A Testimonial by Capt. Travis Holeman on his Potential 4 lb. Tippet Red Fish Record Caught with Fly Water Expeditions!

Today started like any other day for Capt. Greg and I.  Question?  Which way do you want to go?  Breakfast is always surrounded by conversations of wind direction and tide.  We always throw ideas back and forth but the wind tells the truth.  Today it told us to sneak to a secret spot.  Nunya flat!

Time to fish.  As always I venture to the bow acting like a ballast and trying to sneak my way to fishing!  Whatever works.  Greg grabbed the push pole and joy washed over me like a wave.  Bow time!  Sweet.  Earlier at the boat ramp Greg was showing off his knot skills while stalling for the sun to begin to warm the flats.  I tied the 4 lb. class to my 6wt fly rod and after careful fly selection Greg’s Hudini Crab in purple found it’s way to my rod.  Great fly.  Really great fly.

We made it about 30 yards and a fish floating high was glowing like a stop sign.  Big and red.  One false cast and shoot.  Worried about a shock break I stripped slow as the big fish followed the fly into the depths.  Just as she vanished I felt the tug.  Eased the rod to about 45% and smoothly let her clear the line.  Finally putting a little pressure on the big red.  With a little slip the fly was loose.  Bummer.  Oh well.  I was still wondering if that was the one…. looking out in a daze.  Greg whispers “yo I got another one…. floater.”

Seeing the floating red instantly.  I still had not stripped out the line from the previous fish.  Quickly judging the distance I stripped what I thought would be 50 or so feet off the reel.  Greg shifted the boat to give me a clean cast.  What followed was awesome.  After watching the fly cast land perfectly and the big red pounce all I could think about was we aren’t videoing!   The cast landed perfect, I stripped and she followed.  Swing and a miss… strip, strip.  Again I was a little worried about setting the hook and did so very softly as she ate the fly.  15-20 min. later the huge red came to the boat.  I really enjoyed fishing a trout rod for our huge reds.  The 6 wt allowed for a much better shock absorber than say an 8 or 9 wt rod.

Greg jumped into place after expertly maneuvering the boat to keep me in prime fighting position.  Greg gave the boat one last push on the pole, I swung the big red back to Greg as the boat passed putting him and her in position for a gorilla grip landing.  As Greg had informed me earlier we had no net,… the plan had to work to land the fish.  Thankfully we land most fish by tailing, so it was no big deal.  Greg’s face lit up like a kid on Easter.  Fish landed and all gear still kicking.  Great fish.  Great day.  Great friends.  Thanks Greg.  Capt. Greg landed a huge black drum on 8 lb. after we ate and had a very long time to enjoy what had just happened.  I just landed the best fish I have ever caught.  Gotta love it when it all comes together.

Catch-em Big!

Travis Holeman

727-644-4347

travis@holemanbrothers.com

Potential World Record Redfish on 4 lb. Tippet!

Capt. Travis Holeman and I went out today to have a guides day off. I took Travis to a place I have been finding some big fish so we tied on 4 lb IGFA standard tippet and waited till we saw the right fish to throw at. Travis was armed with a 6 weight, felt like we were going to a gun fight with a knife but that is what we had to do. Our fish finally showed himself, Travis laid a perfect 50-60 ft. cast in and the red fish pounced on the fly. With 4 lb tippet you really can’t set the hook so Travis just cleared the line without breaking the tippet and that is when we figured we had a shot. After a 15-20 minute fight the fish came to the boat and I laid the gorilla grip on his tail to make sure he didn’t get away. When the fish came in the boat we knew he had a shot to break the current 29 lb record. The red fish weighed in on the boga grip between 29.5-30 lbs. We measured his length and girth and they measure out at 25″ girth, 42.5″ length with calculates out to over 29.5 pounds which would be a new world record for 4 lb tippet on fly rod. We are submitting everything to the IGFA so cross your finger for us, We also caught a 43 pound Black drum on 8 lb tippet today but that didn’t come close to the current 8 lb tippet black drum record which is nearly 60 lbs. Tight lines!

WHO DAT Redfish Nation!

Went out with Matt a few days ago and he couldn’t help but to show off his Louisiana redfish and WHO DAT Saints T-shirt, Go Saints!

The Louisiana Marsh was on fire today!

