Dan Blanton

I’ve done something like 60 or more of these interviews and this one is making me a little nervous. That isn’t a bad thing, it just means I’m paying attentionI. I have been honing the way I do them for almost 30 years. You see, I write the interview, all of my parts in one piece imagining what the person I am interviewing will say. I put it together, my parts, then I indicate the places where they will answer. I read it, spell check it, read it again, imagining what the person will say. Then I place it in a shared document online and send an invite asking them to read it first before filling it out. I sometimes ask the same question in a couple of different ways so that I get a definite response. I suggest the recipient fill it out making it sound like a conversation. 

Every single one has come out great, it is a process that works and has just gotten better as I gain more experience. 

Sort of like fishing. 

The interviewee usually either fills it out online or they will “copy and paste” it to their desktop or laptop, fill it out and send it back to me. I ask them to send a few pics that go along with the interview and then when I receive it, I usually use my iPad while I’m laying on the couch watching television with my wife, take the pictures, put them in the interview then I post it verbatim. 

That’s the process. 

What’s behind this is a love of saltwater fly fishing. I devour books, the older the better and I research online. I've been doing this for a long time, for decades, planning trips, executing them and then back to the keyboard to report and share. What you see here is the process of how I learn, practice and keep stoked. 

I live here in Phoenix, we don’t even have a beach, it’s a good 4-5 hours drive across the desert to the Sea of Cortez or 6-7 hours to the West coast of Southern California. During that drive time there is a lot of time for thinking, planning, going over things. 

You see, I started saltwater fly fishing around the mid late 90’s and had a pretty good experience by the 2000’s. But before I got there, I had a lot of help. Most of it I found online as I was going down into Mexico, the Sea of Cortez and even back then there was a certain sort of stigma about crossing the international border through a desolate desert town. It was difficult to get people to go with me. So I harvested much of the information remotely. In my writing about it, back then, there was not much online but what there was, it was good and that’s where I found Dan Blanton. His web site was a big part of my research. His writing about all kinds of fly fishing really served to stoke my interest. I’ve always wanted to talk to him and thank him for helping me. 

Timing is everything. 

It’s time to begin. 

Adam Trahan: Dan, thank you so much for giving me some of your time and doing this with me. I just finished Al Quattrocchi’s interview if you want to take a look at that for an example of what we are doing here. You can get an idea of what we are going to do before we begin. 

I want to start off by saying thank you. Thank you VERY much for helping me back then with the good intel on saltwater fly fishing. Lefty and Joe Brooks are good, Trey Combs, all those books I bought and bent the pages and your web site, through all that detailed information, I was able to be ready and learn on my own and I’m super happy. For those of us who may not know who you are… 

“Please use this opportunity to introduce yourself.” 

Dan Blanton: Well, I’m an old guy - 81 this past june. I’ve been in the outdoors writing/professional business for 50 years, publishing my first magazine article in Angler Magazine in 1974 - first issue August/September. I was its managing editor as well as a regular contributor. Over the decades I have written for several national magazines; was the saltwater fly-fishing columnist for Sport Fishing magazine for 10 years; and have hosted my website and bulletin board for more than 30 years. The Board, as it’s referred to, is still a popular forum with those seeking good, solid information - it’s holding its own with Facebook and Instagram. www.danblanton.com/bulletin.php 

Adam Trahan: I appreciate who you are and what you do. You have such an amazing story. There are a lot of others out there that you have helped, I’m just going to be Frank, even though I am adam. I asked Al Q if there were any questions that I should ask you. He gave me a steelhead guide's name and said, “research him first” and ask Dan to tell you a story about him. So I’m going to stop this now, find out what I can about Bill Schaadt, circle back around and ask… Oh shit (er sorry) dang, first article out, from “Sports Illustrated.” Yeah, good stuff, I like this quote in the first article I read in a non fly fishing popular sports magazine. 

