Transcript: On the Salt with GotOne
S5, Ep 146: On the Salt with GotOne
2023, Marvin S. Cash
The Articulate Fly
http://www.thearticulatefly.com
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Flower, back with another On the Salt with Got One with Captain David Blinken. David, how you doing?
David:
[0:13] Great, Marvin. It's good to be here again. I can't wait to hear this week's question.
Marvin:
[0:17] Yeah, for sure. And you know, you're a busy man, and you're packing and loading gear to head back to Mexico this week.
David:
[0:23] Yeah, we head back to Campeche for another four-day sojourn with the tarpon.
And that's the last trip of the year until April, then I'll be on snow.
Marvin:
[0:35] And so is that a big, big guy trip or is that a kind of nursery tarpon trip?
David:
[0:40] These are, you know, it's nursery. These are all juvenile tarpon, anywhere from five to, I mean, occasionally we get a push of bigger fish that are pushed 40 to 50 pounds, but most of it's like between five and 30 pounds.
Marvin:
[0:55] Very, very neat. And that's awesome and you'll be back.
We'll have more tarpon pictures when you get back. But one of the things you pinged me on a few days ago is you really wanted to talk about a new policy that's up for comment, the striped bass addendum 2.
David:
[1:12] Yeah, I think you'll probably be posting it, but the comment period ends December 22nd.
There's a couple meetings that I hope people will attend in South Jersey.
I can't remember when it is, but it's on the information that the American Saltwater Guides Association is posting.
But also writing letters and making your voice heard.
It seems every time we have a meeting with a good outcome, the Atlantic States Commission decides to move the meeting to a place that's less favorable for what we all want.
Trying to move the bar differently.
So the louder we are in the preservation side, the better our outcomes will be.
So let's make sure we all get our comments in before December 22.
Marvin:
[2:09] Got it. And is it just kind of looking for feedback, or is there a specific proposal that people should say they don't like or do like?
David:
[2:17] Well, we want a Denim 2, we want things enacted now, and you could even be more...
Even push the envelope further, I wouldn't say use the word moratorium, but I would say certainly limit the catch by a lot because striped bass numbers are way, way down.
2023 was the second worst recruitment in the history of record keeping for striped bass in the Chesapeake and the Hudson.
So these fish really need a lot of help.
We did so much work in in the 80s and early 90s in the moratorium and bringing back the striped bass to numbers that were historically high.
And when the commission changed everything and that made a two fish bag limit, from a one fish limit at 36, things fell apart very quickly.
And a lot of people were saying, no, no, no, everything will be fine.
There's millions and millions of fish.
And it's true, there were, but those millions and millions of fish which can be caught out by people very quickly.
So we really need to make our voices heard in a big way right now because we're on the precipice of a total collapse of the striped bass fishery.
Marvin:
[3:41] Got it. And so at a really high level, kind of what's the proposal in addendum to?
David:
[3:48] You know what, I'm not going to speak to the details of it, But it certainly regards, you know, lowering mortality and reducing the amount of fish that can be harvested and some other things.
So read what's going to be posted, everybody.
See what you think about it. um, and, and sign up for the American saltwater guides association newsletter.
And they will be telling everybody what we need to do to preserve this, uh, incredible species.
Marvin:
[4:23] Yeah, got it. And I will drop links to all that stuff in the show notes and God, I know you're excited for the question. Cause I previewed it for you, uh, before we started recording tonight and Bryce wrote in, um, if there's a number one, go-to color for a fly, what would it be? And why?
David:
[4:40] So, I love this question because it actually kind of has multiple answers.
There really is no go-to color, per se, because depending, it's not just species dependent, but when I'm out there guiding, very often the color of the fly I use is representative of the environment in which I'm fishing.
So for example, if I'm fishing a very sandy, light-colored bottom, my flies tend to be a little lighter in color, maybe have a bit of a creamy color to them and gingery with a little bit of detail that might be darker.
If I'm fishing over grass, my flies tend to be darker and have a little more of an olive tone to it.
[5:27] Certainly, that's how I work it with stripers in shallow water.
In deeper water, you're fishing baits that look like something swimming in the water.
I mean, if I'm fishing deeper water, I'm probably fishing something like olive over chartreuse, over pink, over cream.
So it's not really one color, but it's a pattern. But there's a saying down in Texas, it ain't no use if it ain't chartreuse.
Chartreuse is always a good color.
But I would say to really be effective, look at the environment you're fishing in, look at the bottom color and try to have your fly reflect the environment in which you're trying to catch a fish in, and that's really going to give you the best success.
