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Bluefish Video

I've been a reader of (and rare contributor to) Flies and Fins ever since one of my buddies directed me to the site about two years ago. I've always admired the video footage Jeremy shoots to accompany the Fish Tales, so I've contacted him a few times about collaborating on some stuff for my day job as a magazine editor. But we'd never actually met or fished together. That is until a perfect confluence of events came together that resulted in this epic trip. I've had a 20' center console and tow vehicle at my disposal this summer for a magazine article and accompanying web video. One thing I really wanted to do was trailer the boat to a prime location for targeting bluefin tuna on the fly. From reading Flies and Fins, I knew Jeremy was dialed into a lot of New England waters, so I shot him an email asking him if he wanted go in on it with me. He immediately sprang into action and worked his network to help set up this whole trip. The weekend before the trip, I got about five voicemails from Jeremy, all saying, "Dude, you won't believe what's happening here. ACRES OF FISH. ACRES!" So I trailered the boat from New York City up to northern Connecticut with my brother. We met Jeremy at the boat ramp, and he was already going 100 miles per hour. Bear in mind, this is the first time we'd met in person. He had with him a gallon of coffee, which he drank in

about five minutes, and managed to somehow smoke four or five unfiltered Pall Malls at the same time. (He also drank three or four Cokes on the boat.) My brother and I are both pretty laid back and mellow, so when we got on the water and Jeremy started getting fired up, we were like, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Turns out we were getting into fish like you wouldn't believe. We started scouting and found some small busts that we wanted to fish but Jeremy kept saying, "I know there are fish here, but trust me guys, if you let me find them, we'll be into bluefish like you've never seen." So we trusted him and left those fish to hit some other spots. I was amazed when he said, "HUGE pod , fish under them" pointing to working birds about five miles away. So we found this hot rip between two small islands, where we had about a half mile stretch of busting bluefish all to ourselves. And I mean it was HOT. "See, this is what I was talking about," Jeremy told us. We started targeting the bluefish on crease flies with explosive results. Bluefish, in my mind, are one of the most underrated fly rod gamefish. They put up one of the best fights for their size of any fish, they hammer topwater flies, and they leap like largemouth bass. What's not to like? We set up a drift over, just as Jeremy had said, ACRES OF FISH. (With all the anglers on the east coast, getting such an epic bust all to yourself is extremely rare.) We had a phenomenal day on the blues, and as Jeremy will surely tell you in his Fishtale, the fishing over the next few days would only get better. Better like you wouldn't believe. (Hint: think hardtails.) Turns out Jeremy is an extremely generous angler, often forgoing his turn on the bow to scout fish and shoot video. And with those fishspotting eyes, he's welcome on my boat any time. I'll pay for the coffee and smokes.