bump the head of the jelly to scatter the bait then they all devour them.

Few pics from today with the old fiberglass fenwick and my modified pflueger medalists. Who needs tibor and sage, lol.


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## FlyBy (Jul 12, 2013)

Gotta love 'em. This was Saturday in Brunswick Co. NC.


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## BGBrown311 (Feb 15, 2016)

Roger, that looked like a good time on a solid fish. It's a lot of fun when they school up like that.


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## Finn Maccumhail (Apr 9, 2010)

Danny Moody said:


> Congrats!
> 
> If you get the chance, fish them off SE Florida from May - Aug. we get some big ones. My daughter learned how to manage an 11wt this summer on them.
> 
> View attachment 16958


That's a beast of an albie!

I don't think we caught any over 4-5# in my limited experience here in Texas. An albie like that one would be an awesome fight.


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## FlyBy (Jul 12, 2013)

They'll be bigger in November. Can't wait.


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## Forcefed (Aug 5, 2016)

Danny Moody said:


> Congrats!
> 
> If you get the chance, fish them off SE Florida from May - Aug. we get some big ones. My daughter learned how to manage an 11wt this summer on them.
> 
> View attachment 16958


Norman’s ?


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