photo: Courtesy of Mauser Fly Fishing
John Mauser knows exactly where he wants to be. We’re fishing the saltmarsh ponds near North Carolina’s Bogue Inlet, where Mauser guides for redfish out of an East Cape skiff and for false albacore and other nearshore targets in a 23-foot Parker. He poles his skiff through tiny two-foot-wide rivulets to sneak into pocket ponds in the marsh that only a great egret would know about. But things aren’t just right, and Mauser likes things just right. “I’d really like to see the roots of this marsh grass holding on to the mud,” he says. “The fish are here, but it’s not just right. In a couple hours we’ll be back to get them.”