Friday, June 29, 2007

FL Panhandle - late June 25-29

This week has been good up on the flats, with lots of tailing fish around up in the flooded grass. Stealthy approaches and accurate casts were in order for the week, but we were able to bring some nice fish to the boat. Tarpon out on the beaches and reds up in the bay, plenty of summer still to come.
Nice fish we got out of a small group cruising the early morning flats.
This fish was feeding aggressively in some flooded grass with half of its back sticking out of the water. Mark from Atlanta put a great cast out in front of the fish and made the perfect twitch as it fed its way across the line of the cast. A quick quiver of the tail and the fish was on.

Monday, June 11, 2007

6/11 Slick

Had a textbook day on the water today with Blake Hearnsberger from TX. We arrived at the ramp and were greeted by a dead slick calm covering the bay. The tide was high outgoing, and we were able to see many fish along the grassline as we poled down the flat at first light. The first fish came at a perfect head-on shot, and we were able to see the fish turn, follow, and eat the fluke all right before our eyes in the glassy water. The second fish was in a group of fish and was much bigger - about size to head offshore for its adulthood. Enjoyed the morning Blake !

Friday, June 8, 2007

6/8 FL Panhandle

Fished with my good friend Bucky today out along the beach looking for some tarpon. Before today most of the fish I had been seeing were "wrong way fish" headed East, but today most of them were coming from the East. We saw about 30 tarpon throughout the morning, but got no good shots. Also saw a big bull shark probably 8 feet in length that swam up to the boat and circled a couple of times.

Once the winds picked up from the South we ran into the bay and did some redfishing while we kept our fingers crossed that the wind on the beach would die down before we lost all of our sunlight. We found some reds up in the skinny water along the lee shoreline and Bucky poled me onto a nice tailing fish that I caught on a new fly pattern I was testing out. Unfortunately the winds didn't die down and we eventually ran back to the launch after a long 12 hr day on the water.

The red and its release:

Monday, June 4, 2007

6/4 FL Panhandle

High winds and gray skies didn't keep us off the water today. It did keep us throwing topwater, though. We had some great blowups from reds and trout up on the grass flats. Once the winds give us a break we should get some good tailing sightfishing going on again.

Friday, June 1, 2007

6/1 FL Panhandle

Had a great week out on the bay this week. Lots of tailing reds up in the skinny water. The higher tides allowed the fish to get up in the grass as well. Fished with Rick and Manny from Texas this morning, and had a good time as they brought 6 reds to the boat - including one double between the two of them. Looking forward to the winds giving us a little break and the beaches clearing up so we can get after some tarpon in the surf.