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Random Quote: He who dies with the most toys wins.
Have any of you ever wondered about some of the charter guy's fishing reports? Does it ever seem like they kill it every day and put up pictures on the internet to drum up business? I just found out about a case where a guy reported some stuff that was complete fiction. He somehow got ahold of 3 pictures of one of my buddies and his 35 pound kingfish. He turned around and posted it as a 40+ pound fish caught in his area in a jon boat. He was saying in the report for everyone to hurry down because the big kings are on the beach. My buddy has no idea who the guy is or how he got the pictures. It is amazing to me that some douche would do that and put his name on the bottom of the report.
i seen pics of a king 40 plus pound king caught in jon boat in nc on other site. thing is picture was taken with guy standing in the jon boat. near wrightsville beach if same one. maybe copied pic but still pic shows fish in the jon boat.
There's always a few willing to do anything to drum up business... They usually are found out sooner rather than later. One of the few things a charter boat or fishing guide has to be careful about and that's their reputation. end of sermon
__________________ Tight Lines
Capt Bob LeMay
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That sounds like the same pics we are talking about. That fish was not caught in that boat. He was just taking it back to the house in the little boat. It was caught out of Murrells Inlet, SC.
I am sure that there is sometimes a 'bit of exaggeration' going on, but maybe not as often as you might think. I have run charter businesses in the past and during the season I could probably post a completely true 'impressive' report every week. If you saw me posting every week you would soon either question the reports truthfulness or think we were fantastic fishermen. The reality is that if you are out 5 or 6 days per week and are reasonably expert in catching your target species, you will most likely have at least 1 very good day each week to write about. Just being out most days means that you will eventually work out where the fish are and what they are eating. Add many years of experience behind that and those awesome days come around often enough to impress anyone reading your reports.
On the other hand, I guess that there are some charter operators who don't get so much work and maybe need to 'be creative'.
I cant comment on the charter scene but the tackle shop scene is a different story. I spend a lot of time at one shop by my house, enough to know for a fact what they say is legit, but I do recall a day during the spring bass run when another of the well known shops in town listed a false report. said there was a massive blitz when in fact only one or two fis where caught. fisherman were going crazy getting onto the beach... running around to try to find the fish, racing from beach to beach, just to find nothing. some of the people i talked to had come from a good 45 min away. As I came to the realization that there was no blitz, I decided to drive by the shop that had listed the claim... I've never seen so many trucks parked in front of the shop and they were not buying bait and tackle. He lost a lot of customers that day
Since I've been a commercial fly tyer for some years as well as a guide I've had some odd requests from time to time... One of them was to come up with an orange and purple tarpon fly (the shop just happened to have a large supply of orange and purple feathers...). I came up with a dozen for them and included them in a 10 or 12 dozen order. A few weeks later someone managed to catch a big tarpon on... you guessed it. After that and a photo at the store showing what the fish had in its jaw they didn't have any trouble selling all those orange and purple feathers.... That was in Islamorada in the early eighties and it's a true fishing story (for whatever that's worth...).
__________________ Tight Lines
Capt Bob LeMay
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When pressed about the flies I tie... I usually guarantee them to catch fishermen... Then, if taken fishing and used properly, they might catch a fish or two...
A ways back a shop asked me to come by and show some samples of what I was tying (this was about 25 years ago..). The man who ran the shop (a famously cranky fly tyer himself who was getting on in years..) looked at all of my stuff and rejected it out of hand saying that they were properly tied, would catch fish, but just didn't look well finished. He said that unless I caught fishermen with them he didn't want them in his shop. I was a bit angry and swore that I'd never bring another fly to a shop that didn't meet that criterion.... and I haven't to this day.
__________________ Tight Lines
Capt Bob LeMay
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I hear your story loud and clear Bob, I used to tie a lot of trout flies and fish up north most weekends. I never got good at tying dry flies, but my shaggy ones still caught fish!
have to admit though that I caught many more fish using an olive wooly bugger in size 10 than all other flies combined.
False Fishing Reports 
