Dorsal fin of a teased and eager marlin cuts through water as the fish turns toward a fly.

By Vic Dunaway

The ancient art of fly casting has long since shed its once-exclusive connection with salmon and trout. Democratically, it has gone on to em- brace bass and bluegills and most other fresh-water species, and in recent years has turned seaward to challenge every- thing from bonefish to huge sharks. But through it all, true devotees of the sport have maintained a lofty insistence on manual presentation of the fly-whether it be to conjure forth the illusory rise of a trout to a No. 22 dry, or the explosive lunge of a giant tarpon at a seven-inch streamer.

Size, large or small, means nothing. A present-day salt-water flyrodder would happily go after Moby Dick, if able, on his vise, to create some feathery imitation of Captain Ahab.

Any avid fly caster will instantly recognize and applaud the distinction between the phrases “fishing with a fly- rod" and "fly casting". Numerous offshore fish, including an occasional sailfish, have been taken over the years by anglers trolling with fly tackle. But not until 1962, when the late Dr. Webster Robinson of Key West landed a 74½- pound Pacific sailfish aboard Capt. Louis Schmidt's Caiman at Pinas Bay, Panama, was the first billfish officially registered to fly casting.

More than any other sports fishing specialty, fly casting is a game in which the end result is not favored with supreme satisfaction unless obtained through adherence to rather rigid rules concerning tackle and technique-foremost being that the fish must accept an artificial fly, presented and given whatever action is necessary to coax a strike only through manual efforts of the caster, and not through boat movement.

To a trout fisherman, the challenge of proper presentation lies in such things as depositing his tiny fly gently to a selected target area, and then employing further skill to drift the fly over a pre- determined course, while avoiding line drag or other unnatural motion.

The task of seducing a billfish to a fly is considerably less delicate, of course, but certainly no less difficult. On rare occasion---before and since Robinson's efforts an offshore fly fisherman has lucked into the opportunity to toss his fly at a surfacing billfish, only to find that while the fish may exhibit passing interest in the artificial, it is extremely unlikely that he will hit it.

Obviously, you could spend a lifetime cruising the ocean, looking for a sail or marlin that would make an inviting target for a fly. And if you did find such a target and got your fly to him, your odds of being rewarded with a spontaneous strike would be somewhat less than your chance of hitting the Irish Sweepstakes.

Webster Robinson realized this, and when lie captured his landmark sailfish in 1962, it was no fluke, but the payoff of an elaborate and carefully-planned system. But one winner doesn't prove a system, so in the next few years lie went on to catch more than a dozen Pacific sailfish, plus five striped marlin.

More important, other anglers began cashing in on the techniques, thereby demonstrating that a reliable system of fly casting for billfish had indeed been established. First to do so was J. Lee Cuddy of Miami, a close friend of Robinson's, as well as an angling counselor who had made suggestions which Robinson incorporated into his system. Cuddy has landed several fly-caught sailfish in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Other early followers included Stu Apte, Lee Wulff and Mark Sosin, and if the ranks of successful flyrod billfishermen are still pretty exclusive, it's no reflection on the Robinson system, but is due merely to the fact that not many folks combine the time, opportunity and determination to pursue what certainly must be the most ambitious specialty in all light-tackle angling.

Still, a handful of fishermen, other than those already named, have taken sailfish on the fly more recently--among them Florida Sportsman's Bob Stearns. And the newest milestone in the short history of this adventurous sport was reached last September by Billy Pate and his wife, Laura, of Islamorada, who racked up five black marlin while flycasting the famous waters off Cairns, Australia.

FEBRUARY-MARCH 1973

Pate, who earlier had taken a striped marlin in Ecuador, thus became the first fly-tosser to score on two different species of marlin; and Laura the first woman to catch any billfish on a fly.

Though the blacks were small ones, weighing between 38 and 46 pounds, Pate trimmed the edge by landing the 46-pounder on six-pound-test leader.

Pate is an expert fly fisherman whose experience covers all the major fly tar- gets of the world, from Oregon steelhead to Iceland salmon to Argentine trout to giant Florida Keys tarpon, still, he backgrounded himself thoroughly on the Robinson techniques before chasing billfish. In these academic preparations he was luckier than most because he was able to obtain the personal counsel of Robinson's widow, Helen, particularly as regards the all-important "teaser" techniques and timing.

We'll see shortly that skillful handling of the teaser bait is the heart of the operation, and from the Pates' success in Australia (and earlier in Ecuador), it's obvious that Helen Robinson taught her lessons well.

Although the principles of the Robin- son system are fairly well known by now in the fly-casting fraternity, a completely-detailed description of the entire procedure has never before been printed. It is offered here with the help and co- operation of Mrs. Helen Robinson, and based on voluminous notes left by her husband.

Where to Fish

"This whole thing is a waste of time," Doe wrote, "unless you can fish where there are plenty of billfish and plenty of chances."

We already have mentioned several prominent grounds: the Pacific waters of Panama, Ecuador and Mexico; even Cairns, Australia. But close to home there are fine opportunities, in season.

From fall through spring, sailfish are usually available in attractive abundance somewhere along the Southeast Florida coast between Key West and Vero Beach.

No doubt the best bet for an Atlantic sail on fly would be at Cozumel Island, Mexico, in spring.

White marlin prospects would seem to be excellent in the Tongue of the Ocean, out of Chub Cay or North Andros, Bahamas, in March and April. And the determined fly-caster would be almost certain to hook up in Venezuelan waters in October.

Tackle

The gutsiest flyrod available is called for, naturally, and this means one of the power models used for giant tarpon in the Florida Keys. Length of the rod is not very important, but most available are nine-foot or nine-foot, three- inch models. A No. 11 or No. 12 floatreel line is needed to match the rod. The reel should be heavy-duty single-action type with positive adjustable drag, and large enough to hold a minimum of 200 yards of 20-pound test braided Dacron backing. If you can use 30-pound back- ing, and still pack 200 yards or more on to the reel, so much the better.

Since this is a regulation endeavor, the leader must conform to rules. Doc Robinson used 12-pound-test tippet because that was the maximum allowed by his club. Under Salt Water Flyrodders of America regulations, which came later, a 15-pound-test class was established, along with several classes lighter than 12-pound, Presumably a first-timer would chose either 12- or 15-pound tippet.

Rules state that the light-tippet portion of the leader must measure at least 12 inches long. An additional shock tip- pet is allowed, and this must be no more than 12 inches long, including the knot or connection to the light tippet.

Robinson however, became convinced that the light tippet should be two feet long, or slightly more, to provide for additional stretch-cushion and to lessen punishment to the joining knots. This opinion is widely shared by flyrodders who chase any kind of large fish.

As to the 12-inch heavy tippet, Robinson chose Steelon, which he fixed to his fly and to a small swivel with crimped sleeves. Current fly fishermen would be more likely to tie the heavy tippet directly to the light, using the Albright special knot.

The simplest leader arrangement is this:

(1) A six-foot leader butt of 30- pound-test mono, tied to the fly line.

(2) A section of 12-pound mono (or whatever tippet class is chosen) measuring at least two feet. Actually, you should start with a longer length of 12-pound and double each end to obtain maximum knot strength. Elsewhere in this issue, associate editor Lefty Kreh describes a new knot, the Spider Twist, which makes doubling the line much faster, and just as strong, as the more widely known Bimini Twist.

(3) A one-foot length of heavy tip- pet, tied directly to the light tippet.

One important thing to watch out for: Your 12-inch allowance of heavier tippet must include both the knot and the remaining doubled portion of the light tippet.