new to saltwater fly fishing

[sylvan]

Just getting started making transition to the salt. Plan on fishing mangroves and flats south of Tampa to Bradenton later this month. Fishing from canoe and wadding. Using 6wt. Want to focus on smaller species this go-round. Would like suggestions on flies to use along with suggested sizes and target species. Any recommendations or unwanted flies would be appreciated. Thanks.

[VARick]

The water should be cooled down quite abit by the time you get into the area. You should probably be using smaller clouser's and shrimp patterns worked real slow for speckled trout.. if you find some deeper troughs along the flats you should find some reds and maybe snook. Also look for darker bottom on the flats (heavy grass and oyster beds) and work that area after the sun has warmed the water up a little.. again close to the deeper troughs.
I've found the char/yellow patterns for clousers work well.. darker shrimp patterns with some gold flash. Hope that helps you out.

Rick

[teflon_jones]

Ditto what Vic said, clousers and shrimp are the way to go. Use a lighter fly the darker the bottom gets. If you're fishing over a large grass flat, use a fly with some flash in it for extra visibility. Personally, I prefer lighter flies in almost any circumstance, whether the bottom is light or not. If I had to pick I've always had much better lucks with lighter flies in every fishing condition! I prefer tan flies with some flash and/or white in them, but chartreuse or pink is good too.

[rhino]

usaly when i go down to florida for christmass they are fishing tan and white clousers whith bead chain eyes the bead chain is so they don't hit the water hard plus weed gard we also fished borskis bone fish sliders in tan for sea trout and reds for snook the guy i talked told me to fish decivers and clousers same colors and more than that color we were fishing the fort desoto area just south of tampa and around st petersburg there is a shop you may want to contact down there called the salt water flyfisherman in tampa they moved from clear water to tampa if you have ever been there and were wondering were they have went he's the one that told me what flys and were to fish at what times of the tide to fish cought a couple of nice reds and sea trout from shore the guy i taled to guide in the area and was a real nice guy this is why i recomend him and the shop he works out of i think the web addres is http://www.saltwaterflyfisherman.com/


any ways good luck and tight lines rhino --123-3 --123-3 --123-3