Immerse yourself below twelve feet of clean, blue ocean water backlit by skylight, as false albacore work together to corral a pack of baitfish toward the surface. As the minnows huddle against each other for safety, albies hunt from below, cruising beneath the bait ball before suddenly accelerating up through the water column to eat a certain vulnerable minnow in a flash of calculated motion.
Most of the opportunities to catch false albacore on the fly involve minnows larger than “rain bait” being pushed to the surface or against structure, like jetties. Surface-focused feeding allows anglers to cast at blitzes, which are often fast moving and short lived, or to “blind cast” the flies after albies have made some visible surface disturbance. Feeds that break the surface only shows us a tiny fraction of what is happening beneath it. Often, in a large school of actively feeding false albacore, only a couple of them work their way to the surface and break through to reveal their presence.
Albies are a fish of many moods. At their most difficult, they are sliding across the surface on a glass calm sunny day, rolling on their sides and eating some microscopic food source that is hard to identify; this is when they are most difficult to approach from a boat. On the other hand, during a pre-storm feeding window, albies might chew so hard that any fly in the box can present as something that they want to eat.
As anglers, we often have confidence in the flies and presentations that result in firsthand success (and rightfully so). With blitz-feeding fish like false albacore, if you find a nice frenzied feed and rip a reasonable fly through it, success is likely. Getting positive feedback during those moments when the fish are really making some bad decisions results in anglers developing confidence in some fly patterns and presentation styles that work well only in an outright blitz. However, you’re never guaranteed to locate those surface blitz opportunities, and when you do, they tend to draw a crowd. What you are much more likely to encounter is false albacore that are moving in a pattern or breaking the surface intermittently, but do not offer many sustained surface feeding opportunities. In these situations, most successful patterns and presentations that work in a blitz fail to produce, and you will hear comments like “they didn’t stay up long enough for us to get good shots.”
Albies can’t effectively see colors like we do, as research indicates their vision is monochromatic — basically, colors show as different shades of grey. Their oversized eyes provide exceptional vision that allows them to hunt at high speeds in open water. So what exactly are they looking for and seeing when they choose to bite a fly? Although there are no hard fast rules with false albacore behavior, there are trends. I think some of these trends provide enough clues to make educated guesses about what they are looking for and what they will react to.
We know that albies prefer to feed in clean water. Typically, the activity moves toward the surface as the light of day increases at dawn. They’ll position themselves underneath the food source and feed by accelerating toward the target from underneath, following each other in rapid succession to take advantage of the swirling hydraulics caused by the previous fish, which have knocked the minnows off balance and created easy meals for the other fish in sequence. We see them focus on specific common food sources, like bay anchovies, silversides, and peanut bunker, that fly anglers can imitate. They also like to feed on squid, and anglers using spin gear can typically instigate bites with a large, translucent or natural-colored soft-plastic lure with a profile and action like a fleeing squid. However, it is much more difficult to trick one with a fly shaped like a squid than the right minnow imitation to match the primary bait. Why is that? How is it that albies will sometimes eat a fly the moment it hits the water when you don’t see fish coming? What exactly are they looking for, and what are they seeing that causes them to decide to bite, especially when they aren’t creating sustained surface feeds? Here are some of my theories about their behavior.
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Albie Behavior
Without the use of color vision, false albacore rely on a few other factors to find and feast on baitfish. Based on water color preference and light conditions when they begin driving bait to the surface, as well as the distance from which they seem to commit to a meal, I believe albies rely on a combination of movement, flash, and their ability to view silhouettes and translucency of food sources from below in clean water. They are predatory fish that are programmed to capitalize on feeding opportunities, whether that means picking off injured baitfish, or chasing down erratic, fleeing forage.
The common denominator among a majority of albie forage is an opaque pearlescent air sac that takes up nearly the entire front half of their bodies. In clean water with high overhead sunlight, the most common fall baitfish — bay anchovies and silversides — feature a very distinct opaque front and translucent rear that albies seem to hone in on whether the fly is moving or not. These minnows also have a silver band along their side that flashes in bright conditions. When minnows gets knocked off balance after an albie slashes through a school, that narrow band on their flank flashes in the sun as the hydraulics toss them around.
In order to make a truly effective albie fly, I think we need to incorporate as many of these visual elements as possible within the framework of a fly that is durable, easy to cast, has an effective hookup rate, and has good action at the speeds we can strip line. Although spin anglers do very well on the Snax-style plastic lures, fly anglers struggle to generate a swimming action as erratic as those lures. Big flies and surface flies can be effective when they are really chewing, but imitating a disoriented minnow is the best way to catch a fish that is programmed to feed on small, vulnerable forage.
