Editor’s Log: Albie Damned! - The Fisherman

Editor’s Log: Albie Damned!

Many readers of this magazine know me as a surfcaster and I would not refute that fact. Surfcasting has blazed many trails for me and I have never lost my love for the sanctity and solitude of the surf. But, in my second round at the helm of the New England edition, I have felt the need to expand my horizons and leave my comfort zone. I have spent more time fishing on boats this year than probably all of my previous years combined. I feel like I have gained a new appreciation for boat fishing and I have learned many new things about species that I have been targeting for decades.

The term ‘run and gun’ is often used to describe the wrong way to fish for false albacore. I have read and edited countless stories about fishing for albies from boats and, nearly all of them, bemoaned having to deal with dozens of run-and-gun boaters that don’t understand how their actions are affecting the fishing for everyone around them. I had no idea how rampant these practices were until last week.

I received a text from my longest-tenured friend, Alex Richov, pictured on the cover of this edition, asking if I’d like to do a half-day on Vineyard Sound in search of albies. Of course, I didn’t have to think more than a few seconds about my answer, of course I did! A few days later were backing his boat down a Falmouth ramp and steaming for the wide-open waters of Vineyard Sound.

A huge orange sun was rising in the east when we made our first casts, there were no boats around us, but in the distance I could see an armada of vessels and kayaks posted up off of Waquoit. The morning began with nothing to get excited about, lots of blind casts and nothing showing, but around 7:30 a.m. the fish started breaking in sporadic pods. Every time I looked east the flotilla drew closer until they had surrounded us.

Then the games began. The feeds were getting bigger and lasting longer but this didn’t translate to better fishing it only translated to more time for the run-and-gun guys to lock in on the feed and speed toward the action. Every time—and I mean EVERY TIME—a boat or boats sped in on a feed, the fish immediately went down. It didn’t matter if the feeds were already surrounded by boats or they popped up a half-mile away in open water, the gunners would throttle down for the melee, interrupt the scene, frantically flailingly casting and the fish would go down; not one of them EVER hooked a fish!

This might have been funny to watch if they weren’t ruining the fishing for the rest of us. It became infuriating after a while; there was one particular boat with a single angler aboard that would hit these feeding albie schools like an osprey bombing a bunker school. The amount of gas that guy must have burned to catch zero fish would have been enough to convince me to sell my boat!

The tactic of using the opposite approach came to us late in the game. The boats were moving east to west but the wind was blowing west to east. So, after observing the schools and their movement patterns for a little while we motored a half mile or so ahead of the rest of the flotilla and killed the motor. We allowed the wind to push us back into the albies from the other direction. And we were able to salvage the day and pull a few out despite how finicky these tiny-peanut-fed fish were.

I’ll say again that I am a surfcaster and not a boat fishing expert by any means. But, one thing you learn standing on the shore is the power of observation. Alex is an excellent fisherman and we have spent many days and nights fishing for everything from lake trout and largemouths to striped bass and albies—we both attribute our success rate to being observant and patient in any fishing scenario. If you’re out there hunting albies this month, resist the urge to run and gun, look at the scenario as it unfolds and fish in a way that doesn’t invade the scene. Approach slowly, use the wind and current to your advantage, look for movement patterns and be patient. That’s the fastest path to a great day of albie fishing. Running and gunning only leads to limp lines and low gas.

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