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...

Early 2011 Trout Madness

Well, with winter temps set in, the reds had pretty much gone dormant. The few months of the year that they don't move are the worst for me. Being a kayak fisherman, you lose your sight fishing ability when the fish are laid up and not moving. No more tails, no more wakes, just lazy laid up redfish that you didn't know were there until you run them over and are left with a puff of mud. To make things worse, they bunch up, so there's no mistaking what you just spooked, it was a pile of redfish. So, what to do?

Hit some deep water creeks and fish for seatrout. At least they are good to eat. All kidding aside, this is something I have been wanting to explore for several years now. I always postulated that a sinking line and a heavy clouser minnow would be effective at catching these winter fish. My strategy was to throw a jig on the spinning rod to find them and then drill them with the fly once their area had been identified. It worked, and we had some great days. Most of the fish were cookie-cutter 14.5" fish, but we usually managed more than enough trout within the slot to take home. We had some awesome days with over 50 fish, and although they weren't all like that, we caught fish using the sinking line technique every trip out. I tied up a modified clouser in pink and yellow that really worked well...

Some other colors worked as well, from black to white, but nothing beat the "funky chicken". Here's another color scheme that caught a few...

Every once in a while a rat red would join the party, as they often do. I guess the big reds don't like them around, and they find a more friendly environment with the trout...

Once in a blue moon, on warm sunny days, you could find slot reds repositioning on the bank, but it was a right place, right time kind of thing...

We did run into some good trout on occasion, and felt obliged to take a few home....

It was a fine diversion while waiting for spring to break, and I can't say I was unhappy about doing so well on the trout. I picked up a new technique, and am ready for winters to come. Hopefully there are more facets to this type of fishing to discover. I think there probably are.

Early Winter Snookin' - December 2010

The snook is a fish that has vexed me for quite some time. I have tried to catch them in the past in all ways possible. I've been with others when they caught them and I didn't come away with more than a sniff. It was a fish, I had heard, that feeds sporadically, is super picky, and that you're lucky to catch once you finally break the seal and hook one. They live in rough places: mangroves, docks, places with swift current and plenty of line cutting structure. Even their bodies destroy tackle. They have gill plates like razors, and even the little ones are strong enough to get back in the structure from which you pulled them. So, of course, when a buddy asked me to go on a snook trip I was game. And I was going to do it on fly.

I had scoured the internet for info, looked up fly patterns, and read as much as I could about catching them. I was convinced this was going to be it. And it was.

I travelled south from Jacksonville along Florida's east coast in December in the midst of an incoming cold front with my brand new 9 weight rig and a box full of tiny flies. We were going to fish the docklights, and I was assured of success. I didn't know what I was getting into, but I thought I was ready.

The first snook I caught was on a DOA shrimp, being that I wasn't completely ready to jump in completely with the fly rod, but once I got the monkey off my back with that first snook, I put the spinning rod away and kept the fly rod out for the rest of the trip.

Snook are nocturnal feeders; they love to congregate under bright docklights because of the proliferation of small baitfish they attract.

The first time you see fish busting in the shadows of a lighted dock, and the shrimp and small bait running for their lives, you know its a sight you won't soon forget. The key though, is to present your bait as naturally as possible. Baitfish do not have the strength to swim against the current that gamefish do, so consequently, the snook know they have an easy meal that the current brings to them. A fly, or any type of lure for that matter, that moves against the current will be ignored. You may get a follow, or even a short strike, but the fish know its odd. The best way to catch any fish in this situation is to fish your fly with the current, with as much of a drag free drift as possible, much like trout fishing in freshwater. Anyway, once I figured this out it was game on.

The trip went great, and we came away with more than enough snook, considering the quickly dropping water temps. We caught it right before the bottom dropped out. Reports after our trip stated the fish were lethargic, and uninterested in eating. I finally accomplished something that I had failed to do in the past. Snook on the fly...

Fat Snook

Lookdown Jack (Fly Thief)

Biggest fish of the trip - 26"

Tarpon Snook