Flying Fish Fantasia
In the spring of 1991 my then-girlfriend and I spent spring break in Barbados, where the national dish consists of fried flying fish. Being a ravenous 21 year old, I ate a bunch of them that week, but in the ensuing couple of decades didn’t think much about them. Then we started fishing in Central America, where occasionally we’d see this cool species “flying” next to the boat. We’d observe and remark upon them, but as far as I know they weren’t a big part of our fishing success, so once again I put them on the mental back burner – until this week, when I saw the following video of a Nomad Design Slipstream Flying Fish.
It comes in three sizes and six colors, and while I don’t really need one, I’m half-tempted to buy a supply. Watching that sucker skip across the surface and get annihilated quickly got my blood pumping and reinvigorated my interest in these oddities, so I went back to the research drawing board.
The approximately 40 species of flying fish do not actually fly. They’re just fast as hell and once they get airborne (assumedly to escape predators) they can glide for up to 650 feet. They also have unevenly forked tails, another oddball characteristic. The thing that I care about the most, though, is that they’re herring-shaped and typically 7- to 12-inches, which makes them prime eats for a number of other species I want to catch.
Nomad has done a tremendous job imitating them, but clearly they’re not the first to realize that a flying fish replica can help you catch bucket list fish. There are lots of other lures meant to serve a similar purpose already on the market. They include not only numerous daisy chains (multiple flying fish!) and molded soft plastic trolling lure but also some hard bait singles for casting and trolling. Some that I quickly discovered and appreciated are the following:
While the lures listed above may only have some limited applications in freshwater (e.g., big stripers), the same action that the Slipstream creates can also be seen in some of the freshwater “crawlers.” The old Heddon Crazy Crawler is one but in keeping with the bespoke nature of the lures listed above, you might also want to check out some of the JDM works of art. They include, but are not limited to, the following:
But wait, there’s more! If you don’t need any lures – saltwater, freshwater, or suitable for both – you can still get some Flying Fish love in other ways.
In New Jersey, there’s the Flying Fish Brewing Company.
We visited South Africa in 2016, but during both of our short stays we did not get a chance to try Flying Fish Beer.
And Patagonia has repeatedly used a flying fish on all sorts of different garments including shirts and hats.
