Jon Seamans (jonsea@ci.boston.ma.us)
Wed Jan 20 12:37:17 EST 1999
Check out the flies sold by Capt. Pete Greenan of Sarasota. I bought a nice selection from him via the mail but the winds were high when I was in FLA in 3/98 so I never really got to give them a workout. Here's his latest e-mail report -- a link to his homepage is at the end, and you can find photos of his patterns there:
Florida Fishing Report 1/20
The newspaper said southwest Florida has the best weather in the country
this winter and they are right. Just yesterday, fishing with Dr. Doug
Ellinger, we spent the day wet wading for tailing redfish. The water
temperature is 72 degrees F. and the air temperature is a wonderful 78
degrees. Lots of sun and nice cool, refreshing mornings. Southwest
Florida is a great place to be right now.
Early morning out going tides gave us excellent Seatrout fishing this
week. The trout schooled up on the outside flats in holes and along
drop offs. Flyfishers like Doug used Clouser deep minnows for these
fish and spin fishers took all they wanted on Cotee jigs. Outside flats
are the areas of deeper grass flats that drain the wide expanses of
shallow grass beds found in the back country of Bull and Turtle Bays.
They are usually about four to six feet deep and lie between the back
country and the passes.
After the tide starts to flood, we waded up Deep Creek Basin looking for
"tailers". We found all you wanted. For three solid hours we cast to
Redfish in the 10 pound range feeding in 8 inches of water. The strikes
are explosive and the runs amazing.
Tom Thagard and Bill Pusey , fishing flies and artificials took lots of
Seatrout and a limit of Redfish on a beautiful, relaxing day. Near the
end of the day I put them on a bunch of large Ladyfish for Tom to take
on his five weight fly rod. Although Bill absolutely slayed them with a
jig, Tom took several on the long rod. Now Tom refers to Ladyfish as
"Saltwater Rainbows".
This next week is the approach of the full moon on the second of
February. The tides will taper off for a few days and become stronger
with the increase in moon phase. Two things will occur I believe.
First, the redfish will tail a lot because of the lower tides and
second, the Pompano will show up in better numbers. I "skipped" some
Pompano yesterday and I think they will be good for the next few weeks.
I will be at the Mangrove Coast FF outdoor expo at the Phillippi Mansion
on saturday and will be speaking at the Jacksonville FF meeting on Feb.
1st. for more info about either event send a message to me at
CaptPete@floridaflyfishing.com.
Tight Lines, Capt. Pete
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http://www.floridaflyfishing.com