We had an incredible day on the water today in the Louisiana Marsh. Great weather and monster redfish and black drum roaming everywhere on the flats. We landed 7 redfish on fly today all over 25 pounds with the two biggest being 30 and 38 pounds and this doesn’t even include the numerous other black drum we caught. The fish were pouncing on the fly as soon as it hit the water and we were taking advantage of their aggresive behavior. These are the days that make the marsh shine and show that is a great fly fishing destination.

Cold weather redfishing report

Fly Water Expeditions has been getting out on the water the past few days after the extreme cold temperatures kept a lot of the redfish and blackdrum off of the flats. The water is starting to warm up a bit and the redfish have been coming back into the marsh and are on a feed. It looks like we will continue to get a warming trend which should get the water temps back into the mid 50′s turning the fishing on. The reds have been eating big crab flies and have been a ton of fun on the 9 wt rods. Tight Lines

The water in the Louisiana marsh is super clean

The weather had given us a bad run for a few weeks but things are starting to stabalize. We are getting consitent shots at big redfish and black drum over 20 pounds every day. The water in the Louisiana marsh is super clean right now making it great for sight fishing. We have landed a bunch of fish in the 20-40 pound range over the past couple weeks and more redfish and drum are showing up in the marsh in between cold fronts. Tight lines!

Happy New Year from Louisiana

Happy New Year from the Louisiana the best red fishing destination in the world. Still dates available and the fishing continues to get better.

Call me

Captain Greg Dini, Fly Water Expeditions

New Orleans, Louisiana

407-538-0770

Capnd13@gmail.com

Louisiana Guide Rates

Shy redfish

We had great weather again today and I had Taku and Raneigh in the boat from New York. Both of them great fly casters and they were both members of the Golden Gate fly casters club when they lived in San Francisco. The fishing was a little tougher today maybe due to the fron that will be coming through tonight. There weren’t as many fish on the flats and the redfish that were there were nipping at the fly and a little spooky, the fish wern’t acting like Louisiana redfish today. We still managed to get a few shots at some monster redfish in the 25- 30 pound range and Raneigh landed a nice 19 pound fish on fly as well as a few other 8-10 pound fish. Even though the fishing was slow we still had a great time out on the water. Tight Lines!

BoldWater and Saltyshores

We snuck a half day trip in before Derek Redwine from BoldWater and Sam Root from Saltyshores had to be at the airport.

After a big hearty breakfast at Penny’s and picking up our Po Boys for lunch we were off to the Louisiana Marsh. The wind was still honking pretty good but we persevered. Both Derek and Sam got some nice redfish on fly. Sam shot a lot of incredible video and pictures. I’m excited to see how it comes out.

Before it was time to pack it in and get these guys to the airport Derek said he would pole me up the next bay. It didn’t take long to find a victim, at first I thought it was a decent redfish siting on the point. As I fired off the fly a big tail hit the surface, and a couple strips and an enormous Black Drum face engulfed my fly. I think Sam got the bite on video. After that we took some pictures and headed for the barn.

Derek and Sam said the check in at the airport was quick and painless. The next few days it looks like I will have some good weather for my charters.

If you want to hit up some Big Louisiana redfish call me, the fishing will continue to get bigger and better for the next few months and I still have some openings.

Fishing the Louisiana Marsh

Started the day off catching a few reds on jig.

BoldWater gets a nice redfish on Fly.

Sam Root gets a good redfish on fly

Louisiana redfish

My 40 pound black drum on fly

A couple celebratory beers and we are off!

Louisiana Black Drum on Fly

Back at it again today on the Biloxi Marsh. Another day of nice conditions, a little breezier today then the past 3 but we still found a ton of fish. We went to the outside today to go search for some big redfish and started off by catching a few nice 6-12 pound fish on fly. We were throwing a purple and tan cran fly that I have been tying for the past few years and the fish were jumping all over it. After we messed around with the little fish we fished some deeper shore lines to look for the big boys. We got 2 shots at big redfish today and one was a freaking stud. The fish was tailing in about 2 1/2 ft of water and we could see him from a ways off. When we got closer I could tell he was a huge fish, I estimated him to be between 35-40 lbs. Craig made the shot and the fly landed 2 ft in front of the fish. The fish started to track the fly and then it all went wrong. My pushpole hit and oyster and made a loud screetch and the fish bolted, oh well. We still had a great day on the water landing 14 redfish on fly and one monster 25 lb black drum. I’m back out on the water again tomorrow to do some fun fishing. Tight Lines!

Louisiana Black drum caught on fly

Releasing a fly caught black drum.