Acristickid
Well-known member
Had a great time down in Florida the last few weeks. When I arrived a cold front (the coldest in a few years- same stuff you were experiencing here moved south). I was primarly focused and excitied about doing some saltwater fishing- have been a few times. Still learning the good spots to go. Find one or two better spots each time I go- putting my time in.
With the winds and cold temps- hurts the saltwater fishing in the bays for trout, snook and redfish. I hit up some local lakes close by where I was staying and got into some nice bass action. Chartruse clouser worked great on the largemouths.
With the temps climbing back up into the 60's headed toward the saltwater. Get to learn about the wind and saltwater- lots of tired arms throwing hauls all day. Let my enthusiam get the best of me when I waded into some spots on the flats and spooked lots of fish. Lesson learned there. Certainly more time was spent with long periods of no action. Sometimes think salt is harder since there not alot of obvious holding water. Just looking for silver sides or some bait fish being pushed around.
One day fishing in Sarasota Bay- caught a Baracuda- not only that caught 2 in one day. Never ever seen one caught and I caught 2 in 1 day. They were juveniles but still hit the charturse clousre hard.
Did have those moments were I just have had 2 hours of nothing and the second didnt pay attention boom strike- and lost because I was able to strip strike. Did the Yankee lift a few times but did get better and kept my rod tip was under water on the retreives.
I do feel pretty good though- (not that I should need to feel good right- standing in a beautiful spot fly fishing with temps in 60-70's.) Because I did hook fish- put myself in good situations with identifying fish and making decent casts. Plus- even the spin guys were'nt catching many either.
Have really been looking forward to fishing for Snook and Redfish-with Tarpon later on down the line. Got a chance to fish for some Snook with a good chance of catching them. Again, took some time to scout out the spot before deciding. Ended up heading out the the spot about 7:30pm. Snook is mainly a night game- they love to hang out near lights and in my case the lights off a bridge fender.
Pretty cool, caught a Snook on my 3rd-4th cast. I set-up about 10 yards (up current from lighted bridge fender) and just drifted the closuers, shrimp patterns. There must have been dozens Snook ambushing bait fish. Would have probably caught more fish but there was so many bait fish by the lights that the fish had lots of food to choose from. The Snook were 20 some inches and probably 3-5 pounds- at least the ones I could land.
Slightly unnerving hearing some crashing fish out in the darker waters. I lost all of the bigger fish I hooked- was a little difficult to get the best of hook sets since you just drift the flies with a small strip every few seconds. Probably overpowered my 10 lb flouro leader trying to keep them away from the fender- which looked to spell certain doom for a leader.
As I was leaving I noticed a pickup heading down the road toward me. Within a couple hundred yards or so he turned his lights off. I still could make out that there were lights on the roof. It was a FL fish commission officer. It was the first one that has ever approached me in FL. He wanted to see if I kept any fish (Snook is out of season). I would'nt probably even if it was in season. Anyways, I finished up at about 10:30pm last night- good thing because my license expired in an hour and half.
Headed to Walmart for another one.
Saw birds of every shape in size, wild hogs,gators,lizards,turtles... its like wild kingdom there.
With the winds and cold temps- hurts the saltwater fishing in the bays for trout, snook and redfish. I hit up some local lakes close by where I was staying and got into some nice bass action. Chartruse clouser worked great on the largemouths.
With the temps climbing back up into the 60's headed toward the saltwater. Get to learn about the wind and saltwater- lots of tired arms throwing hauls all day. Let my enthusiam get the best of me when I waded into some spots on the flats and spooked lots of fish. Lesson learned there. Certainly more time was spent with long periods of no action. Sometimes think salt is harder since there not alot of obvious holding water. Just looking for silver sides or some bait fish being pushed around.
One day fishing in Sarasota Bay- caught a Baracuda- not only that caught 2 in one day. Never ever seen one caught and I caught 2 in 1 day. They were juveniles but still hit the charturse clousre hard.
Did have those moments were I just have had 2 hours of nothing and the second didnt pay attention boom strike- and lost because I was able to strip strike. Did the Yankee lift a few times but did get better and kept my rod tip was under water on the retreives.
I do feel pretty good though- (not that I should need to feel good right- standing in a beautiful spot fly fishing with temps in 60-70's.) Because I did hook fish- put myself in good situations with identifying fish and making decent casts. Plus- even the spin guys were'nt catching many either.
Have really been looking forward to fishing for Snook and Redfish-with Tarpon later on down the line. Got a chance to fish for some Snook with a good chance of catching them. Again, took some time to scout out the spot before deciding. Ended up heading out the the spot about 7:30pm. Snook is mainly a night game- they love to hang out near lights and in my case the lights off a bridge fender.
Pretty cool, caught a Snook on my 3rd-4th cast. I set-up about 10 yards (up current from lighted bridge fender) and just drifted the closuers, shrimp patterns. There must have been dozens Snook ambushing bait fish. Would have probably caught more fish but there was so many bait fish by the lights that the fish had lots of food to choose from. The Snook were 20 some inches and probably 3-5 pounds- at least the ones I could land.
Slightly unnerving hearing some crashing fish out in the darker waters. I lost all of the bigger fish I hooked- was a little difficult to get the best of hook sets since you just drift the flies with a small strip every few seconds. Probably overpowered my 10 lb flouro leader trying to keep them away from the fender- which looked to spell certain doom for a leader.
As I was leaving I noticed a pickup heading down the road toward me. Within a couple hundred yards or so he turned his lights off. I still could make out that there were lights on the roof. It was a FL fish commission officer. It was the first one that has ever approached me in FL. He wanted to see if I kept any fish (Snook is out of season). I would'nt probably even if it was in season. Anyways, I finished up at about 10:30pm last night- good thing because my license expired in an hour and half.
Headed to Walmart for another one.
Saw birds of every shape in size, wild hogs,gators,lizards,turtles... its like wild kingdom there.
