Sight fishing is normally a treat for us Northeast Florida fisherman, we have our opportunities during the winter or flats that are near the inlets but other than that its usually blind casting till your arm falls off.
Well this week I was fed up, high winds and high temps caused our waters to murk up again and fishing on my days off where not to be spent blind casting to fish I could not see, I will save that for the other 9 months of the year.
We have one of the best sight fishing for Redfish fisheries and greatly overlooked Gator Trout fishery in the world under an hour from my house. With gas prices taking a good dip, it would be foolish for me not to take advantage and visit Mosquito Lagoon also known as the “Redfish Capital of the World”.
My first trip would start early Monday morning waiting for Tommy to show up on time as usual and myself trying to cheat the alarm clock of a few more minutes. We loaded up the Hells Bay with fly rods, waters and hopes and dreams of catching an oversized redfish on fly.
On the ride down to the promise land, Tommy and I just talked game plan and before you knew it we were driving down the dirt road that leads us to the launch ramp. Not a bad ride down I-95 and only minutes away from warming up on the slot fish that school in the hundreds this time of year.
The weather could not have been any better, no clouds, light winds and oh crap is that 3 boats fishing on the flat we want to fish! Dang there is a reason we like to fish during the weekdays; everyone who owns a boat within a 70-mile radius hammers Mosquito Lagoon reds on weekends. Although there were only 3 other boats, to us that was 3 more than we expected. We just shrugged our shoulders tied on a fly and went hunting.
I quietly polled past the 3 boats that were working a sand bar and gave them space as they were there first and it’s the right thing to do, plus who needs an audience when the reason I like to fish is to get away from the everyday hustle and enjoy some peace and tranquility while pursing my passion.
Tommy and I spent the next few minutes quietly poling the shallow scanning the waters for any sign of singles, schools, bait fish anything that will give us a reason to head in that direction. We have fished this flat before so we had an idea where the fish should be but that didn’t guarantee they would be there. We were also worried that the 3 other boats had already figured out the schools location since this flat is a good 2 miles long and several hundred yard wide and they were all within casting distance of each another.
We saw a small school of baitfish swimming down the edge of the flat and as they passed us we both saw the sign we were looking for, redfish enjoying a mullet breakfast. At first we had no idea if it was a few fish a hundred fish or even five hundred fish all we knew is that we had them to ourselves and we were going to catch one.
I slowly pushed the skiff as quietly as possible so we wouldn’t alert the fish of our presence. I mean why bum rush them and catch one when you can sneak up on them and catch ten, so our game plan was being implemented and we were focused on our goal as we stalked the school like a lion would stalk its prey. “Hold your cast, almost there, hold it, hold it,” I whispered and all of sudden the school lifts and our dreams of a quiet fly shot was quickly disappearing.
“What the &%#! @” I looked at Tommy almost ready to blame him for having a big head and spooking the fish from a distance but quickly realizing it wasn’t his unusual enormous head that spooked the fish but one of the three boaters that we so kindly poled by quietly as not to spook what ever they were trying to catch. Apparently they were not looking for signs of fish but watching us and waiting for us to find the fish for them.
Now if you go and re read our methods on how we were able to get close enough to the school without spooking them you would clearly understand that it took poling, time and being extremely quiet and did I mention being quiet and taking our time!
These two guys decided to look the part but not play the part and what I mean by that is, one guy was on the poling platform holding the push pole (looking the part) but his other partner in crime had the trolling motor down on nearly full power as I can hear the hum of the troll motor. There was nothing quiet or taking their time on how they approached (and I won’t say our school) our space. I do not mind sharing but you have to be somewhat courteous, don’t just plow on in like its Black Friday and there are only two Plasmas on sale and a hundred people fighting it out. That is not was peace and tranquility is about.
Man, that was a lot of writing just to tell you the school vanished into deeper water and neither boat had a shot at the fish and after a few kind words were exchanged we all left the flat.
Our next destination looked very promising as there was tailing redfish and only one kayaker in the vicinity and it happened to be Tommy’s dad. After a brief phone conversation we discovered he had already landed a thirty plus inch redfish and had shots at others. We were back on track and now it was my turn for bow time. Tommy had me on tailing reds within minutes of taking poling duties and I was doing my part as making good cast and putting my fly within reach of the tailers, only one problem, the reds ignored any fly offering I had.
