Fishing Forum

The winter winds keep blowing. On low tide it has been so low that it has been difficult to get out of the marina. On the two fly fishing trips that I had last week I have had to wait until the water was high enough to go hide on the lee side of the islands. On most of my favorite flats there has been dry ground next to the islands, leaving us no place to cast out of the wind. On high tide I have been able to find many islands with stretches several hundred yards long that allowed protection from the wind for me to fish my fly rodders. Black Key was one of those spots. I had Bob Lopatic out from PA, who I am sure had visions of 70 – 80 degree weather and sunny skies. Even with the nasty wind Bob had good spirits. We set out to Black Key where I have been finding pods of “hammer handle” snook and some redfish. As we worked the shoreline, it quickly became apparent that the snook were still laying 30 – 40 feet off the mangroves. This meant that Bob had to fish farther in front of the boat (always the best bet on the flats). We had several strikes on a Latham’s Crab before hooking up and landing an 18” snook. As we kept moving down the shoreline we saw a gator trout lying in the open on the sand. Bob made a nice cast, about 3’ in front of the fish and he let the fly sink to the bottom. The fish watched the fly sink with out ever moving, after a few twitches the fish sank even closer to the bottom. On the next cast the fly landed right on the fish (the water was 3’ deep) and sank down inches from the fish. This time the fish gingerly inhaled the fly as it was sinking. Bob waited until the fish closed his mouth, then he set the hook. The fish were obviously lethargic with the cold-water temps and the strong winds. After seeing several reds at the north end of the key move into a hole that was too shallow to pole on to (ground was showing on the back edge of the hole) with out spooking the fish, we put on our wadding shoes. It was cold, but we were never more than knee deep. We wadded to the top of the hole where a cut from the other side of the key was flowing water in like a river. Bob first cast was rewarded with a 20” red, after about 15 minutes he had two more and told me to go get my rod. I love when clients ask me to fish with them. In the next hour we landed about 15 redfish between us, nothing big but great fly rod action. Generally redfish are very spooky and difficult to catch on the fly, catching one or two is often a good day when sight fishing. The nasty weather piled the fish in one little corner with flowing water. This situation has happened many times this winter, and on several occasions I have had better days in the worst weather than the best. By the way, on the Bobs second day the fish weren’t in that hole. On the second day we landed one red, and 4 snook. Tight lines, Capt. Scott Taylor

tarpon