Cut, Slash, and Riposte

I’ve assumed anything I can learn about fish serves me in good stead, and anything known on their feeding habits or behavior will assist me in seducing them to take my fly.

I’ll confess that I’ve wondered just what the “bill” of a billfish is used for – given I‘ve never seen some dolphin or unwary scuba diver skewered prominently on their beak.

Scientists suggest that the bill of a billfish is actually used as a sword, by first inserting the bill into a cluster of tightly packed baitfish, then slashing through the school to wound and disable.

Billfish uses bill to cripple baitfish via slashing motion of head

The above Youtube video shows the action of insertion and then the subsequent slash, and the trailing bits of scale and baitfish that result.

At least I’ll know what to expect when I deploy my “Alabama Rig” in blue water.

4 thoughts on “Cut, Slash, and Riposte

  1. Ed

    When that sailfish was heading towards him I suspect the photographer was wishing for a shield, or a sword himself.

  2. John Peipon

    I’m not sure what kind of “blue” water you usually fish, KB, but I think that the best thing to come out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the music!

    Speaking of my new habitat, I recently spotted a large school of carp while fishing a local lake with my trusty 5 wt. I’m gonna need a bigger stick! Hurrah for scum lining.

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