Well this scenario went on for the rest of the day till we finally decided to switch to artificial baits and I was lucky enough to hook an estimated twenty plus pound fish but unlucky when it spit the hook. After that, all the fish stopped tailing and our day quickly came to an end.
We made it back to the ramp and in good spirits despite being skunked but knowing we did have plenty of shots and great cast just no eats and that is better than no shot and bad cast. As I walked up to my truck I noticed some parking lot prankster decided to mess with my magnetic sign and turned it upside down (no biggie) as I turn it around I see a business card fall to the ground and quickly find out the parking lot prankster is no other than my good friend Capt. Pat Murphy.
I made a quick call to Pat and we spoke on how his day on the water went compared to ours and ended the conversation with plans to fish with him the next day as Tommy was returning with Brian (B-fisher) and I could hitch a ride.
Day Two:
We had a late morning start and met with Captain Pat at the launch ramp, after quick meet and greet we laid out our game plan for the morning which was toss topwaters for gator trout. Know one seemed to have a problem with the plan so we loaded Capt. Pat’s new to him Hells Bay and off we were. It was a quick run to Troutsville and mere minutes later both boats were casting to potholes waiting for our plugs to be devoured. On my fourth cast my plug disappeared after an explosion of water had occurred, my line came tight and the head shaking began. Capt. Pat was not impressed by this trout as a he has guided his clients in recent days to seven to nine pound fish and this trout looked to be about three pounds from a distance, but as I gained line this fish kept growing slightly and after landing the trout true weight was closer to five pounds. We made a few more cast but the wind was increasing the grass kept our plugs fouled so we opted more for sheltered waters and tailing reds.
We started up the big motor and shut down after a 15-minute ride through what is now a steady 15 mph southwest wind. Capt. Pat poled me to the limitations of his skiff in search of shallow water reds, which he expected would be tailing in this area. As I scanned the horizon I noticed the first tail waiving me in, a modest fish maybe twenty-three to twenty four inch red digging its nose into the grass foraging for a crab, shrimp or other tasty morsels. I made a good cast with a soft plastic dragged slowly across its path to get its attention, and it did. Again my line came tight and the red fled across the flat like a scolded dog running back to the barn. “ Hey, not a bad fish Pat,” as I reach down and grab a hold of my second catch of the day. After a quick pose and picture the red was revived and released to be caught another day.
By this time I felt bad that Capt. Pat had to work on his day off so I offered to join back up with Tommy and Brian, I thanked Pat for a good two hour session and we were on our way.
Now that the fishing trio was back together we headed to new waters to finish our day. Tommy was still on poling duties and allowed me a few shots with Brian before I would be stationed on the poling platform for the remainder of the day. First fish spotted was given to Brian but I was locked and loaded incase he miss fired, Brian made a good presentation that went unnoticed so Quick Draw McGraw here fired at will and hooked up with my big fish of the day a twenty seven inch perfect tournament fish but no tournament today so a beautiful upper slot red. After the picture session and release, I knew my day of fishing was done and now it was my turn to point out the fish from above.
The next fish spotted was just mere 10 feet away from the boat and doing a headstand as if his head was stuck in the sand, several casts went unnoticed as this red was focused on whatever he was digging out of the sand until he felt our presence and swam off. I believe the following conversation was about how hard it is to catch a fish that’s has his head buried that deep, which must have been a coincidence because Brian spotted a red doing the same thing but now only two feet from the boat. I have heard of can poling but this was the true meaning of cane poling as Brian just dropped his jerkbait next to the fish, gave it a wiggle to get the reds attention, and it worked. This fish had no clue we were right on top and hammered Brian’s jerkbait and the fight was on. Another upper slot, twenty six inch fish is now aboard and being posed for Brian’s picture catch of the day.
Well we have all managed at least one fish a piece except for Tommy who had a valid excuse since he poled Brian all day. We stopped seeing fish for a second and its seemed like every time I mentioned something about a fish less flat one would pop up, so I continued giving Tommy a hard time about this flat we were fishing when his fish appeared. Tommy had a live shrimp on and lead the fish by a bit and this red had no problem finding the live shrimp. Once more we took some photographs and just in time as we were losing light and our stomachs started to growl so we called it a day till next time.
Capt. Chris Herrera
www.PalmCoastFishing.com
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