“Every fly-fisherman learns to roll cast as a means of bringing a sunken line to the surface or simply making a very short throw when there is no room for a back-cast. But this was something far beyond that. Schaadt had discovered a method of building line speed with a series of circular lifts while keeping a precise amount of drag on the front of the line, which remained in the water. On the final lift, line was allowed to sag slightly to the rear so that the double haul could be used. Ultimately a tremendous drive forward and a strong pull with the left hand lifted the shooting head cleanly into the air, putting a point on it to deliver a fishable cast.” 

Yeah, great article from 1974. I was 13. 

I’m going to read up on Bill a little more but I guess I can just ask the question. 

“What’s with you and Bill Schaadt? Why did Al Q ask me to ask you about Bill Shaadt?” 

Dan Blanton: Bill Schaadt was a legendary salmon and steelhead fly-fisher who plied the coastal steelhead and salmon streams and rivers of California and lower Oregon. He was regarded as one of the best there ever was. He was a loner, and didn’t like company sharing a pool or run with him. Too bad - the younger crowd of hot shot anglers were onto him, which included me, and the best spots to fish on rivers like California’s Eel and Smith; and the Chetco river in Oregon now had young hot shots anchored in prams right next to him. Rather than fight us, he joined us and got to know many of us and we became friends. More than once, Bill bumped up against my pram in his, pushing me over to make room and joined the lineup - but in the ‘bucket’ (the hot spot) as it was called. He knew I and a few others would always be anchored in the bucket for the best opportunity. 

Adam Trahan: I have no idea what you are going to respond with, I’m sure it is something sharp as Al suggested it and from reading your stories, you don’t do anything halfway. 

I started out fishing small streams and moved from there to rivers, the Colorado below Glen Canyon dam, I fished the stillwaters in our mountains and also the sea which is why we are here. I’m not going to miss the story because this is a beach fishing site because most saltwater fly fishers know other forms of fly fishing. 

I think besides saltwater fly fishing, fishing small streams with a light fly line in a distant watershed with new friends is sort of my favorite. I have traveled to Japan and fished the mountain streams there with experts teaching me about Japanese fly fishing (tenkara) and we camped high near the headwaters or stayed in old (hundreds of years old) houses fishing the streams in the area. 

“I know you enjoy traveling to fish, what is your favorite type of trip?” 

Dan Blanton: My first truly exotic angling/fly-fishing trip (I didn’t count Baja) was for ‘giant’ (fish exceeding 90-pounds) jungle river tarpon in Costa Rica in 1975. I caught my first striped bass on a fly from San Francisco Bay when I was 15 years old, moved on from there to catching Pacific rockfish on fly from Monterey bay; but I longed to catch a truly large marine game fish on fly - a tarpon; and it was suggested that I give Costa Rica a try. I booked a trip to the Caribbean jungle lodge of Casa Mar on the Rio Colorado known for its large river tarpon in 1975. That first trip to Casa Mar of many following, I landed 17 big tarpon on fly out of 23 jumped. Fishing my Whistler patterns on sinking shooting heads was the ticket. I knew how to fight big game fish on fly gear, class leaders no heavier than 20-pound. I had read Stu Apte’s articles on big game fish-fighting techniques and had the drill down pat in my mind. I gave those fish no quarter. In the following years I would often spend a 30-day stretch at Casa Mar fly-fishing for tarpon every day. I lost count of the tarpon I landed - forget the ones I purposely broke off to keep them from being ‘sharked’... 

Adam Trahan: My wife and I are headed to Puerto Vallarta this fall, we have a wedding anniversary, 20 years. She likes to sleep in, I’m going to find a panga captain to take me out, I want a Dorado on a fly rod. I’m not a guide guy, I’m a DIY fisher and I know I miss a lot but fishing to me is learning on my own by my research and practice. It’s the reason why I look for adventures but it is not an end to the means. I’m looking for the moments, I don’t remember the days, I remember the moments. 

“Dan, I’ve read of some pretty big fly fishing days you had on multi day big boats with friends, can you tell us about a moment or two from those big adventures?” 

