March Tides

With a nice warming trend, and steadily warming water the reds began to show themselves a little more in March. Surprisingly, I found some good fishing on morning tides. It seemed the fish were holding off on feeding hard until the low had come and the water began moving in. I did catch plenty of fish on the outgoing side of the tide, but it was bump and stop fishing. The real sight fishing occurred on the incoming tide when the fish worked the banks. I saw the first backing fish of the year early in March, and was rewarded with several throughout the month.

The fish on the outgoing tides came blindcasting areas I know to hold fish. Most of them were in that 22" to 24" range, but I did find a few nicer ones every once in a while. I came up with a new fly last fall that served me well in late 2010, and although I'm not one to name a pattern, especially when its modelled so closely after one of someone else, I began calling it the Marsh Demon. Its black and purple, has a good profile, and pushes some water. Its a great pattern for my neck of the woods because of our dark bottom. If my fishing day begins early, and low light prevails, its the fly I have tied on, but I have caught fish throughout the day on it. I primarily used this fly in March for blind casting duty, thinking it would show up better than a more natural colored pattern in the dirtier outgoing water.

When the tide switched and the fish became more active, I used an Abomination or some other light colored pattern to sight fish. It worked well, March was a great month...