Morehead City, North Carolina
On The Fly Saltwater
December 2024
By Jimmy Jacobs
In order to catch a false albacore on the fly, you need a boat with an experienced seaman at the helm, cold weather, lots of baitfish in the water and enough patience to outlast the albies. This sport combines long minutes scanning the surface as you hunt for “bait balls” with the predatory albies churning the surface as they attack the baitfish. Often there will be gulls and terns diving on the bait as well.
Gulls and albies in a feeding frenzy on a bait ball. Photo by Jimmy Jacobs.
If all of those factors line up and you get into casting range of the feeding frenzy, everything changes. To be politically incorrect, the scene turns into the proverbial Chinese fire drill! Gulls are squawking, bait fish are flying out of the water, albies are slashing and splashing on top and, if you are new to the sport, you are likely suffering “buck fever” as you beat the water with over-anxious casts. Should one of the albies still take your fly, you hang on as it makes its initial run, convinced the fish will break off at any moment.
All of which explains why fly casters make the pilgrimage to the North Carolina coast each fall.
Our first venture to the Cape Lookout area to try for false albacore on the fly took place back in 2003. That trip resulted in two hook ups, a broken leader and thrown hook. In other words, we got skunked.
Fast forward to the fall of 2023 and we were back at Cape Lookout again. This time Mother Nature did not cooperate, giving us great beach weather with November temperatures in the low 80s. That was the first time we had been anywhere and told the fishing was bad because the weather was too good! Again, we headed home fishless.
Ever the optimists, November of 2024 found us back at Cape Lookout. That optimism was reinforced by the fact we would be fishing with Capt. Jake Jordan, one of the legends of fly fishing in southern waters. Jordan has been fly fishing in saltwater since he left the Marine Corps in 1963.
Associate Editor Polly Dean with Capt. Jake Jordan in the early morning mist. Photo by Jimmy Jacobs.
At first, he headed to the Florida Keys. “That was the best fishing in the U.S. at the time,” Jake explained.
Over the years he was a contemporary and fellow traveler with other legends of the long rod like Lefty Kreh and Mark Sosin. In the Keys, Jordan focused on tarpon fishing, which he still does in the spring months.
In 2000, he began fishing in the Cape Lookout region of North Carolina and for six years he visited the area as a customer of other guides. Then in 2006, he made the move to the area and began guiding for false albies. Again, he noted that the Carolina coast was then the best for saltwater action in the nation.
Despite those fishing ventures, Jake is best known as the premier angler and guide for taking billfish on the fly in blue water. He offers fly-fishing school sessions for blue marlin in Costa Rica, striped marlin in Mexico and sailfish in Guatemala, as well as hosting black marlin trips to Australia.
Jake Jordan was elected to the Southern Fly Fishing Hall of Fame in Bryson City, North Carolina as part of the class of 2023.
As we pulled away from the dock at Radio Island in Morehead City, our optimism took a hit, as Jake explained we should have been there yesterday when the action was fast and furious. But this morning the wind had kick up, coming out of the west. That left the sound inside “The Hook” of Cape Lookout as the place to fish, since the swells on ocean side made for nasty boating conditions.
“You need a north wind to push the bait toward shore,” Jake explained. “When the water gets cold, bait moves out of the sound to deeper, warmer water. The albies then come in from the Gulf Stream after them.” He also noted that the ablies always feed into the wind.
The bait he mentioned can be any of 14 species of fish. Some of those are silversides, finger mullet, greenies and menhaden. The best ones to find, however, are bay anchovies, since they tend to stay on the surface in bait balls for longer periods of time.
A pair of silversides, along with a Popovic Surf Candy fly we used to fool the albies. Photo by Polly Dean.
Capt. Jordan provided some last-minute tips on the fishing as we watched for the first of those bait balls to appear. “When you cast to the bait ball, don’t release the line from your hand,” he said. “Let it slip through your hand. When the fly hits the water, start moving it with long fast strips.” Jake added that you need to put the cast just beyond the surface action, then strip the fly back through it, keeping the rod tip low to or in the water while making the retrieve.
True to Jake’s prediction about being there a day earlier, the albies were shy about showing themselves this morning. When they did, it was for very short time periods. When we did get shots at them, despite the captain maneuvering the boat to provide the best casting angle, the wind and the earlier mentioned buck fever had us throwing some ugly casts at the fish.
The first albie of the trip. Photo by Capt. Jake Jordan.
Eventually, I did finally get a hook up and felt the power of this member of the tuna family as it made a swift initial run. Then the line went slack, making me think I had lost the albie. But both Capt. Jordan and Capt. Braden Miller, who was handling the job of mate for the day, told me to reel like crazy, since the fish had turned and was running toward the boat.
Then the fish dove and Jake instructed me to pull up on the rod and then reel down, repeating the pumping action until the leader cleared the surface. Capt. Miller then got the leader in one hand and grabbed the fish by the tail, which made for a great handle for yanking it over the gunnel.
After that catch, the surface action died down and the weather worsened. As a result, Jake suggested we head back in and, if the weather improved, get in the other half of our day of fishing the next morning.
That proved to be a great call. At the dock the next day, the wind was down a bit, though the offshore waters were still choppy. We again headed for the inside of The Hook. With Cape Lookout lighthouse for a back drop, we once again started hunting bait balls. However, this morning the fish were more cooperative.
Capt. Braden Miller and Polly Dean with one of her albies. Photo by Jimmy Jacobs.
In short order Associate Editor Polly Dean was fast into one of the albies. As the morning progressed, she caught one more, while I also managed to put a pair in the boat as well. All these fish were in the 8- to 10-pound range, giving us all the fight we could handle. By the time we headed back to the dock around noon, the fishing had once again died off. Still, we had gotten the albie “monkey off our backs,” and finally got to experience this exciting fishing.
For more information on the fishing or to book a trip, visit Capt. Jake Jordan’s website at jakejordan.com. As you might expect, days on the water with Jake are in high demand. If he is booked up, check out Capt. Braden Miller’s webpage at millertimeflies.com. He can put you in midst of similar action as well.