Dan Blanton: I presume you are asking about the ‘Long Range’ charter trips we used to take down into Baja aboard boats like the Royal Star and a couple of others whose names I no longer recall. 15 or 20 of us (Like Trey Combs), would charter the boat; we would take on several large scoops of live sardines or anchovies to be used as live chum. Once down on the fishing grounds, we’d troll jigs on heavy gear until we hooked up, stop the boat, crank them in, hold them in the water and start chumming with live bait. Mayhem is what resulted; we only had to splat the surface with a big marine fly like one of my Sar-Mul-Macs or a deceiver style and you were on to a big dorado, yellowtail jack or even a sailfish. The bite was often wide open with multiple anglers hooked up. It was hilarious fun. 

Adam Trahan: Speaking from my experience on the pangas, I dream of offshore like you guys do. Big boats, far off the coast chasing big pelagics. I want to do it so bad, I dream of it but it is beyond my means. I also dream of driving fast cars but staying within my means is good for me. One of my engineer friends, divorced, he loved his Porsche cars. He finally bought a 911 twin turbo and would let me drive it. One Christmas morning (we are Jewish) we got up before sun up and drove to a highway that was known to be desolate and pre-ran the highway to check it out for birds, coyotes and police. I got behind the wheel and tightened the seatbelt and mashed the pedal to the floor until the highway became very narrow. 

I also used to fly my hang glider up the sides of some pretty impressive clouds way up over big mountains. 

I’m not bragging, the point is that I’m older now and certainly not in the frame of mind to do those things. 

But I am in a place where I can dream up an offshore trip and maybe do that. To read about you guys doing it? Seeing the excellent photography in the different books, magazines, well, it is inspiring to me and it drives me to still want to do it. 

I dream of fly fishing offshore, literally, teasing up a sail and then throwing out a fly… 

Basically all my trips start from a thought while on the couch, I then plan and do it. 

“What drives you to do the type of fishing that you do and what is the process of getting it done?” 

Is that a fair question? Do you just have a circle of friends and you guys just go? Do you own your own boat? 

Dan Blanton: We were all young guys in our early to mid 20’s with a driving spirit of adventure. We’d research what it would take to make a do-it-yourself trip down into Baja to fish the Cortez out of Loreto. We car-topped aluminum 12- and 14-foot skiffs powered by 20 HP outboards. We had more guts than brains and would run the 25 or so miles out to Isla del Carmen, stopping on grass pads and other floating objects like even an orange crate - anything floating would hold dorado, from one to many. Some stops often lasted for an hour or more, hooking one fish after another. When the wind came up, we pulled up and headed back to the beach. I often hooked small roosterfish from the beach on days too windy to go offshore. 

“What is the impetus that makes you go after the big fish that you do?” 

Dan Blanton: As a young angler it was probably as much ego as anything else - ‘bragging’ rights. We wanted to say we did it, show photos, talk about it - the exciting times. It was also about doing something most others hadn’t or couldn’t do. Ego drives a lot of this. We all wanted to catch the most and the biggest; and something no one else had caught within our circle of anglers. World record seekers - it’s all ego… Almost all of those who made the fly-only long range trips with the likes of Ed Rice, were after setting a world record on fly. Many were made and broken on those trips. 

Adam Trahan: I’m actually going to ask Terry and Wendy Gunn some of the same questions. I want to find out what drives you guys to do that type of fishing. I kind of think that I know but I want to know and I want to share it with our readers or just learn on my own. 

I read books and in the pages, the stories touch on the excitement but I have to make the jump and decide or imagine for myself, why. 

I would like to take it back a couple of layers and bring it back down to the reason why I am doing the project where these interviews will live. 

My love of fly fishing the beaches for Corbina or for other beach accessible species. 

I live in Phoenix, it is really hot here in the summer and I escape this heat by finding myself on the beach before the sun is up, it is misty and cool, about 65 degrees or so and I’m walking barefoot. So different from home where it's nearly 100 degrees first thing in the morning. I’m escaping the heat and immersing myself into the adventures I dream up and it’s fun. 

The fishing is quite simple: rod, line, fly, stripping basket and walk looking for signs of fish and cast. I fished for croakers and bonefish in the home estuaries and beaches of the Sea of Cortez but my passport expired so the last couple of years, I’ve been exploring the West Coast. 

