Intro | Fat Alberts | Tackle | Albaclousers | Presenting the Fly | Releasing Albacore

"They're just albacore, trash fish," was the refrain I heard over and over again in the 1960s and 1970s from my father and other fishermen as we passed through schools of breaking false albacore in and around the inlets of the North Carolina Outer Banks. While surf fishing during the same period, I often saw albacore causing bait to shower right at my feet. But to most anglers at that time, false albacore were little more than a high-speed nuisance. Spotted sea trout, bluefish, red drum, flounder, stripers, and mackerel were the prizes sought, and almost no one targeted albacore.

When hooked by mistake, albacore were destroyers of light spinning and conventional tackle. Perhaps the main reason for their low regard was that, for even the most open-minded seafood lover, false albacore with its dark red strong-tasting flesh didn't make the grade. Their highest and best use was as strip-baits for trollers.

As I look back, one of the great ironies in my fly-fishing life is that during the same period I would have hocked my grandmother's wedding ring to spend more time in the Florida Keys. The objects of my passion in the Keys were the same as most other anglers--tarpon and bonefish. Both were caught by sight casting. They were strong and fast, and they were totally devoid of culinary value. The same attributes applied to the albacore I left behind in North Carolina, but at the time I couldn't make the connection.

Tom Earnhardt lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is the author of Fly Fishing the Tidewaters and Boats for Fishermen.

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