As I begin to write my quarterly fishing update for April, May, and June, I realize that I’m very late in doing so. I guess I’d rather be fishing than writing. Even so, I promised myself I’d stop procrastinating and type a paragraph or two.
Now that we’re well into September, we’re finding the early fall fishing to be better than expected! We experienced above-average heat throughout spring and summer, with surface water temps rising into the high 90’s. It was extremely hard to locate Redfish this summer, but as of now, they are back and coming through in high numbers. Generally, I will look for the leeward bays for sight casting Redfish and Snook. However, with the lower winds we’ve been getting, any of the shallow bays fish well. It’s such a pleasure to see what appears to be a healthy Redfish population throughout 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park. For these guys, a smaller, fluffy, soft-landing fly, is the ticket. Although some anglers don’t like weed-guards, I find them to be ideal in some shallow water settings. First of all, they can make novice, intermediate, or even skilled casters look (and feel) like Rock Stars. When we cast against the mangroves with weed-guards, more than not, a bad cast somehow turns into a ‘how-the-heck-did-I -pull-that-off’ downright magical cast. Secondly, in the really shallow bays and flats, the weed guards give us a slight edge when it comes to not picking up grass and debris while making our retrieve. EP Flies offers small bait patterns, that have partial foam bodies, which work very well with the weed guard in shallow water.
Besides the Redfish, I’ve seen and hooked up with some monster Snook recently. On a charter with 2 anglers about 2 weeks ago, one of the guys hooked up with 2 Snook, that broke him off in one second. Probably their gill plates. Turning and twisting, they wasted no time in getting into the mangroves, where there are lots of barnacles and hard knotty roots. I had a Snook on a few days prior to their arrival, that had to be 20 lbs. She snapped up the fly, and at which time I got to see her entire body. And just when I decided to ease up my hand tension on the line, in an effort to allow her to come back out of the mangroves, she sheared me off. I don’t even think about what I could have done differently, because the answer is a resounding, NOTHING! It’s the chase AND the unpredictability of the piscine reaction that creates the unique experience. If the only goal was simply to catch a Snook, I’d chum methodically, and use heavy conventional tackle. The goal, however, goes beyond simply ‘catching a fish’. It’s more about creating one powerful memorable moment– a moment that will remain forever imprinted in the mind and make me, and whoever’s alongside me, smile inside every time we conjure up that memory. You anglers out there, you know what I’m talking about.
The summer gave us lots of baby tarpon, and some large females. I attached a Tarpon photo that I caught in June. As the years go on, I can confirm through my sightings, that many of the larger Tarpon may wander a bit, but they never completely leave our waters. Known as resident fish, and called by many the Silver King, the mighty Tarpon sure make summers on the water a lot more exciting!
Signing off for now………
Captain Buddy