“What type of beach fishing do you prefer? Stripers, East Cape or West Coast?” 

Dan Blanton: I don’t do a lot of beach fishing. We have pretty big surf up here in Monterey Bay. I don’t like jumping waves and getting sand in my waders. I’m a boat guy. I grew up doing the majority of my marine fly-fishing in San Francisco Bay. When the wind wasn’t blowing it was like a lake. I fished out of my skiff so I could cover miles of flats, much of which there was no shoreline access. I launched out of Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco - working usually south toward San Mateo. I also loved to go out at night (which was illegal in the early years.) and fish for busting fish under the lights of a couple of S.F. airport approach-light towers. The bass would be busting bait under those lights. No one else was around and the fishing was phenomenal. So many big fish that I couldn’t turn from the pilings. I’d go through 2 dozen Whistlers in a session. 

Adam Trahan: What about bonefishing? I love bonefishing. I caught a few in the Keys but when I was in the Keys (fished 17 seasons, 2nd week of May) I fished for tarpon with Captain Ray Fecher. It was tarpon time. The best bonefishing I experienced was at Christmas Island. All wade-fishing and I lost count… 

“Where has bonefishing taken you to?” 

Dan Blanton: Keys; Los Roques, Venezuela, Christmas Island. 

Adam Trahan: If I close my eyes, there are so many moments of dolphins pushing fish closer to me, stingray checkerboards, bait balls moving like amoeba with jacks slashing through it causing the ball to morph and move. Walking up on a lone barracuda just finning and watching me and I’m a hundred or so yards off the beach in waist high water. I just have all these memories, blue bottles, fish I didn’t know what it was, clouds, all these moments, wild moments, they drive me to go back and back again, I want more of those moments. 

I’m looking for moments Dan, and most of the time I am fishing alone. 

“Do you ever fish alone?” 

Dan Blanton: When I was in my teens and all through my 20s and early 30s I often fished solo from my skiff. I was a licensed Coast Guard Captain and practiced all the safety rules, had all the proper safety equipment in my skiff, a working CB radio and filed a float plan - always let someone know where I’d be boating. As I got older and smarter, I always tried to have a boat partner - a fishing buddy along. I don’t fish solo now; haven’t for years. 

Adam Trahan: I used to make split cane bamboo fly rods. I still have a couple that I made for my sons. I don’t have any of my own, I sold them as I only made about a dozen or so. I read the old books about fishing the salt with bamboo fly rods. I got so interested that I followed Joe Brooks recipe and found a nice Orvis Shooting Star and a Fin Nor reel. I put those together and went fishing the estuaries with it. 

Wow, that rod would just about cast itself but it was heavy and at the end of the day, I could feel it in my wrist and forearm. That Shooting star was a GAF line or a nine weight. A little heavier line than what I use, a 6 weight graphite rod. 

I love graphite rods, so light, so tough and if you break one, which I haven’t, you just replace the section. A bamboo rod is heavier and the matrix, it's like it has a soul. You break one of these and well, you repair it but it will always be fixed. 

Bamboo has a soul, graphite does not. 

“Dan, did you ever use bamboo in the salt? Any reflections on that time?” 

Dan Blanton: I never fished bamboo in the salt or freshwater - I like glass and graphite. When casting heavy sinking line, a faster rod was best - at least for me. I also liked the fact that there was less maintenance - just rinse the works off with a hose and fresh water. Didn’t have to worry about it on an extended Baja trip when fresh water was for drinking… 

Adam Trahan: I like what Al said, “we are all snowflakes” and not the political snowflakes but unique and individual. He went on to detail the action he liked and such. 

I recently had a specific Corbina rod made. I chose a fast action fiberglass blank and I chose the components and colorway. I really like it, the tone of the rod is nice and the casting is relaxing and I can even push it a little. 

“What do you think of the progression of fly rods? Is there any way for them to drastically improve or are we just going to see incremental changes?” 

Dan Blanton: I like medium to medium-fast action. Not too slow since I’m usually casting heavy sinking lines and big flies. I tend to up-line my floating lines by at least one of two line weights, especially if I’m making sorter casts. If the fish are spooky, I use a longer leader. 

