Albie mania in South Florida

[AM Johnston]

I just returned from 3 days of fishing with my good friend Blake in the West Palm Beach/Jupiter Florida area. We were guided by Capt. Scott Hamilton. We had both fished with Scott before and he once again did not disappoint.

We did not go to Florida looking just for albies. Indeed, we spend a good bit of time prospecting for other species (dolphin, tarpon, tuna), including a 30 mile trek out into the Gulf Stream, but to no avail. So albies it was, and they did not disappoint. We did catch a few rainbow runners and blue runners, but they were not much of a match for a 10 wt or 12 wt. and you don’t want to use anything lighter because albies can be mixed up with them.

I have never done the New England albie blitz or Harkers Island, but I can’t imagine it being much better than this. Over the 3 days, we probably caught between 150-175 albies, and we could have caught a bunch more if Scott hadn’t kept us moving around to find bigger fish. And boy, did we find big fish. We caught one albie that was 18+ pounds, 3-4 in the 17-18 pound range, 6-8 in the 16-17 pound range, and 20+ in the 12 and above range. My arms are sore and my hands are totally beat up, especially my line handling hand. The highlight for me was catching one 16-17 pound fish on my 10 wt.

The link below has a few pictures posted by Scott on another website and I’ll post some more when they arrive.
OutdoorsBest Forums: Hog boneheads

Scott’s deal is to find fish in deeper water on his scope and then use live pilchards to get them up in the water column. Watching the albies crash the bait is half the fun. In one feeding frenzy, I watched my leader unroll across the water and when the fly was 2 inches off the water, it got crashed by an airborne albie. Very cool.

Blake and Scott had one very entertaining 10 minutes on the third day (I was fighting what turned out to be a 15-16 pound fish and did not get to witness the fun). As Blake was finishing up the fight with a 5-6 pound albie near the boat, a 70 amberjack roared out of the depths to maul Blake’s albie. The AJ was gigantic. Blake and Scott spent some time playing with the AJ and even trying to hook it to no avail.

I fished with a Sage Xi2 10 wt. and an RPLXI 12 wt. until I broke it. Blake used the Albright rods that Scott has on his boat—primarily the 12 wt. but he fished with the 10 wt. for a while too. For reels, I was using Tibors and thank goodness I had ‘em—they are tough, tough reels that stand up to fish like these. We used SA and Rio intermediate lines almost exclusively. Blake and I were afraid to tie leaders for these fish so Scott tied us fluro leaders (40 butt tapering to a section of 30, then 20 with a 30 pound bite tippet). I used a bimini loop as the butt for my 10 wt., which helped me be able to put a little more pressure on the fish. We fished with Scott’s “Eat Me” fly, which he ties on short shank Eagle Claw hook using jig hair and a little flash to look like a pilchard. Very durable and effective flies.

This probably isn’t a trip for everyone. It was hard work and not a great deal of technical, finesse fishing. But we had a ball.

[Wild Bill]

Hey Andy-

Terrific report! That is my kind of fishing--lots of action on brutes. That action would be hard to beat at Harkers. I have had 80 to 100 fish days at Harkers but not in a row. Had a 86 day chumming with rain minnows and a 100 plus day when a bait ball decided it liked our boat. I have also had days when we caught three fish and were among the very fortunate to do that. Sounds like overall you consistently had more fish available.

I know what albies look like but would love to see a pic of Scott's "Eat me" fly.

[Capt.Dino]

Bill

It's a bob Popovic's spread fly.

[Tissy Furnes]

Cool. FL looks to be very underrated for albie action. More posts like these will change that soon.

[Capt.Dino]

Yes it is underated. I think alot of people shy away from coming down here to fish for them b/c U have to use chum. There's also a few different specie's to catch down here @ the same time the Albie's are here.

[capt_gordon]

Tons of "buneeta" in FL. Way more than here.

[wino]

Went today in my boat. caught them non stop on pilchards and greenies. also a few kings and rainbow runners mixed in, couldnt find any mahi and only fished a few hours as per the doctors orders. There was lots of bait off singer island so I didn't have to go as far as juno. The albies were in 80 ft of water off singer island. Fun to be back.

[Capt.Dino]

Wino

Today had to be the best day for Albie's this season. It was like taking a kid to the pond w/worm's & a bobber. Flie's w/a Marabou tail worked great. Call me when u get a chance.

[JMadert]

Bill, it's nothin' fancy ... which is good.

I have experimented with it, and have had excellent results on multi-species.
It is rugged also. Personally I prefer one size smaller 3D eye for a fly this size.
Makes for a smaller head. Too much epoxy up front ruins it. FYi, not my tie.
I think Hamilton himself did this one. AKA "Hamilton Special" ... one of his clients
named it the "Eat Me".

[Wild Bill]

Thanks J-

I did find a pic of the fly on Scott's site.