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The Graveyard Shift

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  • Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):
    Fly Fishing, Surfcasting, Bass Fishing, and Fishing in general
  • What I do for a living:
    Commercial Real Estate

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    Male
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    Boston Area

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  1. I made this fly to work as a suspender. If you don't want the night colors you can just change to pearl colored Ez Body, white foam, and your choice of Squimpish Hair colors. If you want it to have a bit more buoyancy add a small top wing of bucktail fibers.
  2. No problem. The last comment I have is the rods were designed for compact heavy heads. I accidentally bought a normal tarpon line which had a 39' 385 grain head and I absolutely hated it for the Exocett 10wt surf rod.
  3. First thing I want to put out there: I fish 95% of the time at night so I rarely fish heavy surf unless its is a bright night and there is big swell (A very rare scenario). Since storms tend to generate those conditions its generally close to pitch black and after getting my ass kicked really bad by well overhead waves I did not see coming in the dark now if the surf is over 6' I just fishing using my surfcasting gear at night from a safe position on the sand. So I still do fish beaches in moderate waves 3-5' with a fly rod at night and in general if I am going to do that I take my 12wt rod and throw my full sinking line with my floating McKenna Special fly pattern. I also fish boulder fields and other rocky area in 3-5' waves and I also use the 12wt rod with an intermediate line and the same floating fly pattern. So I will be the first to admit "Out Front" fly fishing is not my main way to target fish. Those getting in the water in those wild conditions is not something I do anymore as I am getting older and have a lot of injuries so trying to do it in the dark is just too big a risk for me. Here is the breakdown of where I fish my Exocett Rods over an average 60 trip striper season: 40% of trips are to inlets 25% of trips to rocky points or boulder fields 25% of trips to estuaries usually targeting light lines at bridges or herring runs in the spring 10% of trips are to beaches Here is my feedback on both Exocett Surf Rods: 10 Weight: 1. Fully integrated lines with 425-450 grain 30' heads are my preference. I have had good luck loading the rod with the Rio Outbound series, Rio Coastal Quickshooter series, and Wulff Triangle Taper line series. These lines all have a 30lb core strength so keep your leaders 25lbs or lighter. I use either a 3 foot long leader with a dropper at 20" from the loop knot (Dropper is 8-10" long to a 25lb TA clip) then 16" to the TA 50lb clip for the floating fly. This slider/dropper leader is made out of 25lb mono. If I am going to fish big solo flies 8-12" then I use a 3 foot straight 25lb fluro leader ending in a TA 50lb clip. 2. The type of line you use makes a huge difference in performance in wind. With the Rio Outbound 10wt floating line I can comfortably cast flies 4-7" 60-70 feet in wind up to 10mph with little difficulty. With the Rio Outbound 10 wt 6ips sinking head version of the line casting 4-7" flies 80-90' in 10mph wind is not difficult. In general if the wind is over 10mph I will reach for my 12wt instead of the 10wt. 3. Generally I fish with my floating line 8/10 trips I use the 10wt rod. I primarily use a top water fly pattern I tie: which is a rattling slider that pushes a nice v wake with a dropper rig in front that uses a 25lb tactical angler clip. I change out the dropper fly to match the bait I am seeing in the water. For droppers I carry 1" size 4 ultra shrimp, 2" size 2 ultra shrimp, 2.5" size 2 ez body minnows, 3.5" size 1 ez body minnows, 3" size 2 worm flies, and 4" single feather flatwings. I can also switch out from the dancing minnow to a flawing gurgler for the top water if I am going to dead drift or swing. I find in beaches with light surf, estuaries, or inlets this combination on the Rio floating 10wt outbound full integrated line is awesome. It allows me to cover a lot of water, attract fish, and match other small bait in the water. Steve Culton is big on the three fly rig which I have done, but I prefer only one dropper and a clip so I can change flies very fast and multiple times over the course of a trip instead of a fixed team of three different flies. The other thing i do is I fish crab flies like nymphs with a glowing indicator on this rod around mussel beds with rip currents. I use flies that are all less than 7" in length on my floating 10wt line. 4. If I am going to throw big flies 8-12" in length I fish the Rio Outbound 10wt line that has the intermediate running line with 5ips/7ips head configuration. With this line I am very happy throwing 8-12" conomo special and beast flies in winds up to 10mph. I find at night I can comfortably cast this big fly and sinking line combo 60-90 feet. This is what I use during herring runs or at inlets when I think eels, bunker, or squid are present. In general these areas have moderate to fast current ranging 4-8' deep or are quite deep 8-15' with slower current. 