If there is one species that Stuart lacks it's redfish, now before everyone starts mumbling under their breath, let me explain. I am not saying that Stuart does not have redfish, but compared to the snook fishing, trout fishing, and tarpon fishing, the redfish is the most difficult of the Indian River slam. However, just a short drive north can produce some of the best redfishing in the state, especially in the winter. I fished today with a friend of mine Matt Bagley, he is the mate on a brand new 86 foot Jim Smith, named the Patsea VII and it just so happens that part of his duties is to make sure that their tender a 17 Maverick HPX V is in good working order. So when Matt asked if I wanted to fish up north with him I did not have to think twice, I believe my words were "when and where?" After meeting up at the Finest Kind Marina we drove north with the Maverick in tow. On the way up our conversation turned to the surprising amount of cloud cover and the need for clear water to help combat this unfortunate circumstance. You see in order to successfully sight fish reds you have to see them! My Oakley polarized shades are killer but sunlight helps. Once at the ramp we were both happy to see clear water and no wind, two of the three ingredients, that is when I first said it's going to be one of those days. Now being the positive angler that I am, "one of those days" is a good thing.
We headed off to our first shoreline and Matt was cool enough to give me the first shot, and lucky me I had a few fish within minutes to cast at, I believe it was my third fish ate the fly. After landing that fish and Matt snapping a few photos I said,"It's going to be one of those days."
Well as quickly as things started going right, they started going wrong. I jumped on the tower after I landed my fish and it was Matt's turn on the bow. We still saw plenty of fish and we even had one eat Matt's fly shortly after he grabbed his rod, but what we didn't realize was that when Matt pulled the hook on that fish, he actually broke the hook. A few minutes went by and Matt had another fish eat his fly, and again it pulled the hook. This is when Matt realized that the hook had broke. Now, before jumping to conclusions, I did not give Matt a bad fly, you see this fly was one that Matt's good friend had given him years ago before he had passed away, and Matt wanted to catch a red in memory of his buddy, Paul. He and Matt used to fish this location quite a bit together years ago. I will tell you this the redfish loved Paul's fly. After Matt got a new fly we continued on and we noticed the water was starting to dirty, and sighting fish became harder and harder. Still with some shots but the fish just would not eat. We needed a change of local and a change of fly. Cloud cover was getting worse by the minute but the new location greeted us with cleaner water and with Matt's new fly he caught a fish within minutes of the change. I know you guys are reading this and saying, come on dude I have been reading this long winded story and you still have not told me what fly you used, okay it was a bonefish bitter, a type of MOE fly. You can buy them at Southern Angler. (there's your plug Scott)
I grabbed that fly and the first redfish I threw at ate it! The lighting sucked so the picture are not that great, but I wanted to photograph this fish. It was a nice fish we both estimated about eight to ten pounds. So I gave the fish to Matt we jumped out of the boat and I took a few shots of the fish.
Off to lunch, after a burger and a few drinks we hit a couple more shorelines. I had one more hook up on a blind cast, but the hook pulled. The water was very high and dirty at this point so we headed home. I guess you can say it was one of those days!
A couple quick notes: The Maverick HPX-V is incredible a great riding skiff that floats very shallow. Today was also the first day I got to use my new Crowder Rods 7 wt. fly rod. It is a 4 piece rod that is an excellent casting rod and retails for only $350! Many of you know that I have been using Crowder light tackle rods for a very long time and now I am happy to be using his new fly rods as well. They come in 6 through 12 weight and are built with high quality components, if you come fish with me you can try them out. Thanks for reading this long post.
John
http://Stuartflyfishing.com - fishing
http://pbase.com/stuartflyfishing - photography
We headed off to our first shoreline and Matt was cool enough to give me the first shot, and lucky me I had a few fish within minutes to cast at, I believe it was my third fish ate the fly. After landing that fish and Matt snapping a few photos I said,"It's going to be one of those days."
Well as quickly as things started going right, they started going wrong. I jumped on the tower after I landed my fish and it was Matt's turn on the bow. We still saw plenty of fish and we even had one eat Matt's fly shortly after he grabbed his rod, but what we didn't realize was that when Matt pulled the hook on that fish, he actually broke the hook. A few minutes went by and Matt had another fish eat his fly, and again it pulled the hook. This is when Matt realized that the hook had broke. Now, before jumping to conclusions, I did not give Matt a bad fly, you see this fly was one that Matt's good friend had given him years ago before he had passed away, and Matt wanted to catch a red in memory of his buddy, Paul. He and Matt used to fish this location quite a bit together years ago. I will tell you this the redfish loved Paul's fly. After Matt got a new fly we continued on and we noticed the water was starting to dirty, and sighting fish became harder and harder. Still with some shots but the fish just would not eat. We needed a change of local and a change of fly. Cloud cover was getting worse by the minute but the new location greeted us with cleaner water and with Matt's new fly he caught a fish within minutes of the change. I know you guys are reading this and saying, come on dude I have been reading this long winded story and you still have not told me what fly you used, okay it was a bonefish bitter, a type of MOE fly. You can buy them at Southern Angler. (there's your plug Scott)
I grabbed that fly and the first redfish I threw at ate it! The lighting sucked so the picture are not that great, but I wanted to photograph this fish. It was a nice fish we both estimated about eight to ten pounds. So I gave the fish to Matt we jumped out of the boat and I took a few shots of the fish.
Off to lunch, after a burger and a few drinks we hit a couple more shorelines. I had one more hook up on a blind cast, but the hook pulled. The water was very high and dirty at this point so we headed home. I guess you can say it was one of those days!
A couple quick notes: The Maverick HPX-V is incredible a great riding skiff that floats very shallow. Today was also the first day I got to use my new Crowder Rods 7 wt. fly rod. It is a 4 piece rod that is an excellent casting rod and retails for only $350! Many of you know that I have been using Crowder light tackle rods for a very long time and now I am happy to be using his new fly rods as well. They come in 6 through 12 weight and are built with high quality components, if you come fish with me you can try them out. Thanks for reading this long post.
John
http://Stuartflyfishing.com - fishing
http://pbase.com/stuartflyfishing - photography
2 comments:
Great Blog page and great web sight.
Web sight flows very well.
Tim
Thanks Tim, keep checking back for more.
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