Dan Blanton: Rigging for Records

Dan Blanton is one of the world’s top authorities on striped bass and saltwater fly fishing, particularly along the California coast. He shares an introduction into the intricacies of shooting head casting and fishing for world record-class striped bass, and he reminiscences on visiting Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, as well as the good karma that comes with fundraising to protect fish in your own backyard.

Podcast Excerpt:“Originally I designed the Whistler [fly] to compete with the bucktail jig. I didn’t say I’m gong to design a shad pattern or a perch pattern. In 1964 the lead-head, bucktail jig was just kicking our butt in San Francisco Bay. Most of the fly patterns back then were pretty simplistic bucktails, like the Blonde series. Lefty’s Deceiver was just coming around about then. So I wanted a fly that worked like a bucktail jig. Now if you ask what a bucktail jig represents, it represents a lot of things. It could represent any number of bait fishes. But basically the Whistler was designed to imitate any of the more deep-bodied bait fishes.”