Nov. - Dec. Fishing Trip

We recently returned from our Fall fishing trip to Southwest Florida and it was, as usual, another learning curve experience. Some success, some not so success. The weather was a factor since it was generally cooler than normal and pretty cloudy. There was also alot of heavy fog for several mornings in a row, until about 10 AM when it cleared off, and a few afternoons were very windy. No excuses! The tides were pretty good, especially for a few days of late afternoon fishing - higher and lower than normal with presumably a good push of water.  As you know, tides are critical in flats fishing, but trying to figure them out in SW Florida can be a challenge, especially for we New Englanders! They're completely illogical and without a tide chart it would be impossible. Advice: get a tide chart the minute you get anywhere.

Anyway, the most exciting fishing day was when we showed up at a favorite flat around 11 AM - a large, very shallow flat near a deep channel where we had caught several  tailing redfish in the past.  We had gotten there at dead low tide figuring it would give us plenty of time to fish the first of the incoming. The tide was exceptionally low that day, the water was clear and very calm. We pulled up at one end and proceeded to quietly pole our way onto the flat, not expecting to see much for another 1/2 hour or so. But we didn't have long to wait. In fact, almost immediately we saw individual tails all over the flat, at first mostly in the really shallow area and then spreading to the deeper areas as well. We probably could have gotten there an hour earlier and fished right through slack tide, but who knows? We tried that the next day but conditions had changed and there were no fish. There were literally hundreds of redfish tailing and cruising, individually and in groups. Well, we had plenty of great casts, used several kind of flies, including a Spoon Fly which had been successful in the past, but nothing worked. We managed to get the fly right next to the fish without spooking them, had a few follows (some close enough to be spooked by the boat), but no takes. Dang! Go figure! The only thing we might do differently next time is not strip the fly so fast, let it sit on the bottom and just jiggle it now and then and wait for the fish to find it.

We had better luck catching snook along the lee side of a point with mangroves on the last of a rising tide on a really windy late afternoon, mostly cloudy. We tried right along the mangroves with no success, however we did find some snook about 50' from shore at the edge of the channel that runs along the mangroves where it drops from about 3' to 5'. The snook seemed to be cruising right along that drop-off. None were really big, but Kris hooked something enormous. Unfortunately, we never got to see it. She had stripped most of her line in when the fish struck and it took line out so fast that most of the line came up off the deck at once and ended up getting tangled and wrapping around her left hand. She had her rod up trying to keep a tight line but couldn't get her hand free without putting some slack in the line and the fish got off! Bummer! We were both using a #4 Glass Minnow and will definitely try that area and that fly again!

                                                                                                                  Glass Minnow

When things turned slow we went to our go-to activity, fishing for sea trout in deeper grass flats (4-5'). This is usually either very successful or not at all. We caught several  nice trout and the occasional ladyfish is always fun, too. I did manage to catch a nice 3.5 lb. trout. We usually fish for trout at the edges of the flat, up to about 100' from a deep channel. For these fish we used a #1/0 AC All Purpose Baitfish in Blue/White.

Despite the conditions being a little difficult we were pretty pleased with the flats fishing this trip, aside from the obvious disappointment about the redfish. Well, there's always

next time. Even not catching anything is instructive since you learn

so much about the tides, which flats have fish on them and when, weather

variations, etc.

Baitfish fly

   Thanks for reading our blog... please visit us at our on-line flats fishing supply shop at http://www.flatsfishingflies.com/ for an extensive selection of quality, affordable flies especially appropriate for fishing flats species, even cooler water fish such as stripers, bluefish and mackerel, as well as tippet and leaders.

Tight Lines!!