Marvin:
[6:15] Uh, got it. And I guess, you know, in terms of light, like if you have a bright sunny day, do you like a lighter fly and use a dark or slightly darker fly on a kind of a cloudier day?
David:
[6:25] You know, you know, it's really funny. Um, on the lighter days, I try not to have the fly be too flashy.
Because I think it'll spook the fish, especially since I'm more of a daytime angler and my clients fish during the day.
But I can tell you this, on cloudy days, I very often will use a very bright fly.
And I found it to work really well.
I mean, dark flies are nice and people will use a darker, more muted fly on the cloudy days, but I use a lot of chartreuse on cloudy days or a lot of...
Or a lot of all creamy with maybe a strip of peacock curl down the back, if I'm using a deceiver type pattern, and if I'm fishing shrimp flies on those cloudy days, it's... The more sparkly, the better.
On the bright sunny days, I'm sometimes picking flash out of the fly to get the fish to eat it.
Marvin:
[7:22] Got it. And, you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly.
You can email them to us or DM us on social media. And as I always say, make David's life easier and DM me and don't DM him.
And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag and you're going to get it in a drawing for a shot at a Norvice at the end of the run of the series.
And if you send a question. And even if we don't use it, we're entering a drawing for a Hardy reel and a Wolf line of your choice.
And now's a great time to give a shout out to our friends at Norvice for so generously sponsoring the series.
And, you know, we're heading into tying season.
Norvice is going to be all over the place doing shows. And if you head over to www.nor-vice.com, you can check out all the great Norvice products.
I imagine Tim, And if he hasn't already, very, very soon we'll have his 2024 show schedule up.
I would imagine you'll see him at most, if not all, of the fly fishing shows.
I know he's going to be either a sponsor of the Virginia Fly Fishing and Wine Festival.
Great opportunity to spend some time with Tim and the other folks at Norvice.
And I think, you know, to really appreciate the Norvice, you have to put your hands on it and actually see how it works.
David:
[8:32] And you know, David, before I let you go and, you know, finish putting all of your tropical clothes and rides and stuff for your trip you want you want to it's kind of funny right you were skiing earlier this week and then you're gonna be in Mexico chasing tarpon so it's you'll have like a probably a 50 degree temperature swing, I know my body's like gonna go through temperature whiplash I'm going from like 10 degrees to 90 degrees so it's gonna be crazy and yeah so we have a masters of the fly schedule, which we're really excited to announce, and we, I'm just going to read the dates and then I'll tell you who's going to be appearing in each of those dates.
We have January 7, January 21, February 4, February 18, February 25, and March 3.
And those are the dates this year for masters of the fly, so we don't interfere with any early season fishing, which we've done for in the past.
And we're going to have some really cool stuff. We're going to have the American Saltwater Guides Association kicking off, as we always do, and that'll be a discussion on false albacore and the plight of striped bass.
[9:52] With Tony Friedrich. January 21st is really cool.
We're gonna try to broadcast live, or at least sort of live on tape.
Peter Jenkins is putting on a great show up in Massachusetts called Stock the Flybox with a whole bunch of tires.
And we're just gonna go around and interview some of these tires and shoot and then hopefully have one of these tires on the show later that evening, who will actually do some stuff for us. And that'll be really cool.
We're gonna have Blaine Crockett and Ben Welley.
And we're hoping to have Joe Bledis on the last show of the season, March 3rd.
And we have a couple of other dates that we're holding for special guests.
[10:40] So, and they haven't just, they just haven't been nailed down yet.
So that's the deal with the Masters of Apply.
And a quick little GotOne announcement too, which is, I think for those of you who are gonna be signing up with GotOne, I think coming up in the near future, near-ish future, there's gonna be a newsletter that's gonna be connected with the app.
And so that's a really exciting development that's gonna happen with it.
It might be the only app in history that will have a newsletter connected to it, but GotOne's doing so much great work, you know, with Massachusetts and with scientists throughout the country and tracking fish. So this is going to be really exciting.
Marvin:
[11:28] Very, very neat. And if I was a betting man, by the time everything gets nailed down, I suspect you'll see Norvice on Masters of the Fly too.
David:
[11:35] I would imagine so.
Marvin:
[11:37] Yeah.
David:
[11:37] I would imagine so. So yes.
Marvin:
[11:39] Yeah. And so, you know, folks, you know, as I always say, you know, fall is my favorite time and fall is disappearing.
But as I always say, you know, it's usually going to be warmer in December than it will be in January and February.
So if you'd like to go out and catch fish, you should do it now and not wait until later.
Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, David.
David:
[11:59] Take care, Marvin.