Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,

Marvin: and we're back with another On the Salt with Got One with Captain David Blinken.

Marvin: David, how are you doing?

David: I'm doing great. I'm counting the days to when I can get on the back of my skip

David: and start pulling clients around. I'm psyched.

Marvin: Yeah, and you've got less than 24 hours before daylight savings time,

Marvin: So it ought to be good, right?

David: I know. I can't wait. I love the longer days. I know everyone doesn't like losing

David: that hour of sleep, but hey, go to bed early.

Marvin: There you go. And I guess, you know, the only bummer is it probably means your

Marvin: ski season is winding down, right?

David: It's winding down a little, but, you know, I kind of live for March and April skiing.

David: I think it's the best skiing of the year. A lot of people kind of after February,

David: you know, wax the skis and put them away. way.

David: But those of us in the business, March and April is kind of where it's at.

David: It's some of the best skiing of the season.

Marvin: And do you like it because it's not crowded and you don't have to bundle up?

Marvin: Because I would imagine right when it's colder, you probably have better powder, right?

David: I'll tell you something. March can have some incredible powder.

David: And as long as you're skiing it while it's falling in the create,

David: as soon as the sun hits it, it can turn into mashed potatoes.

David: But no, I just love, I love March powder. But the other thing about March and

David: April is you get corn corn snow.

David: And I know a lot of people don't like it, but skiing the corn,

David: there's nothing like it. It's just so smooth and groovy.

Marvin: Oh, neat. And of course, you know, as we were getting close to spring,

Marvin: that kind of means new beginnings.

Marvin: And we thought it would be an interesting idea to kind of talk about a,

Marvin: uh, kind of a beginner fly box for fishing the salt in the Northeast.

David: Yeah, you know, a beginner fly box is so interesting because,

David: you know, people are on the web looking at all these complicated flies and,

David: you know, they're really fun and stuff like game changers and beast flies and

David: stuff. And those are just incredible flies.

David: But really, just you want to keep it simple.

David: You want to have a couple of bucktails

David: and clousers and some deceivers and maybe a popper and you're set.

David: And that's going to cover most everything you do.

David: Um in in in the early

David: stages of your fly fishing life and uh

David: you know maybe carry a couple

David: of shock tips around or or some wire leader for when the bluefish show up but

David: uh you know keeping it simple is sort of sort of always been a motto of mine

David: uh when i open up my fly box i probably have I have four patterns just tied

David: in different sizes and colors, and that's really it.

David: I just try to keep it simple. And for all the beginner saltwater fly anglers

David: out there, I would say keep it simple so you don't have to be pondering, what fly should I use?

David: The fish are going to eat them. It's just about presentation and getting it

David: in front of them, and you'll be rewarded.

Marvin: Got it. And so, you know, on the popper front, do you like poppers with lots

Marvin: of different faces or do you just kind of, you know, pretty consistently stick

Marvin: with kind of that flat popper face?

David: Well, you know, you know what? If you're going to use a popper or a popper like

David: thing and you can buy all different things, I would I would maybe get a very

David: thin popper with sort of a flat face or an angled face.

David: Or the one I like the most because I think it's the most versatile is just get a Gurgler.

David: Um, and, and all the commercial, uh, fly tying entities and stores,

David: they're all carrying gurglers. They're really easy to cast.

David: They're not heavy. They make a lot of noise and fish just gobble them up. They're great.

Marvin: Yeah. Well, there you go. And it dovetails well with our question from Brenner.

Marvin: He wanted to get your thoughts, David, on, you know, good beginner species for

Marvin: people to target on the salt with a fly.

David: Well, I think a good beginner species, if you're living in the Northeast,

David: especially if you're in an area that bluefish frequent, is fish for bluefish.

David: And don't worry about the size.

David: And I would say if you can be there when there's like cocktail blues,

David: like the bluefish from like one to four pounds or one to three pounds, fish for those.

David: They they will just they'll eat and they

David: eat with the reckless abandon the bluefish get

David: bigger they might become a little more selective but

David: if you can find schools of bluefish on the feed they will just they will just

David: crash anything that you put in front of them it's it's really exciting whether

David: it's deep water or or shallow water they they can be you know pretty ferocious

David: so um that's That's, that's, that's my,

David: that's my, you know, and they range all the way down to Florida.