12 Weight: 1. Fully integrated lines with 500-525 grain 30' heads are my preference. I have had good luck loading the rod with the Rio Elite Tropical Outbound series and at the Cape Cod Canal I use the Rio Elite Levithan series. The Elite Tropical lines all have a 50lb core strength so this allows me to use a 40lb leader comprised of 3 feet of fluorocarbon to a 50lb TA clip. The Elite Levithan series has a 75-80bl core strengh so I fish a 60lb leader comprised of 3 feet of fluorocarbon to a 125lb TA Clip. 2. I fish 50% of my trips with the 12wt using the Rio Elite Tropical 12wt Float/1ips/2ips (clear tip) fly line. This works great fishing shallow inlet rips 6' or less in depth, fishing beaches in moderate surf (3-5' waves), and I fish this line at rock points and boulder fields. I use floating flies that fight against the intermediate sink rate to keep a near surface presentation. The two main flies I use are my McKenna Special and my variation of Rich Murphy's RM Shortfin which I have dubbed the Murphy Special. 3. I fish 35% of my trips with the Rio Levithan line in the 12/13wt version which has a 26 foot long 500 grain head with 1.5ips running line to a 8.5ips head. I use this setup at most of my inlets to fish flies deep 10-15' and at the canal to get deep enough (no way you are getting to the bottom in 4kts of current but hanging down 8-10feet is sufficient). 4. I fish 15% fo my trips using the Rio Elite Tropical 12 full floating fly line. This is what I use to wake big flies for bass focused on herring in the spring or bunker in the summer.
  4. June I did a lot of night trips, but the highlights were two epic first light tailing fish trips with local Cape guide Steve Kean. On the night portion of the trip I was catching tons of shad. Fish wanted sandeel clouser with a well placed cast to the tailing at sunrise Later in the morning as water got to high to see tails working poppers produced fun action. Later when the sun got higher I was able to do some solid sight fishing as well. Steve also got in on the sight fishing action.
  5. May was pretty interesting with herring and stripers showing up about 2 weeks earlier than normal. Been trying to not remove fish from water for all my solo photos. I was lucky one night to have John Fields fishing with me and he took that one picture.
  6. I realized four season back the weird light hits I was getting at night in certain areas were squid after I finally snagged a couple in a similar manner. Another critter that often hits my flies but gets hooked rarely are american eels.
  7. On the 10 wt I use Rio Outbound short lines and they cast great. They only have 30lb cores so I use 25lb 3-4' leaders (Mono for floating line and fluoro for the sinking line) My 12wt I fish at the canal with 40lb leaders so I use Rio Leviathan 12/13wt line which has a 70lb core strength. I have snapped fly line cores before but unless you are fishing insane currents from shore you probably do not need to consider that problem. For everywhere else I use the Rio Tropical Outbound 12wt line that is the floating line with clear intermediate tip. This is what I fish in boulder fields and shallow inlets or beaches in surf. Fast and deep inlets canal or otherwise I throw the Leviathan line.
  8. This is part of why I fish 90% of my trips at night.
  9. I use the T&T surf rods on 90% of my trips. Get the 12WT and use full integrated lines with 30' head tapers in the 500-550 grain range. I have broken my T&T rods 3 times since I got them in 2018. T&T has charged a very reasonable repair fee and returned them in 90 days. Breaking rods is normal if you fish hard and usually they break due to a mistake you made. The 10wt is a great rod if you want to save your shoulders a lot of pain by casting two hand overhead but I dont think it offers the advantages to cast in moderate to high wind or throw large flies that the 12wt offers.
  10. So last month on two separate trips my glasses saved my right eye. I was fishing at the start of some of the storms that came through and wind gusts caught on two separate occasions. I also always wear a hood on these trips. Its way more common for me to hit myself in the back or head or neck than the face and the hook keeps me from actually getting hurt badly. If its hot I wear a sun hoodie otherwise a normal hoodie. Lately I have been wetsuiting without a hood and paid for it. Part of why I remove my hook barbs
  11. Congrats! Thats an epic day of fly fishing. Both of those species are on my bucket list to catch!
  12. I would completely agree. Boat tactics are very different than from shore. Some flies I throw with great success on my friends boat will never get use from me at night wading.
  13. I would say my two favorite flies are both Rich Murphy patterns. Both pictures are ones I took of display flies at Rich Murphy's booth at the MA Fly Fishing Show. I tie my own variations but figured showing the original pattern makes more sense. Conomo Special RM Shortfin
  14. Yup, been fishing but took a break from a lot of other time consuming things like SOL. Life got in the way. Still living in Hingham and prowling the South Shore primarily after dark. I did get two really cool sight fishing trips with Steve Kean back in June on the Cape. Tailing fish at first light then fish on poppers then finished with some legitimate sight casting to cruising fish.
  15. Those are almost all squimpish. I do work in some EP big game fibers to add translucency and flash.
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