a final chapter and the start of a new one

The end of another good year!

Okay, the fly contest is obviously a success and I can't thank everyone enough for their participation, but I must post something about fishing every now and again. I thought I would share some stories and photographs from the last week of 2008 and the first week of 2009.

Life is good for Chuck

The fishing here in the winter is not glamorous but it is full of action and that is exactly what I had the final week of the year. Trout on the grass flats were as abundant as they get although not many large ones were caught, again loads of fun. It is amazing how hard a small trout can hit, they sure don't fight hard but the first punch sure is solid. On the sand flats, jigs and small flies produced ladyfish by the boat load and some pompano. Finally the beaches, where you can run over schools of mackerel and bluefish for miles, literally! The mackerel can be tough to get off the bottom some days but for the most part they are very cooperative, and the bluefish are always on the feed no matter what you throw in. I guess it would be unfair to say that we do not catch any quote, unquote glamorous fish because you can still catch plenty of snook in the winter and redfish. I apologize for the lack of ladyfish, mackerel, bluefish, etc. pictures but it is a messy job and there is no way I am going to grab my camera. Not to mention by the time I release one there usually is another one ready to be landed!

Doug Seaman and his son Will

I was fortunate enough to start 2009 with back to back redfish trips. One was with Gary Smith of Michigan, he has been fishing with me for the last 8 or 9 years and we have started the year together the last six. However, one thing was different this year, Gary did not have to rush back to see the University of Michigan football game. Sorry Gary I had to take that jab! On a serious note, Gary has fished all over the world and has fished for redfish all over the country so he is good at reading fish and making the right cast. This year Gary landed four redfish on fly, all on Borski sliders, and I believe we had six eat. Thanks Gary for another great start to the new year.

My blue tribute in honor of Gary's football team

Blue sky

redfish's blue tail

Borski slider and Gary's blue Tibor


My second day of redfishing was with Todd Austof. Todd is a very special client of mine, you see he is the guy that lets me use his Maverick HPX so I can do these trips. Todd is also from Michigan but his Michigan team did have a New Years game, I'll let you figure that one out. I could only think of one way to properly thank Todd for the use of his skiff and that was to put him on his first ever redfish! Mission was accomplished, Todd laid a nice cast into a school of about 20 redfish and one found his Borski slider a bit appetizing. Todd, thanks obviously for the use of the boat, but more for sharing that moment with me. I look forward to doing it again someday soon.

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If fish only ate with theire tails!

Here are some of Rick's shots of me with a nice trout at sunset and the new micro fiber shirt.

I had the absolute pleasure of getting another invite to fish with Capt. Rick DePaiva over in the Pine Island sound. I drove over the night before and was able to get there early enough that Rick took me to one of his favorite spots to photograph birds and other wildlife. David McCleaf joined us and we all captured the last hour of the day. Rick claims it was only a 2 on a scale of one to ten as far as the amount of birds, but I was perfectly happy getting the shots I got. It was very cloudy so the light was not the best and all of my shots were taken at an ISO of 640. It did make for a very orange skies at sunset and the wind was none existent. Here are a few of my shots that I captured that afternoon.

Egret in the grass

Blue Heron


Another egret


for you Gator fans


Ibis in orange sky

The next morning we were greeted to calm winds and clear skies, a recipe for a great day and a great day it was. Rick is not only an incredible photographer but one of the more knowledgeable guides you will find in the Fort Myers area. He is diligent in his game plan and knows how to follow it. Everywhere we went Rick call it before we got there, a sign of a true professional. We had shots at redfish all day long some cruising but most were tailing. Now I know I said in an earlier post that I planned on taking pictures of the tailers before fishing for them but, I did not have the will power to grab the camera. You see even though photography as a good hold of me, fishing has a bear hug on me and I still wanted to throw the fly before clicking the shutter. I would have been better off with the camera because one thing I learned is that redfish do eat with their tails! I did manage one redfish on fly but, in all honesty I am better then I performed because I blew shot after shot.

After getting a bit frustrated at them not eating my fly, even on some good casts, I switched to a DOA shrimp. Now most of you have seen me fish the DOA's and I am usually pretty efficient at it, well not this day. You see redfish in less then a foot of water do not like being hit on the head with a piece of plastic. At this point, since I was blowing most shots I took over the push pole and quickly poled Rick to the first tailer. Of course he proceeded to slap me in the face by catching one on the first fish we saw. I got a chance to take some pictures today and I really enjoyed that opportunity as much as the opportunity to fish with Rick again. I did redeem myself at the end of the day. Rick really wanted a big trout to photograph and I managed to catch his subject a nice 27 inch trout. Rick was able to take some incredible shots like the one at the top of this post and we both went home very happy. Rick has become a good friend and I am sure you will see some future posts with him mentioned. If you are ever visiting the west coast of Florida give Rick a call 239-246-8726 because not only will he give you a great day on the water but you will have pictures that are worth a million bucks. The pictures below are the shots that I managed to take yesterday of the redfish we caught.

I have 3 more flies to post so stay tuned they will be up as soon as I can photograph them, and the voting for the first cabin fever fly contest will begin.

my guide service website http://stuartflyfishing.com/
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"one of those days"

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

Fishing in Fort Myers

“You’re a lucky man”, I must have said it a hundred times that day, the man I was referring to was Capt. Rick Depaiva. I was fortunate enough to spend a day with Rick earlier this week and let me tell you he is a lucky man. The waters around his home in Fort Myers are an outdoor lover’s dream. I spent the entire day in a trance looking into the beautiful clear water. Rick is obviously a very talented photographer, but he also knows the waters of Pine Island sound and Matlache pass better than most. He continually brought me to flats that were teaming with redfish and wading birds, a fly fisherman and outdoor photographers dream. You owe it to yourself to spend a day on the water with Rick whether it is images of rare birds or shots at tails. Rick you’re a lucky man! I look forward to spending more days with Rick in the future, we both share a passion for fly fishing and outdoor photography.

For more infomation on my fishing guide service check out http://www.stuartflyfishing.com/ or for more of my photography check out www.pbase.com/stuartflyfishing