Hello from Florida

[flafly14]

Hi,

I'm from FL. Grew up here in central FL. But I lived in Colorado for quite a few years also. But now I'm back in FL.

One of the things I like about flyfishing in Florida is the variety of species. A few months about I was fishing this inshore river near my house. The water is kinda brackish where I was fishing. Anyway, I was seeing these tarpon rolling. I was casting and casting at them - trying to get one to eat. Finally I got a hit!! I laughed because I quickly figured out that I didn't hook into a tarpon, but instead caught a bluegill! hahaha. I got to thinking about it and realized that in lots of places around here, on any given cast you might get hit by bass, bowfin, bluegill, snapper, snook, tarpon, redfish, gar, jack crevalle, seatrout, etc. I've even been surprised with a flounder here and there.

Anyway, this year I've made a resolution to practice my casting at least 200 days. I enjoy casting almost as much as the fishing. I would like to be at the point I could pass the FFF CI test by the end of the year.

My flies are ... ok. I like to tie simple patterns that catch fish. I don't tie many art show winners. Favorite fly for the flats around here is a bendback. Here's one I just tied last week. Head is a little goofy, but I think it'll catch fish here.

 

[spm]

Welcome to the forum, flafly. I lived in Boca Raton for some time, before moving here. One thing you don't lack for in Florida is water to fish. From the salt, to the brack, the rivers, the glades, even the lakes on the golf courses hold fish.

Welcome,
steve

 

[Dougred]

Welcome Flafly14, this is a great place with a lot of great people and information. I have to say that I am really jealous that you are in the warmth while I am up in MI in the freezing cold. I have been down to Florida multiple times but never with my fly rod. Next time I need to pack it along. I envy the amount of species you have the ability to catch in one area. Have you ever tried green worm patterns for tarpon?
Practicing casting 200 hundred days out of the year is a noble venture and I bid you the best. That is an excellent goal, and I think I need to steal a page out of your play book and set my own goal.
Have a wonderful day and keep the lines tight!

 

[flafly14]

Well Doug if it makes you feel any better, it's been raining and real windy all day here. Why does that have to come on the weekend???

I have not tried a green worm for tarpon, but I'm open to trying anything because I cast to a lot more of them than I catch! These tarpon are very hard to feed around here. Mostly for tarpon I'll throw really small stuff - little clousers and such. There is a big worm event that happens in the keys in late May called a paolo worm. The tarpon supposedly go nutso for them. Those ones are red.

 

[fatbillybob]

try some shrimp colors like borski shrimp and EP ghost

 

[karstopo]

Welcome aboard. There’s other warmwater and salty folks on here. I like it when I see posts from folks in other warm or saltwater areas.

Like the bendback. I never have used them much, but I bet that one would catch fish here or any place. I like to cast for casting’s sake and get to most days. Don’t see myself taking any instructor exams, I’m pretty much over taking tests of any sort. I still have nightmares about missed tests or being unprepared for exams. Tarpon on the fly is on my radar, haven’t been around one when I had a fly rod handy.

Good luck with your casting exam and catching those varied Florida fish.

 

[mcnerney]

Flafly14

Welcome to the forum!
I'm looking forward to reading about your fishing adventures. In the meantime, make yourself comfortable and enjoy the forum.

 

[kentuckysteve]

Welcome to the forum,flafly14.

 

[dennyk]

Hi flafly, glad you could join us, I'm sure you will enjoy it here!

:welcome:

Denny

 

[bocamike]

looks like this is a good place to post my "dummy" question. I am one who still lives in Boca Raton, out west where neighborhood retention ponds and land-locked canals abound. I just realized it was 8 years ago when I joined this forum, but had to go AWOL until now, when I am eager to reinstate my lust for fly fishing. But first, i have a stupid question, as follows.

Given my reel is spooled with weight forward floating tip fly line which seems to work just fine when fishing near or on the water's surface, I wonder if it is beneficial to switch to a sinking line when i change to such as a Clouser minnow....or would the weight of such a fly overcome that floating line and gradually sink to the bottom?......... I have sinking line spooled on a spare spool, but i just feel it is a big bother to make the change, unless it is recommended in such a case. Anybody have any wisdom for that question?

 

[karstopo]

I use weight forward floating lines with weighted flies much of the time for a variety of species. How deep do you want to fish? I seldom use sink tips or other sinking lines and simply find floating lines more enjoyable to cast and fish. Dragging a sinking tip from the depths is not something I like to do, especially when you can easily pick up a section of floating line off the surface and immediately make another cast. Some folks say you should put on an intermediate line or a sink tip if you are fishing more than a couple of feet deep, but in stillwater, it’s possible and can be effective to fish much deeper than that with floating fly line and a weighted pattern. I don’t know the exact depth limits, but certainly 5-6 feet of water depth is very doable with floating fly lines.

The things I’ve found to aid in getting deeper using floating line is to lengthen your leader some and use fluorocarbon. Fluorocarbon naturally wants to slowly sink in water and lengthening the leader some sort of adds a mini intermediate tip. The other thing to get deeper faster is to use a tungsten weight instead of lead or brass. So a tungsten weight weighing exactly the same as a lead weight will sink at over twice as fast a rate in water. That means you can get by with using less weight employing tungsten and still get a good sink rate. Excess weight on a fly pattern is normally an enemy of fun fly casting.