Adam Trahan: I couldn't agree more. I like different actions for different applications. 

But I do have a favorite. 

“Dan, what’s your absolute favorite fly rod line weight, just one. Doesn’t have to be a brand, what I’m looking for is a single rod (or line weight)? Not so much your favorite type of fishing but a favorite line weight for casting, playing, fishing?” 

Dan Blanton: Come on - you can’t have a single favorite size for both fresh and saltwater. I like a 6-weight for most freshwater and a 9-weight for salt. Noted exceptions… 

Adam Trahan: When I was mountain stream fishing centric, my answer would have been a one weight. But since I’ve fished stream | river | lake | sea, my answer is a six weight. I can use a six weight for most tailwaters, dead drift nymphing and light salt water for bonefish and croaker where I visit. Able to handle most wind conditions and a variety of lines, that would be my favorite fly rod weight if I had to choose just one line weight. 

…and since I’m on the subject, there is nothing like a fine fly reel. I like to balance a reel with the rod. For the fishing I’m doing, I’m not into my backing very often but I still enjoy a nicely engineered fly reel with smooth braking system. 

I no longer own a Fin Nor reel, but I really enjoyed mine and I’ve had a full complement of Tibor reels. Seems like Fin Nor is highly underrated in today's saltwater fisher. 

“Can you comment on what you like in a fly reel or a favorite?” 

Dan Blanton: I like a direct-drive reel with a cork disk drag and a palming rim. 

Adam Trahan: Which really brings me to what is going on now. In the media, the internet, probably by design and maybe out of my ignorance, saltwater fly fishers are generally older. Experience, age, money, it isn’t cheap. But for that matter, neither is the high end fly fishing gear. I didn't subscribe to magazines until last year, I started taking “Tail” saltwater fly fishing magazine. I’m probably going to subscribe to “Saltwater Sportsman.” Al Q got me onto “Tail” but I don’t see a lot of young people into it. I could be wrong and it just doesn’t matter. 

I have names I associate with saltwater fly fishing, you, Trey Combs, Lefty Kreh, Mark Sosin, Terry and Wendy Gunn, Nick Curcione, Al Quattrocchi, Scott Sadil, Sam Nix, Joe Brooks, Frank Woolner and there are others but those are a few off the top of my head. 

“Dan, who is on your list?” 

Dan Blanton: All of those but I would include Stu Apte - who is the one that I followed from the time I was a teenager. His word on fish-fighting is gospel. He was a good friend - and I was surprised to learn from other big names that he knew who I was by reputation. I spent a few days with Stu at his home and we had a great time - although he constantly contradicted me - different styles/experiences. Stu was a pretty opinionated guy. 

Adam Trahan: When I started out fly fishing, I was taught a lot about being a “whole fly fisher” by a young, 18 year old Dylan Kennedy, a friend of Terry and Wendy Gunn. This kid had not been fishing very long. This was like 25+ years ago, I think Terry’s son Troy told me he is still fishing. Gees, this was like the fishiest guy I’ve ever known. 

“Do you know any young up and coming fly fishers, whole stream | river | lake | sea fly fishers coming up in the industry or otherwise?” 

Dan Blanton: You know, I haven’t been in the loop for a long time now. No names come to mind. I’m out-of-it… as we used to say. 

Adam Trahan: I just finished Al Q’s interview, I’m getting to know him and he even teased me a little, “man you like to write!” and well, I do. 

Probably time to land the (sea) plane… 

“Dan, thank you SO MUCH for taking this, I really appreciate the person you are. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and letting us know about the wonderful life of fly fishing you live. 

Please use this opportunity to close the interview.” 

Dan Blanton: My pleasure, Adam - I’m pleased you and Al thought of me. I’m still in the game, still fishing hard when I get out - mostly for impoundment stripers with a couple of buddies who make it a point to get the old man out fishing. I can still stand in a skiff all day, waving my arms around and can still pull hard and break their necks. At 81, I’m physically more like a strong 61 - my memory isn’t that great anymore - I take lots of notes and apologize to all for repeating myself.