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Rods
I generally fish with 3 rods when bluewater fly fishing, a 9, a 10 and a 12 weight. You could certainly use a smaller rod, say a 7 or 8 weight, on fish in the 8 to 12 pound range, and it’s always a good idea to be prepared for whatever swims. However, most of our clients are looking for larger fish when in the “blue” so I think that a 9 weight should be at the lower end of the size spectrum for the rods that you are considering bringing for Bluewater fly fishing. A 12 weight is at the upper end of the size spectrum in terms of what you want to be using throughout the course of the days fishing. Big dolphin, wahoo, kings and sailfish can all be subdued with a 12 weight. We’ve had a couple of clients bring down larger rods but they seem to lose their interest in casting them within a couple of hours, especially if it hot and there’s not much of a breeze. I highly recommend the Loomis FR10812-4 GLX 12 weight for your Bluewater trip. It’s an excellent 4-piece travel rod that can handle just about anything but big marlin and large tuna.

Reels
Unless you have a great deal of Bluewater fly fishing experience and have been on many trips, I would recommend that you use an anti-reverse reel rather than a direct drive reel. For one thing, the direct drive reel handle can shred the knuckles of an angler that’s not paying attention when the fish is making on of its screaming runs. ( I’ve seen this happen fairly often when the angler is focusing on where he or she thinks the fish is, and not what the reel is doing) Secondly, many inexperienced Bluewater fly rodders will end up losing nice fish near the end of the fight when the fish makes it’s final dash from the boat while the angler is frantically reeling in. If the angler is using a direct drive reel, the class tippet will inevitably snap under the pressure of the fish bolting as the angler is cranking down on the reel. The anti-reverse reel will allow the fish to pull out line while the angler is reeling in. The bottom line is that an anti-reverse is more forgiving in terms of the mistakes that a novice Bluewater fly rodder will inevitably make. It’s all about timing and anticipation and those fly rodders with the benefit of Bluewater experience can sense when to back off on the reel or when to loosen the drag on a direct drive reel.

Fly Line
I highly recommend coming down to Belize for Bluewater action with both a weight forward intermediate sinking
line as well as weight forward fast sink lines. Tropical lines like those for tarpon are excellent because they’re stiff, which makes them easier to cast. And, they’re less likely to tangle in the Belizean heat. Using a floating line can occasionally be productive, but I generally don’t like them for Bluewater fly fishing. The intermediate line is more difficult to pick up because the line is not floating on the surface, but it cuts the wind better when you are casting it and, they rarely if ever will drag poppers down before you have to make a new cast when using top-water flies. The fast sink line (IV or V) is a b$#%@ to cast for distance but it does get the whole line down quickly, which is often more important than getting the fly well away from the boat. SA (Scientific Angler) has a wide selection of fly lines to cover all aspects of the Bluewater experience and I highly recommend their products.

Leaders
Your Bluewater leader should be tapered and 9 to 12 feet in length. Anything more than 12 feet is unnecessary for this type of fly fishing. For a 9-weight rod, I recommend that your butt section be 30 to 40 pound mono, followed by a 20/10 build-down configuration. If using a 10-weight or heavier, the butt section should be 40 to 50-pound mono, followed by a 30/20 pound build-down configuration. Consult the chart on the equipment page for precise test/length specifications. The IGFA rules stipulate that the “class tippet” can be no more than 16-pound test. However, BFFE is not about world record fish, and because we prefer to release just about everything we catch, we’re not too worried about using heavier “class tippet” in the leaders that our guests use. It’s more about landing some nice fish, taking some great photos, letting the fish go, and enjoying the day. Mind you, if someone in the boat lands a nice wahoo, we’re having wahoo steaks for dinner!

Tippet
For fish in the 10 to 15-pound class, (skip jacks, bonito, yellowfin tuna, and schoolie dorado) you’ll need a shock tippet of 12 pound stiff mono. This can be attached directly to the class tippet with either a Blood Knot or a Surgeons Knot. For heavier fish, up to 30 or 40-pounds (large dorado, tuna, and big jacks) I recommend a 40 pound shock tippet of hard mono. For sailfish (Atlantic) rigs, all that’s required for the shock tippet is a 60-pound soft mono. Because of where we base our Bluewater program out of (Glovers Reef), and the subsequent number of toothy critters that swim the area, wire tippets are just a fact of life for a great deal of our Bluewater fishing. Both wahoo and kingfish have razor sharp teeth that will slice through even the heaviest of mono shock tippets. Massive barracudas (40+pounds) will also cut through everything but the strongest of single strand wire. So, guests who are serious about Bluewater fly fishing should bring with them an assortment of single strand wire tests, up to 80 pounds. American Wire makes an excellent product with a good variety of test strengths from which to choose.

     

Bluewater Flies