If you fly fish with me, you know we fish a lot of different patterns over the season: topwater poppers, streamers, clousers, half & halfs, Baymen Universals, Baymen Clousers, spun deer hair “sliders”, crabs, shrimp, “worms”, eels, mackerel, peanut bunker… all of these and a lot more as imitation fly patterns. They all work at one time of another. Top colors for saltwater striped bass patterns? White, Chartreuse, Olive, Black. I also like a little pink, a little crystal flash and little red in most of the flies I tie. I also like dark backs, and peacock hurl is my first choice for a back dressing. It has a lovely flowing motion in the water.

For fly lines, we fish three: RIO intermediate lines with a sink rate of about 3″ inches per second, ORVIS full sink lines in 300 grain, and a whole host of floating lines for fishing poppers or streamers/Baymen Universals over the weed beds in very skinny water. A floating line is the easiest to cast. But the RIO Intermediate fly lines – AMAZING….

For fly rods, we have been fishing Temple Fork Outfitters for at least twenty years. We have ORVIS rods on board and soon we will add a few Thomas & Thomas rods. These are just the rods we offer customers to fish with. Most fly rodders, as you know, are very particular about what rods they fish with and almost always bring much of their own gear. We have had fly rods on board from Winston, Sage, Scott, Echo, Thomas & Thomas, Loomis, Hatch… the list is endless. It is safe to say we have had every brand of fly rod on our boat over the last 26 years. And they are all good. It just depends on what rod and what style and what flex feels right to you in your own hands.

For fly reels, I have been a hard core Scientific Angler System II 89 fly reel user for twenty years. (The one’s made in England, salt anodized). They are BULLET PROOF fly reels! I am very, very hard on my equipment. I guide 120+ trips a season and also fish a lot on my own. My gear gets the maximum workout year to year and Sci Angler reels have stood the test of time. That said, good luck finding any. They stopped making them several years ago and I diligently search the internet for any used ones in good condition that become available. I have four that we are still fishing hard. They show their battle scars but they work like they are brand new out of the box, twenty years later!!!

I will give you an inside tip on the direction I am moving in for my fly reel upgrades: ORVIS Hydros SL IV. The reviews are over the top, I have several clients that swear by them, and all indications are these fly reels can stand the hard use and abuse we will give them season in and season out. So, expect to see the ORVIS Hydros SL IV on my guided trips in the future. We are going to run them through the mill and see how they stand up. STAY POSTED:

That’s my thoughts and expert advice on fly rods, fly reels, fly lines, and fly patterns. For leaders I keep it very simple: 6-9 feet of 20lb mono. The brand of your choice. Fluorocarbon is also fine. I use to buy commercial tapered fly leaders. Then I went to making all my own hand-tied leaders. But we were going through so many leaders over the season, that I went to straight 20lb mono and never looked back. If your a perfectionist, you know it won’t turn the fly over like a custom tapered leader. But it gets the job done for pennies per leader and my clients love them.

That is my fly gear in a nutshell on BAYMEN Fly Fishing Charters. There is a lot more to it, but this is the quick overview.

Tight Lines!

Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, baymenlife.com