# Fly Fishing Baffin



## bamdvm (Apr 3, 2010)

I'll be in Baffin Bay next weekend with a couple of buddies. The trip will consist mainly of wading and throwing topwaters and plastics on conventional tackle looking for a 30" trout. Neither of my buddies fly fish and I am a guest in their boat. I have never fly fished saltwater but recently got a 9ft 8wt rod specifically for this purpose and I have been dying to get it wet. I guess my question is, how successful can you be just wading and blind casting a fly rod down there. I guess I always pictured poling a shoreline in a skiff and sight casting at tailing reds. Also, any specific advice on fly fishing down there as far as certain flies, strategies, techniques, etc. I hate to ask them to run me down to nine mile hole and pole me around all morning looking for tailing reds so I was hoping to incorporate my desire to fly fish in with their trip without disrupting their plans too much. Ideally, the 30" trout that I have been pursuing for 36 years would be caught on a fly rod, but that might be asking too much. TIA
Brodie


----------



## Won Mo Kasst (Mar 27, 2008)

How strong is your arm?


----------



## Capt.Troy (Aug 29, 2006)

You can fish the King Ranch Shoreline or many other places with fly rod. Most of the fishing with conventional tackle down there is just repetitive casting anyway. Good luck on that 30 inch trout. I'm still searching.


----------



## Won Mo Kasst (Mar 27, 2008)

ssflounder said:


> You can fish the King Ranch Shoreline or many other places with fly rod. Most of the fishing with conventional tackle down there is just repetitive casting anyway. Good luck on that 30 inch trout. I'm still searching.


I would take repetitive casting with conventional tackle over repetitive casting with a fly rod any day! Blind casting all day like that would be quite the activity.


----------



## Bruce J (Jun 27, 2004)

I've caught trout blind casting with my fly rod. It's a lot easier to do from a boat since you have some elevation over the water and it's easier to make longer casts. Be sure you have a stripping basket to contain the fly line on the deck unless you know it's a clean foredeck. Otherwise you'll certainly have the line wrapped around a cleat or trolling motor right when that 30" trout goes on a run! If you don't have a stripping basket, take a wet towel, or several, and lay it over the line grabbing hazard.

If you're wading, you'll find that anything over about knee deep is a big workout with the fly rod. It's harder to keep the line out of the water on the backcast, and so you'll find yourself lifting your arm higher and holding it there while casting. It cuts down greatly on distance too, at least for me.

And distance is everything when blind casting. If you can only cast, say, 40 feet, then you can really only retrieve the fly 10-15 feet before you need to pick up and recast. If you can cast 50 feet, you're now able to retrieve the fly for 20-25 feet. So just a 10' longer cast doubles your effective fishing time and coverage areas (and gives you a better rest between casts).

Be sure to use a fly which is very streamlined and easy to cast. I think Deceivers are great for this, even in larger sizes, and they're also great for imitating larger baitfish. I've caught some nice trout on plain white Deceivers, but use whatever color you have confidence in.

Finally, since you have some conventional gear and friend fishing with you, you could always wait until someone hooks up before breaking out the long rod. Then at least you would know some fish are around and on the feed before you start buggy-whipping.

One things for sure - you won't catch one on your fly rod until you start waving it around. It's easy to come up with excuses to keep it in the tube, but it sounds like it's time for you to make the move!


----------



## dsim3240 (Nov 12, 2008)

I agree with Bruce, You won't catch em if you don't use your fly rod. When I wade fish with my rod I blind cast into deeper water while I am looking for fish to sight cast to. This is how I catch most of my trout. As far as flies I use poppers in the morning and late evening and an assortment of streamers(bendbacks, clousers, decievers) during the day. I find that trout will eat about anything a Reds will eat except for crabs.
Hope you have go luck on yur trip.


----------



## bamdvm (Apr 3, 2010)

Thanks for the advice guys. Will hopefully be able to post some pics next week.


----------



## Kjodie (Jan 9, 2009)

Please come back and post your results, i'll be down there in 3 weeks and i would love to know how you did.

Also, The wind, that is a big factor on breaking out the long rod. REALLY windy days are not worth it to me. When its calm enough, i've had my friends just drop me off with a walkie talkie in my pocket. The range on those things is like 20 miles now, so you can stay in contact, but they can go do their thing and you can break out the fly gear. 

I mostly sight cast to tailing or cruising reds. Spoonflies, rattling shrimp and other shrimp patterns are my favorites.


----------



## Newf-Fly (Sep 8, 2009)

Damdvm,
Wish you the best of luck. I fished Baffin last week and posted a similar question on whats a popular fly for the area. I ended up catching most of my fish on conventional tackle simply becuase throwing a fly in a 25mph wind isn't practicle. We started the day on yaks going one way then the wind would shift 180 deg so we moved spots then the wind would shift back. It was a struggle for sure. Landed some 27 and 28" trout in our party but like I said tough blind casting or site casting in 2 foot chop. If you can catch Baffin on a light wind, should be amazing.


----------

