JC Coots
Active member
Finally got my feet back under me at work trying to catch up from being gone and thought I'd post a quick thread about the incredible fishing we had down there.
To boil it down, I had 3 of the best fishing outings of my entire life during that week....and though I'm only 42 I've had more than my fair share of spectacular days on the water with fly rod in hand so to say the fishing was incredible is an understatement. I caught 10 species of saltwater fish on the fly all without leaving the St. Andrews Bay system. I beat my personal best spanish mackeral 3 nights in a row on foot from the point at the St. Andrews Park channel, each successively bigger fish culminating in a 5#6oz 25" to the fork bruiser that took me into the backing twice. On another day I had an honest to goodness 13 straight casts with 13 hookups....easily a 50+ fish day with the majority of it happening in a 4 hour period in the middle of the day. I caught fish on a fly that I retied each night after it was destroyed by fish during the day for 4 successive days until it was finally lost when cut by a big blue. If you haven't experienced salt water fly fishing my friends, you are seriously missing out on what is in my opinion the most exciting fishing available with a fly rod.
We rented a pontoon from a local establishment that bucks the norm and lets us pick up the boat at 5:30am and return by 5pm....those extra morning hours on the water really made a difference in the trout bite. I still have a lot to learn about sea trout but we know enough to have found some each of the 3 mornings we rented the boat. We caught lots of fish in the 12-14" range each morning from sun up until around 9-10am when the bite slacked off as the fished seemingly moved into deeper water. Not many keepers but enough to give us a taste of one of the better eating fish out there.
The flies were working so well my son even took off his spook to put on a casting bubble and work one...to excellent effect.
The flounder were just starting to come on and showed their preference for flies too.
Lots of other stuff in the bay that will hit a fly.
I caught so many big bluefish I forgot to take pics but rest assured, they were at least 30% larger on average than we are used to catching and when you found them, they were a ravenous pack of wolves. Ladyfish were everywhere and they don't call them the poor man's tarpon for nothing. Awesome acrobatics and incredibly cooperative for the fly rod angler.
Spanish mackerel are my favorite though. There are bigger fish, there are faster fish, but it's hard to beat these when they are a schooling swarm of chainsaws waiting for anything to hit the water.
Their initial strike is absolutely jaw dropping on the bigger fish. I had my arm literally straightened on more than one occasion when a Spanish hit a fly I was stripping with two hands just as fast as I could and he was going 40 miles an hour in the opposite direction. Lots of 20"+ fish and many over 3#....but the three biggest burned images of their battles in my mind as surely as if it were chiseled into the stone of a cave wall...I will never forget those three as long as I live. It was everything, and I mean everything I could do to land those fish on a six weight fly rod.
The business end of all of these fish dictates a minimum of 25# flouro for a bite tippet (my favorite simply because you will catch more fish with the lighter tippet) and we often had on up to 40 when the bigger spanish and blues cut us off and we got tired of losing flies.
I was having so much fun with the 6 I never even pulled out the 9. The fly everything wanted always gravitated back to a chartreuse and pink clouser. White and chartreuse did well too as usual but the fly my kids call "The Mr. Brown Fly" out caught everything last week, including yo-zuris and bubble rigs on the spinning rods. They were chewed up one side and down the other but as I mentioned before, most of the time I was able to retie them each night to fight again the next day.
Anyway, I'm certainly no expert but I've spent some time down there in the PC area so if you have questions or need help planning a trip, I'd be honored to try and share what little I do know to help you get into the fish. Hope you enjoyed the pics...now head down there and enjoy the trip of a lifetime!
JC
To boil it down, I had 3 of the best fishing outings of my entire life during that week....and though I'm only 42 I've had more than my fair share of spectacular days on the water with fly rod in hand so to say the fishing was incredible is an understatement. I caught 10 species of saltwater fish on the fly all without leaving the St. Andrews Bay system. I beat my personal best spanish mackeral 3 nights in a row on foot from the point at the St. Andrews Park channel, each successively bigger fish culminating in a 5#6oz 25" to the fork bruiser that took me into the backing twice. On another day I had an honest to goodness 13 straight casts with 13 hookups....easily a 50+ fish day with the majority of it happening in a 4 hour period in the middle of the day. I caught fish on a fly that I retied each night after it was destroyed by fish during the day for 4 successive days until it was finally lost when cut by a big blue. If you haven't experienced salt water fly fishing my friends, you are seriously missing out on what is in my opinion the most exciting fishing available with a fly rod.
We rented a pontoon from a local establishment that bucks the norm and lets us pick up the boat at 5:30am and return by 5pm....those extra morning hours on the water really made a difference in the trout bite. I still have a lot to learn about sea trout but we know enough to have found some each of the 3 mornings we rented the boat. We caught lots of fish in the 12-14" range each morning from sun up until around 9-10am when the bite slacked off as the fished seemingly moved into deeper water. Not many keepers but enough to give us a taste of one of the better eating fish out there.
The flies were working so well my son even took off his spook to put on a casting bubble and work one...to excellent effect.
The flounder were just starting to come on and showed their preference for flies too.
Lots of other stuff in the bay that will hit a fly.
I caught so many big bluefish I forgot to take pics but rest assured, they were at least 30% larger on average than we are used to catching and when you found them, they were a ravenous pack of wolves. Ladyfish were everywhere and they don't call them the poor man's tarpon for nothing. Awesome acrobatics and incredibly cooperative for the fly rod angler.
Spanish mackerel are my favorite though. There are bigger fish, there are faster fish, but it's hard to beat these when they are a schooling swarm of chainsaws waiting for anything to hit the water.
Their initial strike is absolutely jaw dropping on the bigger fish. I had my arm literally straightened on more than one occasion when a Spanish hit a fly I was stripping with two hands just as fast as I could and he was going 40 miles an hour in the opposite direction. Lots of 20"+ fish and many over 3#....but the three biggest burned images of their battles in my mind as surely as if it were chiseled into the stone of a cave wall...I will never forget those three as long as I live. It was everything, and I mean everything I could do to land those fish on a six weight fly rod.
The business end of all of these fish dictates a minimum of 25# flouro for a bite tippet (my favorite simply because you will catch more fish with the lighter tippet) and we often had on up to 40 when the bigger spanish and blues cut us off and we got tired of losing flies.
I was having so much fun with the 6 I never even pulled out the 9. The fly everything wanted always gravitated back to a chartreuse and pink clouser. White and chartreuse did well too as usual but the fly my kids call "The Mr. Brown Fly" out caught everything last week, including yo-zuris and bubble rigs on the spinning rods. They were chewed up one side and down the other but as I mentioned before, most of the time I was able to retie them each night to fight again the next day.
Anyway, I'm certainly no expert but I've spent some time down there in the PC area so if you have questions or need help planning a trip, I'd be honored to try and share what little I do know to help you get into the fish. Hope you enjoyed the pics...now head down there and enjoy the trip of a lifetime!
JC