David: I mean, you'll get them there, but you know, if you're fishing in Florida and

David: you want a beginner species, um, you know, I think, uh, if you're around when

David: there's, uh, maybe Spanish mackerel or, or small jackrabbits,

David: that's, uh, another good beginner species.

David: If you're down in the South, awful lot of fun.

Marvin: Yeah. And so on the bluefish, you know, I know they are kind of hard on terminal

Marvin: tackle. You know, what's your kind of terminal tackle setup for those guys?

David: For Bluefish, I'll probably tie in a Deceiver in maybe a length of either piano wire.

David: It kind of looks like a G-string on a guitar. Or you can get American wire,

David: which is like a multi-strand wire inside a plastic sleeve.

David: And you can actually tie it onto your fly with a clench knot or a loop knot,

David: and it'll work just fine.

David: Um uh what i personally do

David: uh most of the time because i'm always thinking about other species

David: is i'll tie in a hunk of 60 pound uh

David: either hard mono or or or fluorocarbon uh

David: to my tidbit and uh then tie that with a loop knot to my fly and usually i can

David: get one or two bluefish before it gets chewed up but um definitely using um

David: uh definitely using uh something like that to protect your leader is a good idea.

David: Anything under 30 pounds in a bluefish is going to most likely chop right through it.

David: I mean, there's those exceptions where occasionally you can land one on a 15

David: or 20 pound tippet, but usually you need something pretty burly to fend off their teeth.

Marvin: Yeah, got it. And you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly and

Marvin: we're running out of time because we're going to have our drawings pretty soon.

Marvin: And, you know, remember either email or DM me, make David's life simpler.

Marvin: And And we've got two great options for you, right? For everyone that sends

Marvin: in a question, that's one pool, and we're going to draw from that pool.

Marvin: And the winner will get a Rise Fishing Company rod.

Marvin: And then if we use your question on one of the On the Salts,

Marvin: we're going to put that in a separate fishbowl and draw from that.

Marvin: And the winner is going to get a Norvice vice system.

Marvin: So pretty cool, right, David?

David: I think that's pretty cool. I mean, you know, those guys at Rise,

David: they make a really good product, and they're based out of Long Island,

David: New York, so they pretty much know what they're doing.

David: And Norvice, you know, you've never used true rotary before. It's an experience.

Marvin: Yeah, there you go. And I also want to give a shout-out to the folks at Norvice

Marvin: for generously sponsoring this series.

Marvin: And, David, before I let you go, I know you're also, you know,

Marvin: as the seasons are changing, you're in the homestretch of Masters of the Fly.

David: Yeah, we have our last episode. We have our last episode on March,

David: I think it's 17th, Sunday the 17th with Blaine Chocolate, who is an incredible fly tire.

David: And he does a game changer, which I mentioned earlier.

David: And it's an incredibly, one, it's an incredible fly to watch being tied.

David: And the way they move through the water is so lifelike, you cannot believe it. It's really cool. Cool.

David: And of course, I also want to give a shout out to to to God one.

David: So you guys are catching your first fish, your first bluefish or whatever species.

David: You definitely want to get it logged in. So don't forget to download God one

David: and and see what the app can do for you. It's really quite easy.

David: You can either do with a photograph, do it with voice or just measure and log

David: your fish in manually. It's a really cool thing.

Marvin: Yeah, and you will get the cover off the boat here pretty soon.

Marvin: You'll be back in your role as chief beta tester, right?

David: Oh, yeah, yeah. I can't wait for that. Not much more beta testing going on these days.

David: There'll be some announcements coming up, and for those of you who download

David: it now, you'll probably a month

David: or two from now see something new popping up. But it could be longer.

David: I'm just not sure. But it's really an incredible app, really intuitive.

David: Very few apps are as intuitive as this one. So I would really encourage everyone to download it.

David: And all the data that's on there is yours and is not shared unless you want

David: to share it. It's your choice.

Marvin: Yeah, and speaking of home stretch, the folks at Norvice, I think they've racked

Marvin: up almost all the frequent flyer miles they're going to do this year.

Marvin: But if you go to their website at www.nor-vice.com, you'll see the remaining shows on the schedule.

Marvin: Most of them are out kind of in the west because it's colder out there longer.

Marvin: So their fly show season is a little bit longer out there.

Marvin: But check that out. And, you know, folks, if it's warming up where you are,

Marvin: you know, get out there and catch a few.

Marvin: If it's still kind of cold, tie some flies, go to a fly fishing show,

Marvin: get ready for the upcoming season.

Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, David.