The Importance of Action in Albie Flies
The most popular albie flies have great profiles, translucency, and durability. But the critical aspect of fooling the fish that makes it so hard to get bit outside a blitz is the fly’s action! Since we can’t replicate the speed of an epoxy jig on a spin rod, or the erratic twitches of an Albie Snax, we must generate enticing fly action—the swimming motion that occurs as we tug it along behind a fly line and leader.
One aspect of fly movement that is largely unexplored is the central axis of rotation. When a minnow gets knocked off balance, its silver lateral line will reflect sunlight, making that distinct flash we discussed earlier. It is easy to add flash to the side of a fly, but difficult to get it to consistently flash in a way that is visible to the fish. The challenge lies in the weight of the hook bend, and the point of the hook being strong enough to hold against a large, powerful albie. A solid saltwater hook acts as a keel to make a minnow-shaped epoxy-style fly ride consistently upright. How much of a difference would it make if you could get your fly to consistently roll on its side and create a reflective silver flash every time you tug your line forward? Generating that natural rolling action is the difference between getting bit during a sporadic feed and coming up empty.
Goodspeed’s Stunt Minnow
There is a way to consistently create instability in the fly’s balance that fights against the keel action of the hook bend and causes a fly to naturally roll on its side without spinning or twisting. By creating a fly structure with UV cure epoxy on the back only, you can slightly overwhelm the keel action from the hook bend so that the fly rolls side to side on the strip, and flutters on its flank when paused. This concept is incorporated into a fly pattern below. Fulling Mill will be picking up this pattern, deemed “Goodspeed’s Stunt Minnow”, in 2026. This version has colors matching a bay anchovy, but the pattern concept can be manipulated with different size and color variations, like a bright pink back for low-light conditions, or a longer tail and olive back to imitate a silverside.
When fishing a minnow fly that has an accurate translucency profile of the pearlescent air sac, and overall body profile that is rolling and flashing with a gentle sink rate when paused, the fly is likely to be intercepted by fish whether it is being moved rapidly or not. Stunned minnows are not fleeing at all, and those are often the first meals the albies will choose because they’re the easiest grab.
There is no need to rapidly retrieve a great fly! Keep it above and in front of the fish, and stay in contact with it using a comfortable retrieve pace and sharp twitches. When albies are spread out and hunting or feeding sporadically in the area, you’ll be in the game.
How to Tie a Stunt Minnow
Hook Options: Gamakatsu SC15 1/0, SL12S size 2, 1/0, Mustad AP C70 1, 2, 4
Thread: 100D GSP White
Tail Base: About 4 small clumps of Steve Farrar Flash Blend UV White (trimmed later)
Topper: Small clump of Hedron Supreme Hair Polar Bear (trimmed later)
Body: Standard size Estaz in Opalescent Pearl color, wrapped tightly from bend to eye.
Instructions:
Whip finish, remove from vise, and trim the back and upper sides of the Estaz down close to the shank.
Next, trim the tail to shape as desired. Put it back in vise and start the thread at the eye.
Then, begin building the back of the fly.
Back base: 4 strands pearl midge size Krystal Flash, doubled over (8 strands used on the fly). Back main: Hedron Supreme Hair tan, larger clump.
Flash: Lateral Flash, Silver. Doubled over at tie-in point with a single strand extended to the bend of the hook, trimmed even on both sides
UV Epoxy the back flush to the trimmed Estaz. Connect the epoxy to the tail past the shank so the rigid back area holds the tail in place, but do not epoxy much beyond the bend of the hook.
Press the lateral flash flush against the material as you cure the epoxy to form a semi-flattened, upright shaped body, as shown below.
Cover over the Lateral Flash with a little UV epoxy to make it more durable, but don’t go overboard with the epoxy because it is heavy and affects the balance.
Now it’s time for the eyes: Super pearl 3D eyes 2.5mm.
Add a dot of epoxy behind the eye and stick the 3D eyes in place. The wet epoxy helps them stay in place. Using a pair of tweezers hold them where you want them, and hit them with the UV cure. The little bit of UV will keep them where you want them.
Fill in the empty space on the top and bottom with resin to make a streamlined head. Just enough epoxy to create the shape, to maintain the offset balance of the fly.
