Hold on for Fat Albert - Fishing for Fall False Albacore in North Carolina

"Eight-weights come here to die," said Captain Lee as we boarded his eighteen foot Boston Whaler Outrage aptly named "Gottafly". "They just don't have enough backbone for that last thirty feet of pull."

Our Crew

The "we" would be Sam Burgin, his nephew Jeff Robinson and myself. The eight-weight would be the fly rod and line. The pull would be from what the locals in eastern North Carolina call "fat alberts" - the mighty false albacore, "Albies", Little Tunny, Euthynnus Lineatus. The last thirty feet would be the most difficult part of a long exciting fight from a ten to fifteen pound fish on fifteen pound tippet. And, by the way, the groans you may hear in the background would be from all of us with our aching forearms!

Our Captain

We were fishing with Captain Lee Parsons from Wilmington, NC, in the annual fall run of these overgrown footballs. Captain Lee, an Orvis endorsed flyfishing guide, moves the "Gottafly" to Harkers Island, NC for the two month run of fish in October and November. The fishing is that good off Cape Lookout for these fish during those two months.

The Right Spot

On day one we ran from the island and out through the hook behind the Cape Lookout lighthouse. A stiff breeze kicked the water up a bit and made surfacing feeding fish difficult to see. So, we migrated east toward Beaufort Inlet looking for fish and conversing with other captains on the VHF. We found a cluster of boats following a big trawler close to the inlet, and quickly fell in line with the other boats.

Fly Tackle

Tackle consisted of ten and eleven weight rods, fifteen pound tippet, and a Clouser, Deceiver, or half and half fly in pink and chartreuse on a #4 stainless hook - hand tied, of course.

The Technique

The idea here is "dump and run" as Captain Lee called it. After running as close as safely possible and insuring we would not tangle a line in the trawler nets, we would drop our sinking line with our fly and dump all of our fly line. When the sinking fly straightened all the line, we stripped line like there was no tomorrow, and prepared for a freight train to attempt to take the rod out of our hands! If we did not get a strike, we did it again. After several dumps, we would run back up behind the moving trawler and repeat the process. Other boats attempted to cast to surface striking fish, but Captain Lee said the Albies would be down feeding behind the nets more than on the surface, so we fished deep.

Hold On!

Try to picture a 150 yard first run, possibly an equal second and third run, and then a deep sounding. You can be assured that the last thirty feet will make mince meat of anything less than a ten or eleven. Captain Lee is right - as he should be. After all, he has been doing this for quite a while.

Great Catch

The total for day one was ten fish, the two largest were sixteen and a half and seventeen. Not bad considering the record is right at twenty-six pounds!