Getting your weight and sink rate of the fly in tune with the depth of water can really pay off. I tend to carry patterns weighted in subtly different amounts and tied slightly differently with some being fuller and some less full. Fish are often holding at a particular depth and it’s helpful to have a fly or two in the box that capable of hitting the right depth and speed of presentation.

Clousers I think are so effective because they sort of resemble lots of different forage. In fresh water, Bead head Woolly buggers, Balanced leeches and saltwater patterns like Borski sliders and redfish crack are in the same mold as clousers of not looking exactly like anything, but resembling lots of forage in size, shape and movement. Get the right depth and presentation where predators are present and feeding and it will often mean getting a take.

 

[flafly14]

Given my reel is spooled with weight forward floating tip fly line which seems to work just fine when fishing near or on the water's surface, I wonder if it is beneficial to switch to a sinking line when i change to such as a Clouser minnow....or would the weight of such a fly overcome that floating line and gradually sink to the bottom?......... I have sinking line spooled on a spare spool, but i just feel it is a big bother to make the change, unless it is recommended in such a case. Anybody have any wisdom for that question?

Hi Bocamike,

I've spent quite a lot of time in your neighborhood. And I do get down that way once in awhile still. I'd like to catch a clown knifefish on the fly sometime. I think there's a bunch of them in Lake Ida there.

Regarding your question about fishing dep with the fly... I've found that pretty much no matter the weight of the fly, if I don't retrieve really slowly, then it won't stay down if I have a floating line. The way I've tackled this problem has been to break out the baitcaster whenever I want to fish deep. But now I'm kinda on a "no gear" kick, so I'm tempted to get myself a sinking line setup. I'll probably try to do a separate complete setup in order to avoid the spare spool/reel swap hassles.

 

[bocamike]

Hi Bocamike,

I've spent quite a lot of time in your neighborhood. And I do get down that way once in awhile still. I'd like to catch a clown knifefish on the fly sometime. I think there's a bunch of them in Lake Ida there.

Regarding your question about fishing dep with the fly... I've found that pretty much no matter the weight of the fly, if I don't retrieve really slowly, then it won't stay down if I have a floating line. The way I've tackled this problem has been to break out the baitcaster whenever I want to fish deep. But now I'm kinda on a "no gear" kick, so I'm tempted to get myself a sinking line setup. I'll probably try to do a separate complete setup in order to avoid the spare spool/reel swap hassles.

He FlaFly14, i appreciate that nugget of wisdom. i think I'll stick with the slow retrieve for now, but if no luck that way, then i too may set up a separate rig with a sinking line..... only issue i have with that is that it gets clumbsy trying to keep up with two rods while hoofing it around a small lake. I'll think over my options. Thanks.

 

[dakotakid]

BocaMike,

If you are fishing Florida ponds from shore, I doubt you need a sinking line. It's only my fifth season in Florida, but I can't think of a single Florida body of water that has a sharp, deep drop-off near shore. As a result, I use a floating line almost exclusively and toss flies with barbell eyes when I want the fly to sink deeper and faster.

A full sinking line probably only makes sense if you are fishing water with strong current. But a drawback to full sink line is that you can't mend or pick up line as effectively. So a better option to start with is a sink tip line. I purchased a sink tip line just to see if I'd catch more fish, which so far has not been the case.

 

[bocamike]

Earlier this year i was toiling with questions regarding floating vs sinking fly line. Thanks to all the suggestions here, i have stuck with my floating tip lines and have moved on to new questions, as follows:

My fishing buddy and I have scoured the local area (Boca Raton) extensively for fishing holes off the beaten path where fishing pressures have not worn out the welcome. Not sure if our lackluster success of late is due to the oppressively hot weather with occasional thunderstorm activity, or did we not get the memo telling us "stay home for now and wait for fish to start biting again". I wonder if any local anglers might be reading this forum and can report your level of success over the past few weeks.

Seems our efforts have yielded results significantly below norms said to be in the range of 1.2 - 1.4 fish per hour. We seem to have OKAY fly patterns and technique; it just seems the fish are simply few and far between. We're taking a variety of species from Bluegill, Cichlids, Large mouth Bass, Bowfin, Catfish, and even a smattering of Peacock Bass. it is just so obvious the total catch count is way down in recent weeks.

I forgot to mention we are limited to landlocked neighborhood retention ponds, and canals, and all our angling is on foot.

let me hear if any of you have had any luck lately in this local area. Thanks.

 

[spm]

Mike,
I used to live in Boca. I've been gone too long to give you any current information, but I can recommend a visit with the guys at Ole Florida Fly Shop. They were always very helpful to me.

steve

 

[bocamike]

SPM, thanks for the reply. Re. Ole Florida Fly shop, I've been a patron there for as long as i can recall, probably 25 years or more. One thing I've learned is that there are a scarce few anglers willing to give away their favorite fishing hole location, and that goes for those who you meet at the local fly shop. I've received lots more valuable information in these forums, mostly from non-residents who had recently visited the area. I guess they figure there's nothing to lose by sharing information they gleaned from their local contacts and research. Thanks again.

Now back to my own online research. Trying to figure what I'm doing wrong when Facebook brag sites speak of huge hauls during days I'm totally skunked. Go figure........... Guess first Liar doesn't stand a chance.