Hello Larry,
I am an avid fan of your show and style of fishing! I also suffer from Megalops atlanticus syndrome and it may be a terminal case. I will take fish anyway that I can get them, but I prefer to throw a fly if possible. I have limited bluewater flyfishing experience(schoolie bluefin, dolphin, kingfish, little tunny) and have caught sailfish on conventional tackle off SC and NC coast.
I wanted to get your advice for an upcoming bluewater trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic at the end of May. According to our charter Captain Michael Wagner "We should have shots at Blue Marlin(good), White Marlin(great), Wahoo(great), sailfish(maybe) for a tease & switch with a fly."
I am bringing all my own rods, reels, flies and tackle out of necessity and wanted to pick your brain about how to proceed with a foreign charter.
Here is a list of rod/reel combinations and CURRENT backing/line setup:
9wt: Loomis GLX CC 9'/Islander LX 4.0/225yds-20lb.backing/WF-float 9 SA Mastery Bonefish
10wt: Loomis GLX CC 9'/BP Tarpon/325yds-30lb.backing/WF-float 10 SA Mastery Tarpon
11wt: Loomis GLX CC 9'/Islander LX4.5/325yds-30lb.backing/WF-sink(1.50 ips) 12 SA Mastery Striper
12wt: Loomis GLX CC 9'/BP Marlin/600yds-30lb.backing/WF-float 12 SA Mastery Tarpon
13wt: Loomis Mega 13 9'/Tibor Pacific/600yds-30lb.backing/sink(5.0 ips) 13 SA Mastery Billfish
15wt: Loomis CC 8"3/Tibor Pacific/no backing/no fly line
1) How would you tweak this current setup to meet your bluewater demands?
2) Do you have a favorite brand of bluewater backing and fly line?
3) Any advice on backing-->fly line-->leader, knots and leader setup?
4) How do you deal with the captain/mates if they want to keep/sell fish and you want to practice catch & release?
Any hints and tips that you can pass along to make our trip less stressful would be very much obliged! I might already know hint #1: Mr. Murphy is hiding in my tackle bag!
Thank you