12/5-12/9/07 Charlotte Harbor fly fishing

[flyfishsalt]

Snook, Reds, Trout, Black Drum, and ladyfish slime all over everything. With the light winds and clear water this past week there have been some great conditions for wade fishing the sand bars and looking for Snook, Reds, and Trout. The Snook and Reds that have come to hand have been quite small, most under 4 lbs. The lack in size has been made up for with the willingness to eat the flies. On more than one occasion this week we hooked up with reds with the leader into the rod tip. You gotta love that. A patient angler under the right conditions can have Reds swim within a rods length from them when the tide is right. It would be unfair of me to say that it has been great like this all week because there have been some very long slow periods when the tide is not cranking along that have provided us with no action at all. Therefor when it is on, it is good to have a fresh leader and fly on because it sometimes only lasts an hour. Yesterday in the late afternoon I decide to head back out with the family just before sunset in the kayaks. I managed to find a pocket of Sea Trout that were 24-28" long. It was good action and they were happy to eat topwater plugs and flies... Around sunset we have had opportunities to fish to tailing black drum in very shallow water. While we have had a couple of these monsters eat, we have not landed any yet. It is like setting the hook on a sheepshead or tautog. The really cool part about it is that they are swimming into water 6" deep and tailing up as they feed on the bottom. I have been able to stand 10' from some of these drum over 10 lbs. and cast to them 4 or 5 times. Hopefully I will find a fly that they can not resist...

Jet Blue and Southwest flights into fort myers are very low at this time of year. Grab a plane tix and I will pick you up at the airport for multiple days of fishing.