Flying fish

[bigfish4me]

When ever we get out to the canyons up here off south jersey i look forward to seeing flying fish, gracefull and just plain old neat the way they soar just above the crests of the waves....ever rig one up? I am wondering how one would get thier hands on some of these little gems, we know the tunas and i am pretty sure marlin eat these little buggers, they seem perfect size to rig up.....from what i read they are plankton feeders, and dont really school up thick enough to cast net....or do they? Ive seen some artificials that look decent but like the song goes there aint nothing like the real thing baby....any info would be appreciated...dont this thing scream EAT ME

[Pelagic Magic]

The only way we've ever caught them was being anchored up at night offshore with a light in the water.
They come right to the boat with the squid.
PM

[austin ensor]

anyone troll em in OC?? you can buy em dead

[sportfishingusa]

You want to rig them like a ballyhook basically except for the wings..

You want to take like a nice 8" piece of monel and run is around the wings into the eye socket and this will allow them to stay in the open (flying) position which is was you want! rig it with a pin rig if you feel like it or you can rig it with straight monel!

It works for pitch baits for mahi, it works great from a kite and also work on the troll.. they tend to skip and jump around but if the wings are tied up good they will swim down and dig deep for a second and then pop right back up!!

they are killer tuna candy!!

you can also use them on the chunk! i have caught them, snipped off half the wings, and sent them down with a little bit of weight (2-3oz) of lead and the tuna low them!! WOO HOO! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz FISH ON!

[rarhomes]

You want to rig them like a ballyhook basically except for the wings..


you can also use them on the chunk! i have caught them, snipped off half the wings, and sent them down with a little bit of weight (2-3oz) of lead and the tuna low them!! WOO HOO! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz FISH ON!

Got any pic's, I wanta use on my shallow rod or flat this weekend for swordfish.

Thanks,

[flatbottom]

These fish are incredible

4517

[Gut Wrench]

we had one jump in the boat,thru him in the cooler..rigged him up the next day on the kite 10 mins into it mr.wahoo nailed him..pretty cool!!

we can get frozen FF at our bait shops..

[Jared D]

I love the little guys. Everything offshore loves them too. If you have never seen one go straight vertical trying to escape a school of YFT.... they can get some air. We were watching them go 10 feet up, hanging there for what seemed like forever (probably .002 seconds) then start the freefall back to the carnage.

The only problem the flyers have is YFT dont wait for the flyers to hit the drink... they will jump 5 or 6 feet out the water to gobble up a flyer. All the wings really do is give fisherman the ability to watch a top water show... as they dont ever seem to be able to escape a tuna or Mahi thats zeroed in on em!

Gotta love the topwater carnage!

[SERprise]

The best way to get em is first you got to have 3 people. Have someone stand at the front of the boat with a 12 gauge shotty, I like benelli but mossberg's are good too loaded with birdshot just waiting for them lil guys to fly up and boom. Next the driver goes to the spot where the FF was shot and the person in aft of the boat sits waiting with his net to pick up whats left. This is just how we do it but it may not be the best way for you.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

I am in the offshore tip handing out mood So here it is....Someone earlier mentioned ff's and light and this is the key. On my longrange boat the Shogun we stockpiled ff's in our 6 deep freezes. We had hundreds all the time. Two guyts on the bow and two on the stearn with 12 foot dipnets with mono sacks and lots of light...Scoop away.

For fishing this is my alltime favorite invention for fishing. I was fiddling around with a flyer like I had been for weeks as I always ran the helium balloon and if the wind was wrong ran the kite. I had had trouble with my rigged flyers which I was flossing the wings back and after abit the floss would work it's way down the ray of the wings from hitting waves until the ff looked more like a mullet. The head cap Norm Kagawa walks up and go's...Wtf are you up to now??? I laughed and held up my new invention, pulled it's wing back and let go, they sprang back into place and his response was...How do you come up with this shit?

Take a #12 rubber band, cut it, and pass it via rigging needle through the eyes. Take one end and tie the first two rays of one wing with a double granny knot. The stretch the band a do the same to the other side. Works great and when he hits a wave the wings pull back and as he exits they spring back and he "flies"

Mike