Saltwater Fly Fishing

Bonefish Tails

That's not a mirage. Photo by Jim Klug

Sleeps With the Fishes

Bonefish, Daily Drake, Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2022, Fly Fishing News, Homepage Content, Lodges, Outfitters, and Guides, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

I was caught between two worlds: human and piscine. I had been welcomed into the school. I moved with them, as they moved. I observed their feeding habits, their societal structures. I was like a salt-crusted, Ichthyological Jane Goodall, except that my silverbacks weren’t gorillas. They were bonefish. Scores of them. Possibly hundreds. All around me, glimmering tails flapped like the banners of their clan—a clan of which I was now an adopted son.

Photo by Josh Idol

Silver Lining Kings. Long walks on the beach in Southeast Florida.

Conservation, Daily Drake, Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2020, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Winter 2020, Homepage Content, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

My first tarpon on a fly was a stout, laid-up fish that ate my worm and broke me off an hour later. I was a teenager at the time, and fortunate to have a father who took me on an annual spring trip to the Keys. But as I grew older and started achieving some success on the bow, my focus shifted to permit. Like many permit anglers, my trips often ended with a long flight home, followed by a long-winded explanation to my wife about how I could spend three days fishing, catch nothing, yet still feel the trip was “a step in the right direction.” At the height of my addiction, I was focusing more on the seconds ticking away on my watch than I was on scanning the water. I’d lost the mental game before even stepping on the skiff.

Drake Magazine Summer 2020 Socotra Slider

Photos by Ray Montoya

Stranded on Socotra

Daily Drake, Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Summer 2020, Lifestyle, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

On March 13, 60-year-old retired schoolteacher Ray Montoya arrived on the Arabian Archipelago of Socotra, intent on landing what is thought to be the first permit on a fly from the war-torn country of Yemen. Three weeks later, the talented fly-tyer, photographer, artist, and angler was still there, grounded like the rest of us. But Montoya is not like the rest of us. A Navy veteran, he grew up in a third-generation military family, bouncing around the U.S. as a kid. He became a teacher after college, and in the late ’90s began teaching internationally with his wife, Kerry.

Baja Bait Ball in Magdalena Bay.

Photo: Nick Price

Mag Bay Magic

Daily Drake, Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Winter 2019, Fly Fishing News, Homepage Content, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

Survive, is what an angler does the first few minutes after hooking a striped marlin. My friend Nick and I shout with joy, accompanied by excited words in Spanish from our new friends. We watch a reel getting emptied and watch the fish leap, flip, and dive. Thirty minutes later and it’s the post-release chatter,…

The danger of development and “shifting baseline syndrome”

Drake Magazine Florida Bay

Water, Florida Bay, and Bonefish

Conservation, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2012, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Fall 2012, Lifestyle, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

When sight-fishing as a sport debuted in the Upper Keys and Florida Bay, boat-makers modified their hulls, fishing companies developed faster and lighter rods, and tackle shops sprouted up all over the islands. By the 1950s an entire industry was formed around a specific shallow-water grassland habitat dominated by tarpon, redfish, permit, snook, and bonefish.…

Barracuda Blues

Barracuda Blues

Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2011, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Spring 2011, Humor, Lifestyle, Saltwater Fly Fishing2 Comments

For every good shot at a tarpon, permit, or bonefish, there’s a cast-per-hour-of-effort ratio that on most days looks like a line graph of the U.S. economy. Then there are those days that you instantly know you’re losing, like a cold February morning when even the boxfish are lurking deep and you’re just hoping for…