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Saltwater Experience

Posted by on March 17, 2011

I just got back from another trip to the Everglades region in southwest Florida where I did find some time to do a little fishing. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my family has been visiting Naples/Marco Island, Florida for as long as I can remember, and in recent years I’ve discovered what amazing fishing SW Florida has to offer the fly fisherman. The Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades National Park is a labyrinth of shallow rivers, bays, and mangrove islands that could take a fisherman a lifetime to even scratch the surface. I’ve been anxious to explore this fishermans playground ever since I stared fly fishing. Visions of giant tarpon and snook nearly kept me up at night in the days before my vacation. Unfortunately for me, I had no boat and a tight budget. Not to mention I had my ol’ lady and son with me so I had to try and keep them happy. My uncle has a condo on the beech and he had mentioned that they’ve been catching just about anything right off of his dock. So, even though I wasn’t gonna get lost in the everglades chasing snook and tarpon there was still hope of putting a bend in my rod. After I arrived at the dock I saw some gear fisherman catching a mixed bag of fish on pink jigs with a piece of shrimp. I pulled out my fly box and tied on a pink and white clouser minnow, the closest thing I had to a pink jig. About a half hour into casting and my line came tight! After a couple speedy runs I pulled in my first spanish mackerel on a fly.

I fished a little while longer and soon the tide was going out along with the fish. From what I’ve learned it’s best to fish as the tide is coming in, or at high tide. In a day there are usually two tidal phases, and the days I was fishing one incoming tide period was over night. That left me with a little bit of high tide in the morning and then another incoming tide in the late afternoon. A few days later we fished the evening for a few hours and I caught about a dozen more mackerel! and on my “last cast” I connected with a nice pompano. If you’re not familiar with pompano there are basically a small permit, except more willing to eat a fly. Saltwater fish are built for speed, which makes for a good time on a fly rod.



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